Sermons Preached on Various Occasions

In November 1851, John Henry Newman was appointed President of the new Catholic University of Ireland, with a vague brief as to structure and personnel. The first eight sermons collected in this volume were preached during Mass in the University Church on St Stephen’s Green between May 4, 1856, and February 22, 1857. The remaining sermons were written for the restoration of the Catholic Hierarchy in England and Wales, the Risorgimento in Italy and its repercussions on the Papacy, and the death of two friends, Dr. Weedall and James Hope Scott. The sermons on the situation of the Church in England and Wales, and then of the Papacy itself in Italy, reflect a redefinition of the role of Catholicism in the development of the modern world.