Sophie Scholl Inspired by Newman

Newly discovered documents reveal that Cardinal Cardinal John Henry Newman’s writings directly influenced Sophie Scholl, who was beheaded in 1943 for defying the Nazis:

New documents unearthed by German academics have revealed that the writings of the 19th-century English theologian were a direct influence on Sophie Scholl, who was beheaded for circulating leaflets urging students at Munich University to rise up against Nazi terror . . . .

But behind her heroism was the “theology of conscience” expounded by Cardinal Newman, according to Professor Günther Biemer, the leading German interpreter of Newman, and Jakob Knab, an expert on the life of Sophie Scholl, who will later this year publish research in Newman Studien on the White Rose resistance movement, to which she belonged . . . .

Newman taught that conscience was an echo of the voice of God enlightening each person to moral truth in concrete situations. Christians, he argued, had a duty to obey a good conscience over and
above all other considerations . . . .

Under questioning from the Gestapo Scholl said she had been compelled by her Christian conscience to peacefully oppose Nazism.

Sophie and Hans both asked to be received into the Catholic Church an hour before they were executed but were dissuaded by their pastor who argued that such a decision would upset their mother, a Lutheran lay preacher.

Fr Dermot Fenlon, a priest of the Birmingham Oratory who was given excerpts of Mr Knab’s findings to include in a speech on Newman in Milan last week, said the originality of the research was that it
showed the clear “centrality” of Newman to Hans and Sophie Scholl.

He said: “Knab has identified the presence of Newman in correspondence, in diaries and in the analysis of correspondence, particularly between Sophie and Hartnagel. He has shown how that
influence became operative at a critical moment.”

He added: “The religious question at the heart of the White Rose has not been adequately acknowledged and it is only through the work of Guenter Biemer and Jakob Knab that Newman’s influence . . . can be identified as highly significant.”

Last year, the Vatican approved the beatification of Cardinal Newman.