When the Venerable Dominic Barberi, the missioner and theologian who received Cardinal Newman into the Church, is beatified here on the Feast of Christ the King (Oct. 27) Archbishop Paul J. Hallinan of Atlanta will preach. Archbishop Hallinan is episcopal moderator of the Newman Clubs in the United States.

A member of the Congregation of the Passion (Passionist Fathers), Fr. Barberi was born at Pilanzana, near Viterbo, Italy, on June 22, 1792, and died at Reading England, on Aug. 27, 1849. He began missionary work in England in 1841 and four years later received the future Cardinal Newman, a convert from Anglicanism, into the Church.

The beatification of Father Barberi will be the second to take place in the pontificate of Pope Paul VI. The first will be the beatification on Sunday, Oct. 13 of the Venerable John N. Neumann, bishop of Philadelphia from 1852 to 1860.

On Nov. 3, Father Leonard Murialdo, Italian founder of the pious Society of St. Joseph of Turin (Italy), who died in 1900 will be declared a Bless. Another beatification, on Dec. 8, will be that of the Italian youth, Nunzio Sulprizio, who died at the age of 19 in 1836.

The cause for the beatification of Father Barberi—known in religion as Dominic of the Mother of God—was initiated shortly after his death. The final decree was approved by the Sacred Congregation of Rites on Sept. 23.

Beatification of the Italian Passionist is of special interest because of his reputation as an ecumenical pioneer in England, where he established many strong Anglican contacts. Besides Cardinal Newman, he also received into the Church several other outstanding Anglicans, including John Dobree Dalgairns, and two of Newman’s companions, E.S. Bowles and Richard Stanton, all of whom became distinguished members of the Congregation of the Oratory.

Large groups of pilgrims from the United States, England, Ireland France, Germany, Holland and Belgium are expected to be in Rome when Father Barberi is declared a Blessed, the first major step toward canonization.

Following the beatification, a Triduum in thanksgiving will be held in Rome’s Church of Sts. John and Paul, the titular church of Francis Cardinal Spellman, Archbishop of New York. Preachers will be the Rev. Alfred Wilson, C.P., of London, and Archbishop Hallinan.

An American pilgrimage leaving New York by air on Oct. 22 will be under the patronage of exiled Bishop Cuthbert O’Gara of Yuanling, China.

The venerable Dominic of the Mother of God was the youngest of six children born to his peasant parents, who died when he was a boy. Adopted by a maternal uncle, Bartolomeo Pacelli, the young Dominic was hired to care for sheep and when he grew older did farm work. Deeply religious from childhood, he had no formal education until he entered the Congregation of the Passion, his only instructors having been a kindly Capuchin priest and a country lad of his own age who taught him to read.

The future missionary was received into the Congregation in 1814 and on March 1, 1818 was ordained a priest. For ten years he taught philosophy and theology to students of the Congregation. Then came a period when he held, successively, the offices of rector, provincial consultor and provincial, at the same time conducting many missions and retreats.

In 1840, Father Barberi founded the first Passionist Retreat in Belgium, at Ere, near Tourani. Two years later he went to England, where he established the Passionist at Ashton Hall, Staffordshire, and later erected three other monasteries.

The greatest happiness of his life was the reception of Cardinal Newman into the Church, climax to his seven years of missionary work in England. Meanwhile he turned out many notable works in the field of philosophy and moral theology. In 1841 he addressed a Latin letter to the professors of Oxford University in which he answered theological objections propounded by Anglicans. His works included a volume on the Passion of Our Lord, and one for nuns on the Sorrows of the Blessed Virgin.

Father Barberi died after collapsing at the Pangbourne railroad station near Reading, and was buried under the high altar of St. Anne’s Retreat, Sutton, St. Helen’s.