The American deacon who was healed through the intercession of John Henry Newman is now on Newman’s home turf:

Deacon Jack Sullivan, whose miraculous healing in 2001 is the basis for Newman’s Beatification next year, has arrived in England on a short visit. Later this week he will visit the Birmingham Oratory (UK), in a event which the Boston deacon has said will be ‘the greatest moment of my life’. His wife Carol will be accompanying him throughout the visit.

On Monday and Tuesday, Jack Sullivan is visiting London, the place of Newman’s birth, where the Archbishop of Westminster Most Rev Vincent Nichols has invited him to a press conference and Mass at Westminster Cathedral this evening.

On Tuesday evening he will give the Catholic Truth Society 2009 Lecture at the London Oratory in Brompton, the second Oratory founded in England by John Henry Newman, in 1849. Father Ian Ker, the internationally renowned Newman scholar, will be giving an introductory address.

On Wednesday and Thursday Deacon Sullivan will visit Cardinal Newman’s room, assist at Mass in his private chapel, and visit his library, a collection of international importance. At the Birmingham Oratory, he will give the only two personal interviews that will be conducted during his visit to the UK, for the Catholic News Service (US) and EWTN. It was after watching an EWTN broadcast about Newman in 2000 that Jack started praying to Newman for his spinal condition to be healed. Jack wrote down the address of the Birmingham Oratory, heralding the beginning of his Providential connection with Newman’s own community.

Jack Sullivan will also be deacon at Mass in the Church of the Oratory, otherwise known as ‘Little Rome’, in Edgbaston. He will also visit Rednal, where Newman was buried in 1890, on the edge of Birmingham.

From Thursday to Saturday Deacon Sullivan will be staying at Littlemore, where Newman made his first confession and was received into ‘the one true fold of the Redeemer’, the Catholic Church, in 1845. He will pay visits to Trinity and Oriel Colleges.

On Saturday he will visit the Oxford Oratory, founded in 1990, which fulfilled Newman’s hopes of an Catholic Oratory in his own university city.

There are more details and background at the link.