På denne dagen i 1845 angret John Henry Newman på sin villfarelse, bekjente den katolske tro og ble opptatt i Den katolske Kirke. Og ved hundreårsjubileet for denne hendelsen skrev pave Pius XII følgende:
A century has now all but run its course since John Henry Newman, the pride of Britain and of the universal Church, came to harbour after his long voyage in search of Catholic truth. With anxious and loving care he had sought it; with ready assent he acknowledged at last the warning accents of the Divine Voice. … …
One quality especially seems to Us to call for close attention and study in the career of the great man… He ‘gave up his whole life to the truth’ (Juvenal. Sat. iv. 91); all his efforts, all his untiring labours, were dedicated to that end. A time came when the beauty of Catholic teaching revealed itself clearly to his longing eyes; with that, no obstacle of any kind – his old prejudices, loss of prospects, the protests of his friends – could hold him back; nothing must stand between him and full adherence to the truth he had now mastered. He held to it ever afterwards with unshaken consistency, made it the guiding principle of his whole life, found in it, as in nothing else, full contentment of mind.
Beyond question… among the many important gifts which will make a later posterity honour the greatness of John Henry Newman, this is his chief title to fame.