The work towards beatification was begun in 1958 but did not made much progress, apart from the publication at regular intervals of Newman’s letters and diaries – 32 volumes by the end of the series.
In 1973 Pope Paul VI asked whether a beatification of Newman might be feasible during the Holy Year planned for 1975. Winterton had to respond in the negative but, galvanised by Papal interest, devoted increasing amounts of time to advancing matters. He founded “The Friends of Cardinal Newman” in 1976, and travelled to give talks and lectures, also producing pamphlets and prayer books.
Support and interest grew yearly and, combined with the work of the American Newman expert, Father Vincent Blehl, who was made Postulator of the Cause, culminated in 1991 in the Declaration of Newman’s heroic sanctity by Pope John Paul II.
Another 18 years were to pass before the actual beatification took place, but the increasingly frail Winterton worked on, looking for the necessary miraculous cure which could be attributed to Newman. When one was eventually approved by the Vatican, everything was in place for the events of September 19 2010, when Pope Benedict celebrated a Mass at Cofton Park, near Birmingham, and finally declared the English Cardinal to be Blessed John Henry Newman. The moment during the Mass when Winterton was presented to the Pope was rightly perceived by many as the crowning of his life’s work.
Cecil John Winterton – he took the name Gregory on joining the Oratory – was born at Brighton on July 9 1922, the eldest son of the future Major-General Sir John Winterton , and educated at Wellington College. Leaving school soon after war broke out, he was commissioned into the Royal Artillery, and saw service with the 2nd Field Regiment in North Africa, Italy (where he took part in the Anzio landings) and Palestine.
Winterton trained at Alton Towers in Staffordshire and was involved in an incident which nearly resulted in the destruction of Lord Shrewsbury’s home. On an exercise, guns with dummy shells were brought into action, with Alton Towers selected as the target. In preparing their gun, Winterton’s detachment had found what was taken to be a dummy round and had loaded the gun with it. They were much surprised when the gun actually fired a shell.
There was no sound of an explosion from the target area, and the detachment spent the rest of the day in a fruitless search for debris. It could not be decided whether to reprimand them for missing so large a target, or to praise them for not having destroyed it.
During his time in Italy, Capt Winterton visited the shrine of St Francis of Assisi, discovering a calling to the Anglican ministry. Demobbed in 1946, he went up to St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and read Theology. He studied for Orders at the College of the Resurrection at Mirfield and in September 1951 was ordained priest at St Paul’s Cathedral.
Winterton served as a curate in Northolt, and in 1954 went to Wolverhampton as priest-in-charge of St George’s Church. On January 1 1955, however, he resigned, and was received into the Catholic Church the following April. His family greeted the move with dismay.
In his early days as a Catholic, Winterton taught at a prep school in Staffordshire, and from there first got to know the Oratory in Birmingham. It was not until 1961 that he joined the Oratorian Congregation.
Winterton was ordained as a Catholic priest on March 9 1963 and immediately started teaching in St Philip’s Grammar School . He later served as chairman of the school’s governors, and was also on the governing body of the Oratory School near Reading . Apart from a brief interlude in 1977, Winterton served as Provost of the Oratory from 1971 until 1992 .
He continued doing some parish work until the last few weeks of his life. He was buried close to Cardinal Newman’s own grave at the Oratory’s country house at Rednal.
Father Gregory Winterton, born July 9 1922, died January 18 2012