What is more significant -- a soul's entry into the Catholic Church or into heaven?Benedict XVI may raise that question -- as well as what message he is sending to the Anglicans -- when he announces on Sunday that he is moving Newman's feast day from Aug. 11, the date of his death to Oct. 9, the date of his clamorous conversion to Rome."Highly unusual, to say the least," as Jim Martin wrote at "In All Things." And especially when it turns out that Anglicans, as well as the Vatican's own ecumenical officials, were kept in the dark.CNS's John Thavis has the skinny:

The feast day is a small aspect of Cardinal Newman's beatification, but one with ecumenical overtones. How it came to be chosen is a lesson in the sometimes-labyrinthine ways of Vatican decision-making.Pope Benedict will celebrate the beatification Mass in Birmingham, England, Sept. 19, the final day of his four-day visit to Great Britain.Cardinal Newman, a 19th-century theologian and one of modern England's most respected spiritual figures, is revered by Anglicans and Catholics alike. In the run-up to the papal visit, leaders of both churches have emphasized that although Newman's faith journey led him to Catholicism, the beatification was not being viewed as an act of triumphalism by the Vatican.In fact, Cardinal Newman is already honored as a saint on the Anglican calendar -- on Aug. 11, the day of his death.Speaking to reporters Sept. 9, the Vatican's ecumenism experts underlined that fact and said it was possible that the Catholic Church would also adopt the Aug. 11 feast day as an ecumenical gesture."Obviously there are sensitive issues over someone converting, but his beatification is being received in a very positive way," Msgr. Mark Langham said of the Anglican reaction.What the ecumenists had apparently not been told, however, was that the Vatican's liturgy experts had already designated Cardinal Newman's feast day as Oct. 9, the day of his conversion. Informed of this fact by reporters Sept. 12, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said he had no comment on the reasons for the choice of date.

Anglican officials also didn't know, but are making the best of it, much as they did after last fall's unilateral initiative by Benedict to set up a parallel rite for conservative Anglicans to come into communion with Rome.I suspect the pope's strong remarks against sex abuse today and other issues will overshadow this one, but it's worth noting, and perhaps telling.