During his visit to England, Benedict XVI wore a a blue stole with stylized hearts, as seen above. It was at a prayer service in St. Mary's University College in London on September 17, 2010. The hearts were copied from Cardinal Newman's coat-of-arms, shown below, and his stole was meant to be a glorification of that Newman's symbol.

Now then, since throughout his life Newman professed a particularly ardent love for some male disciples or companions he had, the last being his "dearly beloved" friend of 32 years Fr. Ambrose Saint John, the motto in his coat-of-arms - The Heart Speaks to the Heart - and the symbol of the heart have, at the least, a double meaning. They can represent the love of benevolence every Catholic should have for his neighbor as an expression of his love for God. Or it can represent homosexual love. That heart as a Newman's symbol is quite ambiguous.

Therefore, by glorifying that symbol Benedict also glorified its ambiguity. It seems to us difficult not to say that somehow he strengthened the homosexual movement, which presents Newman as one of their own.