St John Henry Newman will soon be declared a Doctor of the Universal Church, the Vatican announced yesterday. Source: Crux.
Pope Leo XIV “confirmed the positive opinion” of the declaration during an audience with Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, the prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.
St John Henry Newman was born in 1801, and was a member of the Anglican Church, becoming a priest in 1825. He was a leader of the Oxford Movement, which sought to align the Church of England with its Catholic roots, and led to the formation of the so-called Anglo-Catholic wing of the Anglican Communion.
However, he controversially became a member of the Catholic Church in 1845, and was later ordained a Catholic priest.
Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in 1879, although Cardinal Newman requested that he not be made a bishop. He died in 1890, and was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010 when the pontiff was in Birmingham, England. Pope Francis canonised him in 2019.
After his canonisation, the bishops’ conference of England and Wales formally petitioned the Pope to name the saint a Doctor of the Church, a move supported by the bishops’ conferences of the United States, Ireland, and Scotland.
A Doctor of the Church is a title given by a Pope to a saint recognised as having made a significant contribution to theology or doctrine. Newman was noted for his teachings on conscience and doctrinal development.
“The announcement that St John Henry Newman will become a Doctor of the Catholic Church will fill the hearts of English Catholics with so much joy. It will also be welcomed by Catholics around the world for whom St John Henry is an inspiring theologian and apologist for the Catholic faith,” Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark said.
“For all his enormous intellect and learning, St John Henry above all lived the humility of a disciple, with a passion for truth. His life shines as an example of what it means to be a true follower of Christ,” the archbishop said.
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British Saint John Henry Newman to be declared Doctor of the Church (By Charles Collins, Crux)
