Pope Leo XIV has added the feast day of St John Henry Newman to the General Roman Calendar so that “his Optional Memorial be celebrated by all on 9 October”. Source: OSV News.
Cardinal Arthur Roche and Archbishop Vittorio Francesco Viola, respectively prefect and secretary of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, announced the Pope’s decision in a decree published by the Vatican yesterday.
Previously, the feast day of St Newman was inscribed only in the proper calendar of the Congregation of the Oratory – the religious congregation to which he belonged – and the proper calendar of England and Wales.
Now his memorial, celebrated on the date of his conversion to Catholicism in 1845, is included in the calendar of the universal church.
“Throughout his long life, Cardinal Newman was unstinting in this service to which he had been called. The service of intellectual enquiry; the service of preaching and teaching; as well as service to the poor and the least,” said the decree, dated November 9.
“His lively mind has left us enduring monuments of great importance in the fields of theology and ecclesiology, as well as poetic and devotional compositions. His constant search to be led out of shadows and images into the fullness of the truth has become an example for every disciple of the Risen One,” the decree said.
In a separate note, Cardinal Roche said the inclusion of St Newman in the General Roman Calendar “is intended to present his figure as an outstanding example of the constant search for the truth that enlightens and saves” and to help the faithful contemplate him “as a man led by the ‘kindly light’ of God’s grace to find peace within the Catholic Church.”
The decree came after Pope Leo proclaimed the British saint the 38th doctor of the Church on November 1, including him among the men and women of the Christian East and West who have made decisive contributions to theology and spirituality.
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Pope adds feast day of St John Henry Newman to universal calendar (By Carol Glatz, OSV News)
