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 Saint John Henry Newman Installation as a Doctor of the Church Vatican City, 2025 The Feast of Saint John Henry Newman is celebrated on October 9, which marks the anniversary of his conversion to Catholicism in 1845. Last year, Pope Leo XIV elevated this saint to the title of Doctor of the Church, an event celebrated on the stamp shown above. John Henry Newman was born in London in 1801. His father was a banker. His brilliance showed at an early age. As a young boy he was attracted to the anti-religious writings of Voltaire (1694-1778) and the Scottish philosopher David Hume (1711-1776). He verbally spoke of his disbelief in God and divine revelation. His master at the Ealing School persuaded him to read the writings of John Calvin (1509-1564). Around 1817 he underwent a conversion by reading the Bible. He eventually became a believer and enrolled at Trinity College, Oxford, and where he became active in the Anglican Church. Instead of entering a career in business or science, he chose to become an ordained deacon and eventually became an Anglican priest in 1825. Newman’s early life was spent as a teacher and preacher. He worked in the academic world of Anglican universities. While working in the university environment he became involved with research into the early Christian and Desert Fathers, their Church Councils and their disagreements. After a trip to Italy in 1832, he became a leading figure in the Oxford Movement, an Anglican movement which wrote that Anglicanism was moving away from true doctrine. Oxford leadership believed that Anglican doctrine should be more closely aligned with the early church founders. Newman’s stance was that the Anglican Church was a part of the universal Catholic church and that its roots went back to the Apostles. There was a belief among those in the Oxford Movement that the Anglican church was moving to teaching a form of relativism. The movement also stated that there was too much governance by the state in Anglican affairs. The Oxford Movement founders produced 90 “Tracts for the Times”, all of which were edited by Newman. Those who supported the Tracts were known as Tractarians. They believed that there has to be a straight line from the Apostles to the Church, and that Anglicanism needed reform. Newman left Anglican academic life in 1843 and went to live in the small parish of Littlemore, Oxford, to minister, pray and write. In 1844 in Littlemore he wrote the “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine”. It was in this document that he clarified how dogma is developed and pointed out areas where Anglicanism was off course. In 1845, he was received into the Roman Catholic Church and he went further to became a priest in 1847. He entered the Congregation of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and went on to open an oratory in Birmingham in 1849. From 1851 to 1858 he served as the first rector of the Catholic University of Dublin. Both as an Anglican and a Catholic he wrote volumes of work in theology. Pope Leo XIII recognized his brilliance and named him a Cardinal in 1879. He died on August 11, 1890 at the age of 89.  Travels of Pope Benedict XVI United Kingdom (September 16-19, 2010) Insert: Saint John Henry Newman Scott 1488 (2011) During his visit to England in September of 2010. Pope Benedict XVI beatified John Henry Newman, and in 2019 he was canonized by Pope Francis. Pope Leo XIV installed him a Doctor of the Church on November 1, 2025. Including Saint John Henry Newman, there are now 38 Doctors of the Church. The words and teachings of Saint John Henry Newman have been cited by the popes over the years. Pope St. Paul VI (1897-1978) spoke these words about Newman: “Many of the problems which he treated with wisdom – although he himself was frequently misunderstood and misinterpreted in his own time – were the subjects of the discussion and study of the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council, as for example the question of ecumenism, the relationship between Christianity and the world, the emphasis on the role of the laity in the Church and the relationship of the Church to non-Christian religions. Not only this Council but also the present time can be considered in a special way as Newman’s hour, in which, with confidence in divine providence, he placed his great hopes and expectations”.Pope Benedict XVI (1927-2022) praised Newman as follows: “Newman teaches us that if we have accepted the truth of Christ and committed our lives to him, there can be no separation between what we believe and the way we live our lives. Our every thought, word and action must be directed to the glory of God and the spread of his Kingdom. Newman understood this and was the great champion of the prophetic office of the Christian laity”.Three years after Newman died, a Newman Club for Catholic students was established at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia PA. Today many secular universities have Newman Clubs.  John Henry Newman by Sir John Everett Millais National Portrait Gallery, London From Wikimedia Commons, in the Public Domain References: |
