Pope Leo XIV declares Cardinal Newman St. John Henry Newman a church doctor and signals Catholic education is a priority

Vatican City — Pope Leo

Only 37 people have held the title of “doctor” in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church. Newman now joins the ranks of such monumental Christian figures as Saint Augustine, Saint Therese of Lisieux and Saint John of the Cross.

The title acknowledges that Newman, beloved in both the Anglican and Catholic churches, has universal appeal and has made an outstanding and timeless contribution to the understanding of the Christian faith.

A theologian and poet raised in the Church of England, Newman is best known for his writings and sermons on the development of doctrine, truth, and the nature of the university. He is admired by conservatives and progressives alike because he followed his conscience at great personal cost when he decided to convert to Catholicism in 1845.

Leo Newman was declared a doctor of the church on Saturday during a special Holy Year Mass for Catholic teachers and students, during which Newman was also announced as co-patron of Catholic education, along with St. Thomas Aquinas.

It was particularly apt: it was Leo’s namesake, Pope Leo

Model for teachers

Liu’s decision to hold Newman up as a model for Catholic educators suggests that Catholic teaching will be a priority for him in the future, especially as he emphasizes the ethical use of artificial intelligence for future generations.

Earlier this week, Liu drafted a new document that cited Newman in his call for Catholic schools to be places of spiritual growth and community, and where the use of technology always keeps human dignity front and center.

In his sermon, Leo quoted from Newman’s most famous text, the beloved British hymn “Leadership, Gentle Light,” to urge Catholic teachers to “shine like the stars in the world” in the collective search for truth.

“The task of education is precisely to offer this gentle light to those who may remain imprisoned by particularly virulent shadows of pessimism and fear,” he said. “We are called to nurture people, so that they shine like stars with full dignity.”

The Catholic Church is one of the world’s leading players in education, running more than 225,000 primary and secondary schools and enrolling about 2.5 million students in Catholic universities around the world, according to Vatican statistics.

Leo was educated by the Augustinians, taught mathematics and physics, and is a member of the Augustinian religious order, which places particular emphasis on Saint Augustine’s search for truth and the injunction “Tolle, Lege,” which translates from Latin to “take and read.”

A model for the information age

The Rev. George Bowen, who supposedly oversaw Newman’s canonization and appointment as a physician, said Newman also encountered the 19th-century equivalent of the Information Age, when cheap periodicals were readily available and reading rates soared. He said Newman insisted on the need for a comprehensive liberal education that included Catholic theology, but also focused on students and teachers interacting relationally in the search for truth and knowledge.

“Suddenly, the world was swimming in information,” Bowen told reporters. “So Newman’s ways of engaging with this huge ocean of knowledge and understanding it, and having a connected point of view, is very important today.”

When Newman defected from the Church of England to the Catholic Church in 1845, he lost his friends, his job, and even his family ties, believing that the truth he was seeking could only be found in the Catholic faith.

It is cherished by both Anglicans and Catholics

However, even today, Newman remains beloved in the Church of England. His hymn was sung last week in the Sistine Chapel when King Charles III prayed alongside Leo at the historic ecumenical service.

Several important Anglican leaders have written to the Vatican, supporting his appointment as Doctor of the Church, and the Anglican Archbishop of York has been invited to participate in Saturday’s Mass. It featured the hymn “Lead, Kindly Light,” which remains a staple part of Anglican services.

“Newman is a major ecumenical figure in the sense that he owes his faith to his upbringing in the Church of England,” Bowen said.

Paul Shrimpton, a leading Newman scholar at Magdalen College in Oxford, said it was significant that each of the recent popes had promoted Newman on his remarkably quick path to being declared doctor of the church, underscoring his universal appeal to progressives and liberals alike.

Saint John Paul II declared him venerable in 1991, the first step toward possible sainthood; He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI during a 2010 visit to Birmingham, England; Pope Francis declared him a saint in 2019 with Charles in attendance, and now Leo has declared him a Doctor of the Church.

“I think that speaks volumes,” said Shrimpton, who contributed an article on Newman’s influence on Catholic education to the official Vatican dossier, or “the position” that helped declare him a doctor. “All the very different popes show that it is part of the overall teaching of the Church.”

___

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through an AP collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from the Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.