St. John Henry Newman

Pope Leo has announced that St. John Henry Newman will become a Doctor of the Church. This is a big honor, as there are only 38 Doctors of the Church. He will be the second Doctor of the Church from England, after St. Bede. Newman produced a large amount of theological works over his lifetime, tracing his personal religious journey as well as religious movements of the nineteenth century. Newman once defined theology as "the Science of God, or the truths we know about God, put into a system, just as we have a science of the stars and call it astronomy, or of the crust of the earth and call it geology." Pope Leo has found Newman’s works as a significant contribution to the Church. His most influential work is considered to be “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine,” which explored how the application of Christian doctrine may change over time, given time and place, even as the core truths of the faith stay the same. This was considered an influential document during the Second Vatican Council.

John Henry Newman was born in London in 1801. The son of a banker, he received a good education and was a big reader. When he was 15, a friend gave him books on the Calvinist tradition, and Newman converted to Calvinist evangelicalism. He later credited the conversion as important to his religious journey, although his views on Calvinism quickly shifted. After graduating from Oxford, he became a priest in the Church of England. He also continued to teach and research at Oriel College in Oxford.

In 1828 he became vicar of St. Mary’s University Church. He studied the Church Fathers deeply, and his views took a stronger, higher ecclesiastical tone. In 1830 he circulated an anonymous letter on how nonconformists should be removed from positions of power in society. This led to him being dismissed from his position.

In 1832 he travelled around the Mediterranean: Malta, Italy, Greece. He loved Rome but still found the Catholic Church as “polytheistic, degrading, and idolatrous.” But when he returned home the next year, the Oxford Movement was kicking off. The Oxford Movement was a focus toward high church theology and practice in the Church of England, also seen as an Anglo-Catholicism movement. Newman contributed heavily to tracts in support of the revival movement. In 1836 he gave a series of lectures presenting Anglicanism as the via media between Catholicism and Protestantism.

Around 1839, Newman began showing doubts in Anglican theology. His detailed examination of the Thirty-Nine Articles suggested they were not against Catholic theology but popular errors of the time. His study of St. Augustine led to him doubting the Church of England’s ecclesiastical authority. He found the joint Anglican-Lutheran see, a joint bishopric venture between the Church of England and the Prussian Evangelical Church established in Jerusalem in 1841, as further proof that the Church of England lacked apostolic authority.

Newman and some like-minded scholars began their own “Anglican monastery,” where they wrote on English saints, Anglican doctrine, and Christian theology. Members of the group began converting to Catholicism. On Sept. 25, 1843, Newman gave his final Anglican sermon and resigned from his clerical position. On Oct. 9, 1845, he officially joined the Catholic Church. The conversion cost him personal relationships as well as opportunities at Oxford.

In 1846, he returned to Rome, where he was ordained a Catholic priest and awarded a Doctor of Divinity by Pope Pius IX. Newman joined the Confederation of Oratories of Saint Philip Neri. Oratorians commit to a specific Oratory, or independent local community. Newman lived in a series of Oratories before establishing the London Oratory and finally settling at Edgbaston. Newman wrote and gave lectures addressing anti-Catholic sentiments at the time and how Catholics should respond.

In 1854, Newman went to Ireland and served as rector of the new Catholic University of Ireland. After serving there for four years, he published his thoughts on education, stating that universities should exist in between free thinking and moral authority, supporting research free of Church censorship while also respecting the moral teachings of the Church.

After returning to England, Newman tried to establish an Oratory at Oxford, hoping it would encourage Catholics to attend Oxford. The plans fell apart, but the Catholic club was renamed the Oxford University Newman Society in 1888 in honor of Newman’s influence. To this day, Catholic university centers around the world are still named after Newman.

During the First Vatican Council, Newman expressed unease at the formal definition of papal infallibility, not the doctrine itself but the aggressive push for it and the historical difficulties of back-declaring which statements fell under its scope.

In 1879, Pope Leo XIII named Newman a cardinal, despite him not being a bishop or serving in Rome. Newman accepted the honor with the stipulation that he not be consecrated a bishop and that he could continue his current work in Birmingham. He did wind up serving in Rome briefly, before returning to the Birmingham Oratory, where he remained until his death. On Aug. 11, 1890, he died of pneumonia.

During a papal visit to the UK in 2010, Pope Benedict XVI announced that Newman would be canonized. Pope Francis formally canonized Newman in 2019. Prince Charles (now King Charles III) attended the ceremony.

While most saints’ feast days are based on the day of their death, St. Cardinal Newman’s feast day is Oct. 9, the date of his conversion to Catholicism. He is remembered in the Church of England with a commemoration on Aug. 11.