Letter #55, 2025, Thursday, July 31: Newman

    St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), depicted here in a tapestry which hung from the facade of St Peter’s Basilica during his canonization in 2019, will become the newest “Doctor of the Church,” Pope Leo has decided. It is a significant decision…

    Letter #55, 2025, Thursday, July 31: Newman to be declared a “Doctor of the Church”

    The Vatican announced today that St. John Henry Newman will be proclaimed the newest “Doctor of the Church.”

    Newman, a convert from Anglicanism, was a brilliant preacher and writer even before his conversion in the 1840s.

    With several fellow Anglicans, he founded the influential “Oxford Movement” to defend and restore the doctrinal integrity of the Anglican Church, threatened in a number of ways.

    Then, as he reflected more deeply, he dramatically, and controversially, converted to Catholicism.

    Newman suffered greatly for this decision, losing many friends.

    Some never spoke to him again.

    ***

    Special note: We have just published a Special Issue on the election of Pope Leo XIV, 80 pages long and in full-color. For those who wish to keep a record of Leo’s election, this issue is a good choice. Indeed, the issue may become a “Collector’s Edition.” To order a copy (or copies, for your family, parish, or study group), click here. —RM

    ***

    Newman’s greatest contribution to scholarship and to Catholic thought, arguably, was his reflection on the concept of doctrine itself: that the Church’s teaching, being true, cannot change, but, that that teaching may and should “develop” over the decades and centuries, as the Church faces new challenges from science and technology, and inevitably must teach on those new matters by “developing” fundamental teachings from earlier times.

    Here we come to an essential point: doctrine is supposed to “develop” but… not change.

    And it precisely the lure of the modern world, and of modern science — this “Modernist” time in our history — that causes many to conclude, falsely, that Church doctrines must change, in order to keep up with modern times.

    Newman never supported or defended this.

    He always was meticulous in his search for the “roots” of doctrine in the Scriptures and in the teaching of the Church Fathers.

    This is the correct way for the “development” of Catholic teaching to occur, Newman argued.

    However, for a century and a half, there has been a more radical understanding of “development of doctrine” which is known as “evolution of dogmas.”

    This view, mixed in with philosophical currents such as vitalism, immanentism and historicism, was at the heart of the modernist controversy during the papacy of Pius X, and this view was condemned by Pius X in his 1907 encyclical Pascendi dominici gregis.

    Although modernist intellectuals such as George Tyrrell and Alfred Loisy did at times cite the influence of Newman’s ideas on their thinking, their goal was, it seems, not so much to understand the ancient roots of Church doctrine, but to make that doctrine change meaning, according to their own ideas, in keeping with the liberal spirit of the times.

    This is the temptation that a number of progressive Catholic theologians today are drawn toward. (link)

    G.K. Chesterton characterized the development of doctrine as follows:

    “When we say that a puppy develops into a dog, we do not mean that his growth is a gradual compromise with a cat; we mean that he becomes more doggy and not less. Development is the expansion of all the possibilities and implications of a doctrine, as there is time to distinguish them and draw them out. (G.K. Chesterton, Ch I, St Thomas Aquinas, 1933).

    The fact that Pope Leo chooses now — as one of the first acts of his pontificate — to call attention to the thoughtful and faithful teaching of St. John Henry Newman, and to honor him with the very special title of “Doctor of the Church,” suggests that Leo is quite well aware of this “modernist” temptation, and wishes to draw those in danger of being seduced by the idea of the possible “evolution” of doctrine back to the orthodox position proclaimed by Newman: that doctrine may develop, but not change, not “evolve.”

    For this reason, this decision of Leo takes on the character of an important “cornerstone” in the new Pope’s emerging effort to confront and guide the debate over doctrine in modern times, a debate which is certain to be intense during this pontificate.

    With the model of Newman’s holiness, wisdom, fidelity and courage, Leo is providing us with a model for us to keep ever-present as we proceed forward in the doctrinal battles of these times.

    —RM

    ***

    Here is the Vatican News story on the decision, announced today in Rome.

    St John Henry Newman set to become newest Doctor of the Church (link)

    Pope Leo paves the way for St John Henry Newman to be formally declared a “Doctor of the Church”.

    By Alessandro De Carolis

    One of the great modern thinkers of Christianity, a key figure in a spiritual and human journey that left a profound mark on the Church and 19th-century ecumenism, and the author of writings that show how living the faith is a daily “heart-to-heart” dialogue with Christ. A life spent with energy and passion for the Gospel — culminating in his canonization in 2019 — that will soon lead to the English cardinal John Henry Newman being proclaimed a Doctor of the Church.

    The news was announced today, July 31, in a statement from the Holy See Press Office, which reported that during an audience granted to Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, Pope Leo XIV has “confirmed the affirmative opinion of the Plenary Session of Cardinals and Bishops, Members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, regarding the title of Doctor of the Universal Church, which will soon be conferred on Saint John Henry Newman.”

Cardinal Henry Newman: From Anglican priest to Catholic cardinal

    “From Shadows and Images into the Truth”

    “Lead, kindly Light, amid the encircling gloom,

    Lead Thou me on.

    The night is dark, and I am far from home—

    Lead Thou me on…

    So long Thy power hath blest me, sure it still

    Will lead me on

    O’er moor and fen, o’er crag and torrent, till

    The night is gone,

    And with the morn those angel faces smile

    Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile.”

    John Henry Newman was 32 years old when this poignant prayer rose from his heart during his return to England after a long journey through Italy.

    Born in 1801, he had already been an Anglican priest for eight years and was widely recognized as one of the most brilliant minds in his church — a man who captivated with both spoken and written word.

    The 1832 trip to Italy deepened his inner search.

    Newman carried within him a thirst to know the depths of God.

    His “kindly Light,” which for him was also the light of Truth — truth about Christ, the true nature of the Church, and the tradition of the early centuries, when the Church Fathers spoke to a still undivided Church.

    Oxford — epicenter of his faith and the place where the future saint lived and worked — became the road along which his convictions gradually shifted toward Catholicism.

    In 1845, he distilled his spiritual journey into the Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, the fruit of a long pursuit of that Light, which he came to recognize in the Catholic Church — a Church he saw as the very one born from the heart of Christ, the Church of the martyrs and the ancient Fathers, which, like a tree, had grown and developed through history.

    Soon after, he asked to be received into the Catholic Church, which took place on October 8, 1845.

    He later wrote of that moment: “It was like coming into port after a rough sea; and my happiness on that score remains to this day without interruption.”

    Devoted to Saint Philip Neri

    In 1846, he returned to Italy to enter, as a humble seminarian — despite being a theologian and thinker of international renown — the Collegio di Propaganda Fide.

    “It is so wonderful to be here,” he wrote. “It is like a dream, and yet so calm, so secure, so happy, as if it were the fulfillment of a long hope, and the beginning of a new life.”

    On May 30, 1847, the circle of his vocation was completed with his ordination to the priesthood.

    During these months, Newman was deeply drawn to the figure of St. Philip Neri — another soul, like himself, “adopted” by Rome.

    When Blessed Pope Pius IX encouraged him to return to England, Newman went on to found an Oratory there, dedicated to the saint with whom he shared a joyful disposition.

    That good humor remained intact even through the many challenges he faced in establishing Catholic institutions in his homeland, many of which seemed at first to falter. Still, his mind continued to produce brilliant writings in defense and support of Catholicism — even under fierce attack.

    In 1879, Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal.

    Upon hearing the news, Newman wept with joy: “The cloud is lifted forever.”

    He continued his apostolic work with undiminished intensity until his death on August 11, 1890.

    On his tomb, he asked that only his name and a brief phrase be inscribed, one that encapsulates the extraordinary arc of his 89 years of life: Ex umbris et imaginibus in Veritatem, “From shadows and images into the Truth.”

    Benedict XVI beatified him in 2010, honoring a man of deep prayer who, in the Pope’s words, “lived out that profoundly human vision of priestly ministry in his devoted care” for people: “visiting the sick and the poor, comforting the bereaved, caring for those in prison.

    “Cor ad cor loquitur”

    Newman was canonized in 2019 by Pope Francis, who, in the encyclical Dilexit nos, explained why the English cardinal had chosen as his motto the phrase Cor ad cor loquitur — “Heart speaks to heart.”

    Because, the Pope noted, beyond any dialectical argument, the Lord saves us by speaking from His heart to ours: “This realization led him, the distinguished intellectual, to recognize that his deepest encounter with himself and with the Lord came not from his reading or reflection, but from his prayerful dialogue, heart to heart, with Christ, alive and present. It was in the Eucharist that Newman encountered the living heart of Jesus, capable of setting us free, giving meaning to each moment of our lives, and bestowing true peace.”

    [End]

    P.S. If you wish to become a “friend” of these letters, you may do so by clicking below and making a small contribution…. If you wish to go on one of our pilgrimages, you may click on the banner below that…