Tens of thousands of pilgrims from all nations applauded when Pope Leo XIV declared St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the church during Mass for the Jubilee of the World of Education in St. Peter’s Square on Nov. 1, the Feast of All Saints. In the context of that jubilee, he also declared the saint co-patron with St. Thomas Aquinas of the church’s educational mission. 

The formal declaration took place after the penitential rite at the beginning of the Mass, which Pope Leo concelebrated with many cardinals, bishops and clergy, and in the presence of official delegations, many members of the diplomatic corps and thousands of Catholic educators from all corners of the globe. 

It began when Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, came forward and requested that Leo XIV declare St. John Henry Newman “Doctor of the Universal Church.” Accompanied by Oratorian postulator who has promoted St. Newman’s cause, the Rev. George Bowen, he read a brief biography of Newman, recalling that he was born into an Anglican family in London in 1801, ordained an Anglican priest in May 1825, and ministered as such in Oxford until 1845, when he entered the Catholic church. That same year, he published his famous and widely influential “Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.”

Two years later, he was ordained a Catholic priest in Rome. He was made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879, and died in 1890. Pope Benedict XVI beatified him in 2010, and Pope Francis declared him a saint in 2019.

Cardinal Semeraro recalled the saint’s many important writings that have had such an influence on the church, including on the Second Vatican Council. He ended by requesting that Pope Leo declare “this saintly cardinal” a doctor of the church.

Speaking in Latin, the pope said: 

We, having obtained the opinions of numerous brothers in the episcopate and of many of the church’s faithful throughout the world, having consulted the Dicastery for the Causes of the Saints, after mature deliberation and with certain knowledge, and by the fullness of the apostolic power, declare St. John Henry Newman doctor of the universal church. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Pilgrims from many countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Italy, who had come here for the Jubilee of the World of Education applauded as the choir first sang a triple “Amen” and then the triple “Alleluia.” 

The Mass then continued with Scripture readings in English, Spanish and Italian, after which Pope Leo preached on the church’s mission of education and referred to St. John Henry Newman several times. 

Read: Pope Leo’s homily declaring St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the church

Pope Leo predicted that “Newman’s impressive spiritual and cultural stature will surely serve as an inspiration to new generations whose hearts thirst for the infinite, and who, through research and knowledge, are willing to undertake that journey which, as the ancients said, takes us per aspera ad astra, through difficulties to the stars.”

He recalled that Pope Francis, addressing the plenary assembly of the Dicastery for Culture and Education in 2024, emphasized that “we must work together to set humanity free from the encircling gloom of nihilism, which is perhaps the most dangerous malady of contemporary culture, since it threatens to ‘cancel’ hope.” 

“This reference to the darkness that surrounds us echoes one of St. John Henry Newman’s best-known texts, the hymn ‘Lead, Kindly Light.’,” Pope Leo said. In that prayer, “we come to realize that we are far from home, our feet are unsteady, we cannot interpret clearly the way ahead. Yet none of this impedes us, since we have found our Guide: ‘Lead, Kindly Light, amid th’encircling gloom, Lead Thou me on;’ ‘Lead, Kindly Light, The night is dark, and I am far from home, Lead Thou me on.’”

Pope Leo told those present at the Mass and a global audience of educators: “The task of education is precisely to offer this Kindly Light to those who might otherwise remain imprisoned by the particularly insidious shadows of pessimism and fear.” He encouraged them: “Let us disarm the false reasons for resignation and powerlessness, and let us share the great reasons for hope in today’s world.”

The pope quoted John Henry Newman’s famous phrase: “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.” In these words, Pope Leo said, “we find beautifully expressed the mystery of the dignity of every human person, and also the variety of gifts distributed by God.”

He concluded with these words: 

I pray that Catholic education will help each person to discover their own call to holiness. St. Augustine, whom St. John Henry Newman greatly admired, once said that we are fellow students who have one teacher, whose school is on earth and whose chair is in heaven.

After the singing of the Creed, prayers for the church and for the world were read in Chinese, Portuguese, Arabic, French and Korean. Then, as the gifts were being brought for the offertory, the choir sang “Lead, Kindly light.” 

At the end of Mass, Pope Leo warmly greeted the Anglican delegation present at the ceremony, and in particular Archbishop Stephen Cottrell of York, telling them, “Your presence today expresses our shared joy at the proclamation of St. John Henry Newman as a doctor of the church. From heaven, may he accompany Christians on their journey toward full union.”

The British government also sent an official delegation led by Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy and the British Ambassador to the Holy See, Christopher Trott.

The Catholic church from England and Wales was present in force at the celebration, with a delegation led by Cardinal Nichols, archbishop of Westminster and the president of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, as it had been at his canonization by Pope Francis in 2019. Not long after, that bishops’ conference formally requested of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints that St. John Henry Newman be declared a doctor of the church. 

The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference formally supported that request in 2023, in recognition of the fact that Newman had served in Dublin from 1851 to 1858 as the first Rector of the Catholic University of Ireland, the forerunner of today’s University College Dublin. During his time there, Newman delivered his lectures on university education that were later published as The Idea of a University. 

St. John Henry Newman, whose portrait hung from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica throughout the ceremony, now joins 37 other saints who have this distinction, including Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Ávila and Thérèse of Lisieux, as well as two other Englishmen: St. Bede and St. Anselm of Canterbury.

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