From the desk of the Tar Heel disciple:
October 12, 2026 (#139)
Saint John Henry Newman
This year, for the first time, by mandate of Pope Leo XIV, the feast of Saint John Henry Newman, priest and doctor of the Church is included, as an optional memorial, on the General Calendar of the Catholic Church. Born in London, he was ordained an Anglican priest in 1825 and, after a period of rigorous discernment, was received into the full communion of the Catholic Church on October 9, 1845. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847 and was created a cardinal of the Roman Church by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.
He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on September 19, 2010, in Birmingham England. (He was one of only two beatifications over which the German-born pope presided in person. The other was that of John Paul II). Newman was canonized by Pope Francis on October 13, 2019. And on November 1st, 2025, Pope Leo XIV officially declared Saint John Henry Newman the 38th Doctor of the Church, the first Englishman to receive the exalted title and rare honor since the Venerable Bede.
Yes, this is the same “Newman” whose name is associated with Catholic student centers at universities and colleges across America. He was an important theologian, philosopher, historian, and poet, whose influence continues to bring many of his readers to Catholic faith. Prior to his conversion to the Catholic Church, while serving as a professor at Oxford University, he was one of the leaders of the so-called “Oxford Movement” within the Anglican Church, which sought to restore to the Anglican Communion important aspects of the liturgical and doctrinal heritage of the pre-Reformation English Church.
More than a few scholars within the Catholic Church have credited Newman with providing the historical and theological groundwork of the Second Vatican Council. Interestingly enough, he has sometimes claimed as a hero of both the progressive and more traditional wings of the contemporary Church. While some might consider this a fault, others point to the intellectual depth of his teachings which provide the ground of furthering true unity within the Church. The embrace and affirmation of the three most recent popes, a German, an Argentinian, and an American suggest the truthfulness of this observation. He's worth knowing! He's worth reading! And now, by the declaration of the Church, he's worth praying to!
Books by and about Saint John Henry Newman can be found at:
https://inhisname.com/search?options%5Bprefix%5D=last&q=john+Henry+Newman
