Pope Leo XIV has decided to declare St. John Henry Newman as patron of Catholic education, alongside St. Thomas Aquinas, recognizing his intellectual and spiritual legacy in Christian formation. The announcement will be formalized on October 28, coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the conciliar declaration Gravissimum Educationis, on Christian education, promulgated during the Second Vatican Council.
The Pope’s decision was announced by the Dicastery for Culture and Education, which specified that the proclamation will be accompanied by a papal document on the identity and mission of Catholic educational institutions in the current world.
A gesture of recognition for a key thinker
St. John Henry Newman (1801–1890), English theologian who converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism, was canonized in 2019 by Pope Francis. His thought on conscience, truth, and the integral formation of the human being has become an essential reference for modern Catholic education.
Pope Leo XIV has wanted to highlight his figure precisely for his insistence on the unity between faith and reason, and for his vision of the university as a space where knowledge must be illuminated by revealed truth. Newman defended that “an education without religion does not form the whole man, but only a part of him”.
The proclamation as patron will take place during the World Jubilee of Catholic Education, which is being held in Rome from October 27 to November 1. On that occasion, the Pope will also declare Newman as the 38th Doctor of the Church, a title reserved for those saints whose teachings have had a decisive influence on Catholic doctrine.
A call to renew Catholic identity in education
The document that will accompany Newman’s appointment will emphasize the essential role of Catholic education as a tool for evangelization and integral formation, in an increasingly secularized cultural context.
According to Vatican sources cited by Catholic News Agency, Leo XIV wants “to remind Catholic schools, universities, and centers of their mission to form people in truth, not only in technical knowledge”. The Pontiff will warn of the need to resist the pressure of contemporary ideologies that attempt to empty educational projects of Christian content.
Inspiration for the future
With this decision, Pope Leo XIV reaffirms his commitment to education as a pillar of evangelization and to the figure of Newman as a model for those who teach and learn in Catholic contexts.
The English cardinal, whose conversion to Catholicism was a sign of profound search for truth, embodies—according to the Pope—the synthesis between intelligence, faith, and holiness. His example invites Catholic institutions to not yield to the ideologization of teaching, but to return to the roots of an education that forms the mind and heart according to the Gospel.
In times of cultural confusion and moral relativism, Newman’s magisterium offers a clear path: that of reason illuminated by faith, at the service of the truth that liberates and transforms.