Pope Leo XIV received a delegation from Oriel College at the University of Oxford this Friday, September 4, at the Vatican Apostolic Palace. The group is making a pilgrimage to Rome following in the footsteps of St. John Henry Newman to mark the 700th anniversary of the granting of the college’s royal charter.
In his greeting, the Pontiff highlighted Oriel’s Catholic roots and Christian identity, presenting Newman as an example of the inseparability of faith and reason. Addressing today’s educational challenges, Leo XIV advocated a Christian formation that embraces the whole person and encouraged the university members to “seek the truth with courage” and to promote an “integral anthropological vision.”
Below is the full message of Leo XIV:
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Peace be with you!
Good morning to all of you and welcome.
Your Eminence,
dear friends:
On your pilgrimage to Rome, following in the footsteps of St. John Henry Newman to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the granting of the royal charter to Oriel College, I am pleased to welcome the rector, together with the professors and other members of the College, to the Vatican.
Oriel certainly has a long and illustrious history which, as is natural over such an extended period, has witnessed and experienced many changes, events, and even upheavals. Yet the College has remained steadfast in its Christian identity. Your anniversary is therefore an opportunity to celebrate its Catholic origins as the “College of the Blessed Virgin Mary.” Indeed, this identity is key to what has made—and can continue to make—Oriel not merely an academic institution, but a true community of faith and study in the deepest sense. In this way, the College can look with confidence to the contributions of its past as a secure foundation and guide for its future endeavors.
In this regard, St. John Henry Newman stands as a luminous example of a scholar who not only demonstrated in his writings the inseparability of faith and reason, but, even more admirably, in his life. There was a great concreteness in his ideas, for his religious convictions were rooted in his personal relationship with God, while his academic work was at once sublime and eminently practical. The profound richness of both dimensions of his life was recognized with his declaration as a Doctor of the Universal Church and co-patron of the Church’s educational mission. It is certainly providential that your pilgrimage on the occasion of this anniversary takes place so close to an event of such importance both for you and for the entire Catholic Church.
Furthermore, in the context of present-day challenges, Newman’s thought on education is particularly relevant, as it proposes a Christian formation that embraces the whole person and measures the value of education according to human dignity, justice, and the capacity to serve the common good (cf. Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope, 4.2, 28 October 2025). Likewise, in your personal academic endeavors, I encourage you to seek the truth with courage and to promote this integral anthropological vision. In this way, your work can truly facilitate an encounter “from heart to heart” with your brothers and sisters and, especially, with our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life (cf. Jn 14:6).
Finally, in his well-known hymn Lead, Kindly Light, Newman showed his great confidence that God would guide him despite life’s uncertainties. I therefore exhort you to entrust yourselves and the future of the College to the unfading Light of the world, so that you too, like Our Lady, may reflect his glory in the world.
With these thoughts, I commend each of you to the intercession of St. John Henry Newman and of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
And I now invite you to stand, and with great joy I will impart to all of you, your families, and your loved ones the Apostolic Blessing.
And may the blessing of Almighty God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, descend upon you and remain with you forever. Amen.