On July 31, 2025, Pope Leo XIV confirmed that he will soon confer the degree scroll of Doctor of the Universal Church on St. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), who will thus become the 38th in history and the first Englishman since Bede the Venerable, appointed by Leo XIII in 1899.

The idea of proclaiming Newman a Doctor of the Church had been circulating for decades in Newmanian circles. His beatification and canonization gave new impetus to this cause, which was later supported by bishops, universities and institutions all over the world. Some witnesses say that Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, a few weeks before his death, when he learned that the proposal was moving forward, exclaimed with an illuminated face: "Newman, Doctor of the Church: he would be a light in the darkness of this time!It was not an improvised judgment: more than thirty years earlier, when he was still a cardinal, Ratzinger had already described him as a "true doctor of the Church", convinced that his life and work continue to touch hearts and enlighten minds.

The degree scroll is awarded to saints whose life and doctrine meet three conditions: eminent teaching , recognized holiness of life and official proclamation by the Church. It is an exceptional recognition that marks Newman as a teacher whose voice not only belonged to his time, but who continues to speak with authority to the universal Church. A significant anticipation of this recognition is found in the 1992 Catechism of the Catholic Church, which quotation on four core topic occasions, long before his beatification."

In a world marked by cultural tensions, relativism and secularization, and in need of Christians with a rooted and mature faith, his thought is surprisingly current. His teachings on conscience, doctrinal development , reasoned faith, the mission statement of the laity, integral Education , etc., offer keys for living and transmitting the faith in the 21st century.

Newman sample that faith is a friend of reason, a profoundly human act that engages mind and heart. In Apologia pro Vita Sua he wrote the famous phrase: "Ten thousand difficulties do not make a single doubt", to emphasize that intellectual objections do not destroy the certainty of faith when it is well founded.

His doctrine on conscience has been equally decisive. He defined it as "the first vicar of Christ". Listening to it does not mean following a subjective impulse, but opening oneself to the voice of truth that interpellates the heart. In times of relativism, Newman reminds us that conscience, enlightened by faith, is the place where man meets God.

Newman intuits that the Church is not sustained only by the hierarchy, but also by the faith of the simple people. He vindicates the value of the "sense of faith" of the faithful, that instinct of faith present in all the baptized, as a criterion of evangelical authenticity. For this reason, it gives a decisive role to the laity, who are called to be protagonists in the life and mission statement of the Church.

His example confirms this: he founded the chapel of St. Philip Neri in England, accompanied students and workers, and transmitted the faith with a clear apostolic spirit, convinced that Christian truth is spread more by the witness of life than by arguments.

Another of his great legacies is the theory of the development of doctrine. He explains that revealed truth does not change in its essence, but grows in understanding throughout history: "it changes... to remain the same". This vision allowed the Church to face the challenges of modernity without losing continuity with its origins.

His own life is an example. After years of study and prayer, he took the step into the Catholic Church in 1845, convinced that only there does one find the fullness of truth. It was not a break, but the culmination of a process of fidelity to the living history of the faith. As he wrote: "To be profound in history is to cease to be a Protestant".

Newman has also left a lasting imprint on the educational field. In The Idea of a University he argues that the mission statement of the university is not simply to train competent technicians, but people capable of thinking and living with meaning. Education, he argues, must unite the moral and the intellectual, science and faith, in a synthesis that shapes the whole human being. His proposal continues to be inspiring and challenges our institutions today to offer an integral training that truly prepares people to face life with freedom and responsibility.

It is ironic that one of his critics, Charles Kingsley, disparagingly called him "Dr. Newman". Today that degree scroll has been transformed into a solemn tribute: Doctor of the Church.

Newman is not only a grateful report of a giant of the 19th century, but a teacher who speaks to the 21st century. In his teachings on faith and reason, conscience, Church, tradition, Education, etc. we find a sure guide , a beacon, a light for the darkness of our times.