Pope declares Cardinal Newman a church doctor and signals Catholic education is a priority

VATICAN CITY AP Pope Leo XIV on Saturday bestowed one of the Catholic Church s highest honors on St John Henry Newman the deeply influential th- century British convert and theologian declaring him a professional of the church and holding him up as a model for Catholic educators Only other people have been given the title clinician in the -year history of the Catholic Church Newman now joins the ranks of such monumental Christian figures as St Augustine St Therese of Lisieux and St John of the Cross The title recognizes that Newman beloved in both the Anglican and Catholic churches has universal appeal and made a timeless eminent contribution to understanding the Christian faith A theologian and poet raised in the Church of England Newman is best known for his writings and sermons on the advancement of doctrine truth and the nature of a university He is admired by conservatives and progressives alike because he followed his conscience at great personal cost when he decided to convert to Catholicism in Leo pronounced Newman a church medical expert on Saturday during a special Holy Year Mass for Catholic teachers and students during which he also declared Newman a co-patron of Catholic mentoring alongside St Thomas Aquinas It was particularly fitting It was Leo s namesake Pope Leo XIII who made Newman a Catholic cardinal after his conversion and it was the earlier Leo who declared Aquinas a medical professional of the church and patron of Catholic instruction A model for educators Leo s decision to hold out Newman as a model for Catholic educators suggests that Catholic teaching will be a priority for him going forward especially as he emphasizes the ethical use of artificial intelligence for future generations Earlier this week Leo penned a new document that cited Newman in his call for Catholic schools to be places for spiritual improvement and society and where the use of instrument dependably keeps human dignity front and center In his homily Leo quoted from Newman s bulk famous text the beloved British hymn Lead Kindly Light to urge that Catholic educators shine like stars in the world in the collective search for truth The task of development is precisely to offer this Kindly Light to those who might otherwise remain imprisoned by the particularly insidious shadows of pessimism and fear he reported We are called to form people so that they may shine like stars in their full dignity The Catholic Church is one of the world s leading players in instruction operating more than primary and secondary schools and enrolling specific million students at Catholic universities around the globe according to Vatican statistics Leo was educated by the Augustinians taught math and physics and is a member of the Augustinian religious order which places a special emphasis on St Augustine s search for truth and the command Tolle lege which translates from Latin as Take up and read A model for the information age The Rev George Bowen the postulator who oversaw Newman s canonization and designation as a healthcare provider mentioned Newman too was confronted with the th-century equivalent of the information age when cheap periodicals were readily available and reading rates shot up Newman insisted on the need for a wholistic liberal guidance that included Catholic theology but also focused on students and teachers interacting in a relational way in the quest for truth and knowledge he revealed Suddenly the world was swimming with information Bowen narrated reporters So Newman s options of coping with this huge ocean of knowledge and making sense of it having a connected view is something very very relevant in contemporary times When Newman defected from the Church of England to the Catholic Church in he lost friends work and even family ties believing the truth he was searching for could only be identified in the Catholic faith Cherished by both Anglicans and Catholics And yet even in the modern day Newman remains beloved in the Church of England His hymns were sung last week in the Sistine Chapel when King Charles III prayed alongside Leo in the historic ecumenical utility Several vital Anglican leaders wrote to the Vatican supporting his designation as a church healthcare provider and the Anglican archbishop of York was invited to participate in Saturday s amenity It featured the hymn Lead Kindly Light which remains a fixture of Anglican services Newman is a big ecumenical figure in the sense that he owes his faith to his upbringing in the Church of England Bowen disclosed Paul Shrimpton a leading Newman scholar at Magdalen College Oxford commented it was considerable that each of the last popes had promoted Newman in his remarkably quick path to being declared a medical professional of the church underlining his universal appeal to progressive and liberals alike St John Paul II declared him venerable in in the first step to workable sainthood Pope Benedict XVI beatified him during a visit to Birmingham England Pope Francis canonized him in with Charles in the audience and now Leo declared him a church medical practitioner I think that speaks volumes declared Shrimpton who contributed an essay on Newman s influence on Catholic mentoring for the official Vatican dossier or positio that made the event for him to be declared a practitioner All very different popes show that he is part of the universal teaching of church Associated Press religion coverage receives promotion through the AP s collaboration with The Conversation US with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc The AP is solely responsible for this content Source