New Doctor of the Church – John Henry Newman

From CatholicVote – nice quote from St. Augustine at the end of the excerpt.

Pope Leo XIV proclaimed Saint John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church Nov. 1, and named him co-Patron of the Church’s educational mission alongside Saint Thomas Aquinas.

St. Newman, who converted from Anglicanism to Catholicism in the 19th century, penned 40 books and 21,000 letters, according to Franciscan Media. Among his most well-known works is An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine, which argued that the Catholic Church “faithfully embodied the Church of the Fathers,” CatholicVote previously reported. 

Pope Leo said in his Nov. 1 homily that “Newman’s impressive spiritual and cultural stature will surely serve as an inspiration to new generations whose hearts thirst for the infinite, and who, through research and knowledge, are willing to undertake that journey which, as the ancients said, takes us per aspera ad astra, through difficulties to the stars.”

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He recalled that St. Newman wrote in Meditations and Devotions, “God has created me to do Him some definite service; He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another. I have my mission—I never may know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next.” 

Pope Leo said that “In these words, we find beautifully expressed the mystery of the dignity of every human person, and also the variety of gifts distributed by God.”

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He concluded by saying that he prays that Catholic education will help everyone come to know their call to holiness and recalled the words of Saint Augustine. 

“Saint Augustine, whom Saint John Henry Newman greatly admired, once said that we are fellow students who have one Teacher,” Pope Leo said, “whose school is on earth and whose chair is in heaven.”