On July 31, 2025, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience His Most Reverend Eminence Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.

During the same audience, the Holy Father confirmed the affirmative opinion of the Plenary Session of Cardinals and Bishops, members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, on the title of Doctor of the Universal Church that will soon be conferred on Saint John Henry Newman, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, founder of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England; born in London (United Kingdom) on February 21, 1801 and died in Edgbaston (United Kingdom) on August 11, 1890.

The Holy Father will soon confer the title of Doctor of the Universal Church on Saint John Henry Newman, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church and founder of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England. This follows the affirmative opinion of the Plenary Assembly of Cardinals and Bishops, Members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, on July 31.

The information was released by the Holy See Press Office bulletin, stating that “on July 31, 2025, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience His Most Reverend Eminence Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints.”

“During the same audience,” the Press Office reports, “the Holy Father confirmed the affirmative opinion of the Plenary Assembly of Cardinals and Bishops, Members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, regarding the title of Doctor of the Universal Church that will soon be conferred on Saint John Henry Newman, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church, founder of the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England; born in London (United Kingdom) on February 21, 1801 and died in Edgbaston (United Kingdom) on August 11, 1890.”

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John Henry Newman was born in London on February 21, 1801, to an Anglican family: his mother was a Huguenot and his father had a very tolerant religious orientation. He was the first of six children of John, a banker, and Jemina Fourdrinier. In 1808, he entered Great Ealing School, in the then extreme suburbs of London, where he received a superior education and stood out for his intelligence. In 1816, the year he completed his studies at Ealing and simultaneously witnessed the bankruptcy of his father’s bank, his adherence to the most radical principles of Calvinism matured: he came to believe that the Pope was the Antichrist. In 1817, he entered Trinity College, Oxford, where he obtained a Baccalaureate of Arts. In 1822, he was elected to Oriel College, where he began his friendship with Edward Bouverie Pusey. On June 13, 1824, he was ordained a deacon in the Anglican Church, becoming curate of St. Clement’s Parish in Oxford. On May 29, 1825, he was ordained an Anglican priest.

From 1826 to 1832, John Henry Newman was a tutor at Oriel College, where he participated in the cultural formation of many university students. There he came into close contact with Edward Bouverie Pusey, John Keble, and Richard Hurrel Froude. On March 14, 1828, he was appointed curate of the University Church of St. Mary, where he developed a rich pastoral and preaching career that earned him great acclaim. In 1832, he accompanied Father Froude on his tour of southern Europe, visiting Rome, Malta, Corfu, and Sicily.

At the English College in Rome, he met Don Nicholas Wiseman, the future Catholic Archbishop of Westminster. He wrote the poem Lyra Apostolica (published later in 1834) and the poem Lead, Kindly, Light, in which he expressed his complete abandonment to Providence, which would point him to and enable him to fulfill his specific mission. On July 14, 1833, in Oxford, he heard Keble’s sermon, *National Apostasy*: the Oxford Movement was born, with Newman as its leading figure. Between 1833 and 1841, Newman, Froude, Keble, Pusey, and William Palmer published Tracts for the Times; of the 90 essays published, Newman was the author of 26, including the last, *Tract 90* (Remarks on certain passages in Thirty-Nine Articles), in which he attempted to interpret the 39 Articles of the Anglican Church from a Catholic perspective. The protests led the Bishop of Oxford to suspend publication of the treatises. Condemned by the Oxford University Council and repudiated by 42 bishops, he resigned his university parish. On April 9, 1842, he retired with some friends to Littlemore to write with them the famous Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine; it was here that his “conversion” to Catholicism matured.

In 1846, he traveled to Rome with some Anglican companions who had converted to Catholicism, with no definite plans. In the 1848 Memorandum, he writes that he considered joining the Redemptorists, but later opted to join the Oratory of St. Philip Neri; he frequented the Chiesa Nuova in Rome and the priests of that community. Ordained a priest on May 30, 1847, he received the warm encouragement of Blessed Pius IX (Magna Nobis semper, November 26, 1847).

Determined to become an Oratorian, Newman asked the Pope for permission to found an oratory in Birmingham, in order to adapt the constitutions of the Roman Oratory to the needs of the place. The new Oratory began in 1847, when he and six companions began their novitiate in a wing of Holy Cross Abbey, which had been made available to them. After some moves, the first actual location was Edgbaston, on the outskirts of Birmingham. Meanwhile, in 1848, a group of Oratorians, led by Father Frederick William Faber, moved to London, where the second English Filipino congregation was born. In 1854, Father Newman was appointed Rector of the Catholic University of Dublin, remaining in office for four years. In 1864, he published Apologia pro vita sua, and in 1878, Trinity College, Oxford, elected him its first honorary fellow.

Pope Leo XIII, at the suggestion of Monsignor William Bernard Ullathorne, Bishop of Birmingham, created Newman Cardinal of San Giorgio al Velabro on 12 May 1879; the chosen motto reads: cor ad cor loquitur (Saint Francis de Sales). From 1889 onwards, the almost 90-year-old cardinal’s physical decline began to increase; on Christmas Day, he celebrated his last public Mass, and on 11 August 1890, he died in his room at Edgbaston. On his tomb, he wanted the inscription: Ex umbris et imaginibus in veritatem.