Pope to bestow one of Catholic Church’s highest honors on Anglican convert John Henry Newman

By NICOLE WINFIELD VATICAN CITY AP Pope Leo XIV decided Thursday to declare St John Henry Newman a medical expert of the church bestowing one of the Catholic Church s highest honors on the deeply influential th century Anglican convert who remains a unifying figure among conservatives and progressives Related Articles European Union assumes it faces tariffs in the US from Friday But a key text still isn t ready With growing urgency more US Jews urge Israel to ensure ample food deliveries to Gaza Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv kills at least people and injures more than Trump special envoy Witkoff and US Ambassador Huckabee will inspect food distribution in Gaza This day in History July Phelps sets Olympic medal record The Vatican declared Leo certified the opinion of the Vatican s saint-making office during an audience with its prefect Cardinal Marcello Semeraro and would make the decision official soon The designation which has been in the works for years is one of the most of major decisions of Leo s young papacy and also carries a personal meaning Newman was strongly influenced by St Augustine of Hippo the inspiration of the pope s Augustinian religious order and Leo s namesake Pope Leo XIII made Newman a Catholic cardinal in after his conversion A theologian and poet Newman is best known for his writings and sermons on the progress of doctrine truth and the nature of a university He is admired by Catholics and Anglicans alike because he followed his conscience at great personal cost When he 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 unveiled in the Catholic faith Newman was one of the great theologians of the th century stated the Episcopal Bishop of Long Island Rt Rev R William Franklin He was unique in having shaped both Anglicans and Roman Catholics No one in contemporary history can match that achievement The title of specialist is reserved for people whose writings have greatly served the universal Catholic Church Only three-dozen people have been given the title including the th century St Augustine St Francis de Sales and St Teresa of Avila Unifying figure Newman experts commented the decision to add the British theologian to their ranks was deeply key given Newman s contribution to Christian understanding of conscience and development and his near-universal appeal to progressives and conservatives alike Jack Valero who was spokesman for Newman s beatification and canonization ceremonies disclosed he had never come across anyone who had a dilemma with him If back then Newman was the perfect unifying figure for a polarized church he is even more so now for a new pope who has made unity a core priority of his pontificate Valero revealed You know I look at Pope Leo and I hear him say We need unity we need peace and so on and I think Here s the man who s going to make it happen he reported The first American pope vowed during his May installation Mass that he would work to heal divisions in the church so that it could become a force for peace Leo has also repeatedly affirmed his identity as an Augustinian A great number of scholars have long considered Newman to be the Augustine of the modern era no easy feat considering the tough Vatican criteria for declaring a church expert The Vatican considers among other things the candidate s holiness in life the eminence of his or her doctrinal and theological teaching and their enduring influence on the church That has has meant that there have been only doctors and only one other St Teresa of Avila who lived in the last years noted Mike Moreland professor of law and religion at Leo s alma mater Villanova University But Newman kind of meets these criteria that the doctors of the church are held to represent he reported in an interview Newman s conversion Anglicans split from Rome in when English King Henry VIII was refused a marriage annulment In the centuries that followed Catholics were fined discriminated against and killed for their faith Newman was one of the founders of the so-called Oxford Movement of the s which sought to revive certain Roman Catholic doctrines in the Church of England by looking back to the traditions of the earliest Christian church But he gave up a brilliant academic career at Oxford University and the pulpit of the university church to convert to Catholicism As a Catholic he became one of the bulk influential theologians of the era bringing elements of the Anglican church into his new faith tradition He died in Britain in Newman s path to being declared a physician in the Catholic Church has been exceptionally quick Pope Benedict XVI beatified him during a visit to Britain in and Pope Francis made him a saint in with then-Prince Charles in attendance Francis was then on the receiving end of a concerted push by English-speaking bishops in particular to make him a professional Associated Press religion coverage receives aid through the AP s collaboration with The Conversation US with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc The AP is solely responsible for this content