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Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 1, 2025 / 09:15 am (CNA).

English saint and convert from Anglicanism to Catholicism John Henry Newman was approved for the title “doctor of the Church” on July 31 — one of the highest honors a Catholic can receive from the Holy See.

Theologians, historians, priests, and other Catholic scholars expressed excitement about the announcement, citing Newman’s contributions to theology, philosophy, and education in the 19th century when the Church was combating the rise of modernism and Enlightenment-era rationalism.

Michael Sirilla, a professor of theology at Franciscan University, explained that “the broad sense of doctor in Latin — it just means ‘teacher,’” noting that the Holy See bestows the title on the “great and notable teachers in the Church.”

Newman, he noted, “did not write pure theology” in the sense of authoring theological treatises but provided significant contributions “refuting theological errors” of his time. The English saint, he said, “is a suitable doctor for the modern period of the Church.”

“Without question, Newman is either the best or the second-best writer of theology in the English language — second only perhaps to St. Thomas More,” Sirilla told CNA.

“He’s a champion,” Sirilla added. “He’s one of the heroes against early forms of modernism.”

Patrick Reilly, the founder of The Cardinal Newman Society, expressed joy in the announcement. His organization promotes strong and faithful Catholic education, a major priority of Newman’s during his life, highlighted in the saint’s book “The Idea of a University.”

“He is truly a most important saint for modern times: his fight against relativism and weak faith, his response to persecution of Catholics, and especially his vision for faithful Catholic education championed by The Cardinal Newman Society,” Reilly said in a post on LinkedIn.

Susan Hanssen, a history professor at the University of Dallas (a Catholic institution), noted that Newman’s writings and his conversion had a major impact on the English-speaking world in the 1800s. His conversion marked “a major cultural event in the Protestant English-speaking world,” she told CNA.

“It launched waves of English Protestant conversions to the Roman Catholic Church that have come to [be] called the second and third spring of English Catholicism,” she said. “This steady stream of Protestants coming ‘home’ to Rome continues to this day.”

Father Dwight Longenecker, a former Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism, echoed that sentiment.

“His progress through Anglicanism to the Catholic faith was an adventure that blazed the trail for many to follow,” he told CNA. “As such, his status as a doctor of the Church will advance his influence for non-Catholic Christians who are seeking the fullness of the faith in the Catholic Church.”

Scott Hahn, a former Presbyterian minister who converted to Catholicism and works as a theologian, told CNA that Newman “has always been an inspiration to me” as well.

“He was a convert who told his story — a transparent account of the process of his struggles and discoveries,” Hahn said. “Newman was tireless in the apostolate at a time when most media were limited in range. He carried on correspondence with hundreds of people struggling along the way to Rome. He wrote with sympathy and understanding, but also with clarity and firmness.”

“When you do this work faithfully, as he did, you will be misunderstood,” he added. “People will question your motives. You will suffer. Newman chose to continue doing it anyway. He stands as a model and intercessor for anyone working in the apostolate, and presumably that means all of us! And he is still evangelizing. His books still change lives, as they did in the 19th century, when he inspired thousands of conversions.”

Jennifer Bryson — a fellow at the Ethics & Public Policy Center who recently translated German Catholic author Ida Friederike Görres’ book “John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed” — noted that Newman’s reach also extended substantially beyond the English-speaking world and in the aftermath of World War II was a particular source of inspiration for German Catholics.

Germans like Görres, who Bryson said were “coming out of a horror and breakdown of society,” saw Newman as “somebody who had understood the challenges of the modern world and remained Catholic and saw a Catholic way forward in the modern world.”

Noting Newman’s writings that challenged anti-Catholic philosophies of his day, Bryson said Newman was an example of what it meant “to be Catholic and remain Catholic in a world that was driving off ideological cliffs.”

Newman, who was born in London in 1801, spent his early adult life as an evangelical Anglican priest before shifting to a more traditional high-church Anglicanism. As an Anglican, he helped combat Enlightenment-era philosophies and liberalizing trends within Protestantism. He was a well-respected figure among Anglicans during that time.

As Newman delved deeper into the history of Christianity, he finally converted to Catholicism in 1845. In the year he converted, he wrote, “to be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.”

Newman was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847 and Pope Leo XIII made him a cardinal in 1879. He continued his theological writings throughout his life. During his time as an Anglican and a Catholic, Newman wrote about 40 books and more than 20,000 letters.

Sirilla said one of Newman’s most important contributions in his arguments with Protestants was his explanation of the development of doctrine in Catholicism. Sirilla said doctrinal development understood properly “preserves [tradition] and builds upon it” rather than adheres to the warped view that “the Church can teach something contrary to what it has taught in the past.”

“[It’s a] development of doctrine based on what has been revealed by God,” Sirilla said.

In the same year he converted, Newman published a nearly 450-page book titled “An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine.” In it, he defended Catholic doctrines against Protestant attacks, including purgatory and original sin.

“Modern Catholicism is nothing else but simply the legitimate growth and complement, that is, the natural and necessary development, of the doctrine of the early Church, and … its divine authority is included in the divinity of Christianity,” Newman wrote.

Tom Nash, a staff apologist at Catholic Answers, told CNA that Newman’s “great contributions to our understanding of development of doctrine” is one of the first things that comes to his mind when thinking about the saint.

“Newman shows that authentic doctrinal development necessarily must be organic,” Nash said. “That is, if a change occurs, the basic structure of an organism or system remains.”

Another major contribution from Newman was his refutation of Enlightenment-era rationalism, which Sirilla described as a “view that man’s reason is a higher authority than God’s revelation.”

“Man’s reason must be … informed by God’s revelation,” Sirilla said.

Newman wrote numerous works against Enlightenment-era concepts, particularly the writings of Scottish philosopher David Hume, who died 25 years before Newman was born. In one letter, Newman wrote critically of Hume’s assertion that the belief in miracles is irrational.

“[Miracles] are presented to us, not as unconnected and unmeaning occurrences, but as holding a place in an extensive plan of divine government, completing the moral system, connecting man and his maker, and introducing him to the means of securing his happiness in another and eternal state of being,” he wrote. “That such is the professed object of the body of Christian miracles can hardly be denied.”

Pope Francis canonized Newman in 2019. Pope Leo XIV’s July 31 announcement will make Newman the 38th doctor of the Church.

This story was updated Aug. 1, 2025, at 11:44 a.m. ET with the comments from Scott Hahn.

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Aug 1, 2025 / 08:00 am (CNA).

Twenty-five years ago at the University of Rome Tor Vergata, youth gathered from around the globe for an all-night vigil during the 15th World Youth Day. Pilgrims stayed overnight on the open field with sleeping bags, with St. John Paul II presiding over the vigil.

Located on the outskirts of Rome, the university served as the historic site for the overnight vigil, chosen for its capacity to hold the massive influx of youth who descended upon Rome in August 2000.

Now, a quarter-century later, young Catholics from around the globe will descend upon Tor Vergata once again for an all-night vigil during the Jubilee of Youth, echoing the powerful spiritual encounter that took place on the same grounds during World Youth Day in 2000.

On the evening of Aug. 2, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., Pope Leo XIV will lead a vigil of prayer and reflection, inviting youth to open their hearts under the Roman sky.

‘What a blessing it was’

“John Paul II encourag[ed] all youth to not be afraid as we were called to be an active part of the Church,” Deacon Luke Oestman told CNA.

The 2000 vigil marked the turn of the millennium and the climax of the Great Jubilee declared by Pope John Paul II.

For many who attended the vigil, it became a defining moment in their faith journey. 

“It was at that all-night vigil that I first heard the oft-quoted ‘It is Jesus that you seek,’” Father Chas Canoy, who attended as a 27-year-old, told CNA. 

“That was an epiphany moment … especially in the context of the Great Jubilee and the new millennium, which highlighted that all of history was ‘His story’ with the humanity he loved and desired to redeem,” he said.

Lisa Wheeler, founder of Carmel Communications, recalled the 2000 World Youth Day in Rome as a spiritual turning point.

“Being at the World Youth Day Mass in Rome in 2000 during the Great Jubilee was a defining moment in my return to the Catholic faith,” Wheeler said. “It was my second World Youth Day since my reversion in 1996, and once again, Pope John Paul II spoke with a clarity and love that pierced my heart.”

CNA recently asked social media users for their memories of the event ahead of the vigil with Leo.

“I joined the World Youth Day in 2000 in Rome. It was also a jubilee year and [I was] so blessed to be able to hear and see Pope John Paul II and then to enter the jubilee door in St. Peter’s Basilica,” MylaDalle Buena-Marcial said.

The 2000 event was the first of four youth days Buena-Marcial attended, she said.

One attendee of the 2000 celebration, Trina Trusty, wrote on Instagram that she was overheated from the hike to the vigil site, but it was worthwhile.

“I cried when I first laid eyes on JPII. What a blessing it was to be a part of the prayer vigil and Mass with him and 2 million other people!” she wrote.

Elizabeth Canlas wrote that she attended World Youth Day in 2000 and is now watching her two daughters experience the same event this year.

Tricia Tembreull, meanwhile, said she attended the 2000 WYD and will again. 

“[I] can’t wait to do it again with [Pope Leo XIV] next Saturday and Sunday for the jubilee of young people,” she said.

Archbishop Edward J. Weisenburger met with members of the local Jesuit community and toured the new Pope Francis Center Bridge Housing Facility on Detroit's west side July 31, before celebrating Mass with Jesuits in the Detroit area for the feast of St. Ignatius of Loyola. The facility, which opened in June 2024, is a one-of-a-kind transitional facility to help those living on the streets transition into permanent housing.

Vatican City, Aug 1, 2025 / 07:30 am (CNA).

Just steps away from the exuberant crowds of Gen Z pilgrims chanting and taking selfies in St. Peter’s Square, religious sisters in white saris with blue stripes kneel barefoot in silent adoration before the Blessed Sacrament.

More than 50 sisters of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity are in Rome this week for the Catholic Church’s Jubilee of Youth offering a striking contrast to the vibrant festival atmosphere filling the Vatican’s streets. Their mission: “To give them Jesus,” said one 25-year-old sister from Spain, who declined to be quoted by name in accordance with the congregation’s rules.

The sisters, known for their vow of extreme poverty and life of service to “the poorest of the poor,” are praying for the souls and intentions of the thousands of young people gathered in the Eternal City. But they’re not stopping there.

In their no-frills style, the sisters are also taking to the streets, approaching young people one by one along the Via della Conciliazione — the broad avenue leading to St. Peter’s Basilica — inviting them to spend time with Christ in all-day Eucharistic adoration and to learn about the mission and message of their founder, St. Teresa of Calcutta.

They press Miraculous Medals into open palms and quietly teach short prayers beloved by Mother Teresa, including: “Mary, Mother of Jesus, please be a mother to me now.”

Jubilee pilgrims in Rome can visit the sisters near the Vatican at the Pius IX Pontifical School at Via dei Cavalieri del Santo Sepolcro, 1, where the Missionaries of Charity have set up a welcome center with a small exhibit featuring Mother Teresa’s sari, sandals, and other personal belongings.

Mother Teresa’s blood, preserved on a piece of cotton, is exposed for veneration as a first-class relic, and visitors are encouraged to leave handwritten prayer intentions in a shoebox. The sisters gather these daily and place them near the altar during Mass.

The exhibit also includes a video presentation of Mother Teresa’s life, with images and excerpts from her speeches, playing in an adjacent room. For some young visitors, this is their first encounter with the saint. One sister recalled a moment when a young pilgrim asked her: “Mother Teresa? Who is that?” — a question that underscored the importance of their presence at the youth jubilee.

The sisters — who usually avoid being photographed or quoted — have made an exception for this special outreach to young people. Still, the young Spanish sister, born after Mother Teresa’s death, said she prays that any photo taken of her would lead people not to her but to Christ.

She pointed to a favorite line from a prayer based on the words of St. John Henry Newman — whom Pope Leo XIV will soon declare a doctor of the Church — that the Missionaries of Charity recite daily after Communion: “Let them look up and see no longer me, but only Jesus!”

Together with the sisters at the jubilee is Father Sebastian Vazhakala, the co-founder of the contemplative branch of the order with Mother Teresa, who gave talks for some of the young pilgrims.

Vazhakala told CNA that he thinks the encounters taking place between the sisters and the young pilgrims could help more young people to discover their vocations, not only with the Missionaries of Charity but also with other congregations.

“Definitely God is the one that does the calling,” he said. “But we have to create an atmosphere for it … inspiring and instilling in the hearts of people the desire for God and the desire for commitment.”

“Not everybody can have the same vocation, but at least they can come to know God better, come to love God better, and so come to know the meaning of their life.”

Living memories of Mother Teresa 

Vazhakala also shared some of his favorite memories from working alongside Mother Teresa for more than 30 years.

He recalled one instance during their work together on the streets of Calcutta in the 1960s when a man, sick and homeless, was brought in for help — not for the first time. 

Vazhakala, then a young priest, told Mother Teresa: “There is no sense of taking this man. … This man has been here at least 10 times. Now when he gets well, he will go out to the street, and then they will bring him back again.” 

He remembers that Mother Teresa replied: “Are you living tomorrow and yesterday? Because it doesn’t matter whether he came yesterday or will come back tomorrow. But this man is in need of your help now. If he needs your help now, don’t ask questions. Do it.”

Vazhakala said Mother Teresa taught him to live in the present moment, which she saw as a gift from God. He remembered a time when after receiving the Nobel Prize she was asked by a journalist what she considered to be the most significant day of her life.

“Today,” was Mother Teresa’s reply.

“‘I can do something today. I can love people. I can help others. I can pray.’”

At this year’s Jubilee of Youth, the Missionaries of Charity quietly echo that message — in their prayers, their presence, and their patient invitation to pause and encounter the living Christ today.

Vatican City, Aug 1, 2025 / 07:00 am (CNA).

With more than a million followers across Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and other platforms, Father Cosimo Schena has become one of the most recognizable faces of the so-called “digital missionary” phenomenon in Italy.

“The illness of this century is loneliness, and we listen to each other very little. I try to convey a simple message, because the Lord is simple,” Schena explained.

It was four years ago that the priest, philosopher, psychologist, and psychotherapy specialist decided to create a social media profile to proclaim the Gospel in a friendly, positive, and accessible way.

“I earned a doctorate in philosophy, then studied psychology and specialized in psychotherapy. And that’s precisely where the need to convey a beautiful message, a positive message, on social media arose. Because when I go online, when I turn on the television, everything is negative, everything is bad… The bad news is news, and the good news is relegated. So I said to myself, ‘Why not give it a try?’”, he explained in conversation with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, just before participating in an event this week with other Catholic influencers at the Via della Conciliazione auditorium, a few steps from the Vatican.

Little by little, he began posting inspirational quotes and then motivational and spiritual videos. The response he found online was surprising: “I’ve gained more than a million followers across different platforms, and the ages vary, from the youngest to the oldest.”

Not everyone who follows him is Catholic. “There are many people who don’t believe in God and follow me, and they say, ‘Look, even though I don’t believe, I like you as a priest because of what you say.’ What makes me smile in a positive way is that, after all, Jesus is for everyone,” he explained.

He felt the call to the priesthood in the parish, inspired by the credible witness of his pastor, “which made me wonder if I too could make that decision,” Schena related.

After years of discernment, he left his studies in computer engineering to enter the seminary. He was ordained a priest at 30, and at 40, he discovered that there is a mission to fulfill not only in the sacristy but also in the digital world.

The key, he insisted, is to not complicate the message: “I truly hope that this — experiencing the digital world — will be cleaner, more beautiful, conveying a simple message, without complicating it, because the Lord is simple.”

The face of a new pastoral ministry

He is now a priest at St. Francis Parish in the Diocese of Brindisi in southern Italy and has noticed that his online work has had a direct impact: “The number of people coming to my church has doubled. Not only thanks to the local faithful, but above all because of those who come specifically from other cities in Italy to hear the homily or confess.”

This phenomenon of digital missionaries has gained such strength that the Vatican celebrated July 28–29 the Jubilee of Digital Missionaries and Catholic Influencers, an official recognition — the first — of this new form of evangelization. “Until a few years ago, the higher-ups looked at us with suspicion,” Schena acknowledged.

‘Loneliness is the great disease of this century’

Beyond likes and algorithms, Schena perceives a profound need in those who follow him: “Now I receive, some days, even a thousand messages a day, between private messages and emails. Many people write me super-long emails, and at the end they say: ‘You don’t need to reply. The important thing is that someone has listened to me.’ That makes me feel good, because the illness of this century is truly loneliness. And we listen to each other very little.”

For Schena, behind all this lies a spiritual emptiness: “Unfortunately, this society has imposed individualism on us, and we have welcomed it with open arms. In this sense, the message of Jesus, of Christ, reaches these people and makes them feel better, even if they are not believers.”

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.

CNA Staff, Aug 1, 2025 / 06:00 am (CNA).

The Vatican announced Thursday that St. John Henry Newman will be declared a doctor of the Church. The 19th-century English saint — a former Anglican priest who converted to Catholicism — will join 37 other saints who have been given the same honor.

Born in London and baptized into the Church of England in 1801, Newman was a popular and respected Anglican priest, theologian, and writer among his peers prior to his conversion to Catholicism in 1845. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847 and later made a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII in 1879.

As a Catholic, Newman deepened and contributed to the Church’s teaching, thanks to his broad knowledge of theology and his keen insight into modern times, grounded in the Gospel. His body of work includes 40 books and more than 20,000 letters.

He died in Edgbaston, England, in 1890. He was beatified by Pope Benedict XVI on Sept. 19, 2010, and canonized by Pope Francis on Oct. 13, 2019.

What is a ‘doctor of the Church’?

The title “doctor of the Church” recognizes those canonized men and women who possessed profound knowledge, were superb teachers, and contributed significantly to the Church’s theology.

Traditionally, the title has been granted on the basis of three requirements: the manifest holiness of a candidate affirmed by his or her canonization as a saint; the person’s eminence in doctrine demonstrated by the leaving behind of a body of teachings that made significant and lasting contributions to the life of the Church; and a formal declaration by the Church, usually by a pope.

While their teachings are not considered infallible, being declared a “doctor” means that they contributed to the formulation of Christian teaching in at least one significant area and this teaching has impacted later generations. 

Not quite half of the saints revered as doctors in the Catholic Church are also honored in the Orthodox church since they lived before the Great Schism in 1054.

The most recent doctor of the Church to be named was St. Irenaeus of Lyon, with the title “doctor unitatis” (“doctor of unity”), in 2022. Pope Francis had previously in 2015 named as a doctor of the Church St. Gregory of Narek, a 10th-century priest, monk, mystic, and poet beloved among Armenian Christians.

Other notable saints who are doctors of the Church include St. Teresa of Ávila, St. Augustine, St. Ambrose, St. Catherine of Siena, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Thérèse of Lisieux, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Francis de Sales, among others.

The Vatican has not yet confirmed the date of Newman’s formal proclamation as a doctor of the Church.

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