San John Henry Newman It will be among the new doctors of the Church. The Pope received Cardinal Marcello Semeraro, prefect of the Dicastery of the causes of the saints on Thursday and confirmed “the affirmative opinion of the plenary session of the cardinals and bishops, members of the dicastery of the causes of the saints, about the title of Doctor of the Universal Church which will soon be conferred on San John Henry Newman, Cardinal of Santa Romana Chiesa, founder of the San Filippo oratory Blacks in England; Born in London on February 21, 1801 and died in Edgbaston, United Kingdom, on 11 August 1890 ».
John Henry Newman It was beatified by Benedict XVI in 2010 and canonized by Francesco on 13 October 2019. On that occasion theRoman Observer He published an editorial of the then Prince Charles, today King of England. Bergoglio also mentioned Newman in his latest encyclical Dilexit nos.
Theologian and philosopher born in London, already Anglican presbyter, Newman uncomfortable lived the phase of secularism in which the church of England was located in the 19th century: joined the Oxford movement, It became one of the animators. Converted to Catholicism, he was again ordained priest in the Catholic Church, placing the Apostolic Life Society of the Oratorians on British soil, of which he had decided to be a member. He was elevated to the cardinal in 1879 by Leo XIII.
Particularly opposed by a part of the Catholic hierarchy of his time, due to the decisive conviction that even the lay people should participate in the life of the Church, was instead considered one of the “absent fathers” of the Vatican Council for the influence that his theological and philosophical thought had on the Vatican assembly, tens of years after his death.
It is considered by some of the greatest English prosecutor and the most authoritative apologist of the Catholic confession that Great Britain has produced, It is one of the most important in the history of Christianity. On the philosophical level, he contributed to the development of the philosophy of the action. For its tolerance and mildness it has also been appreciated in non -Catholic environments. The epitaph he himself composed on his grave, which was to narrate, according to Newman’s intent, his confessional evolution: “Ex Umbris et Imaginibus In Veritatem»(From the shade and from symbols to truth).
Newman, loved by Benedict XVI also for reflections on the relationship between faith and reason, is very popular in Great Britain and in the USA. Newman is also the patron saint of those Anglican priests and faithful who have chosen to convert to Catholicism.
