Suffer the Children to Come Unto Me. Fritz Von Uhde, c. 1884.
On Saturday, Nov. 1, Pope Leo XIV declared St. John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church. This declaration took place during the Jubilee of the World of Education … and the timing was very fitting.
In profound ways, St. John Henry Newman educated Catholics about education. In his book The Idea of a University, this English Catholic theologian advocated for a particular approach to education — one that offers a broad range of studies and is grounded in a deep and deeply coherent intellectual tradition. Such formation provides students with “the great outlines of knowledge” and “the principles on which it rests.” Within this vision, teachers help students understand how all branches of knowledge are connected, because the truths studied in all academic subjects are “the acts and the work of the [same] Creator.”
The result of this sort of education is a certain habit of mind. And one of its key attributes is freedom. The Latin word meaning “free” is līber, from which we derive the English word “liberal.” “Hence it is that [this] education is called ‘Liberal,’” Newman asserted.
Dr. Ryan Messmore, ICLE President
What Newman championed echoes in the very name of ICLE—the Institute of Catholic Liberal Education. I like to remind our wonderful faculty that we, as educators, are in the business of liberation! By helping teachers and students to see how all things were created in Christ, through Christ, and for Christ (Colossians 1:16), we free them from false views of reality…which lead to faulty habits of mind…which become expressed in failed pathways of living. By contrast, a liberating education can prepare students to flourish by cultivating within them love for the true, good, and beautiful.
Thus, it is suitable that the Church will declare this 19-century champion of liberal education a Doctor during the 2025 Jubilee of the World of Education. As part of the larger “Pilgrims of Hope” Jubilee year, Catholics making a pilgrimage to Rome this week will celebrate what is known in the biblical tradition as a year of liberation. Taking place from Oct. 27 – Nov. 1, the Jubilee of the World of Education will include students, teachers, and leaders who are involved in elementary, secondary, and higher education. They have a lot to celebrate!
Today (Oct. 28), the Church commemorates the 60th Anniversary of Gravissimum Educationis, the Second Vatican Council’s Declaration on Christian Education. On Thursday and Friday Pope Leo XIV will hold papal audiences for students and educators, respectively. And on Saturday, Newman will be declared a Church Doctor.
As noted in a resource issued by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops for these special Jubilee days, many saints came to know Jesus through their studies–“and not just their religious studies.”
They recognized that the beautiful, ordered cosmos points to Him in whom all things cohere. Their vocation became helping others, especially the young, to know Christ through the patterns and order of mathematics, the mysteries and properties of science, the eloquent truths of poetry and literature, and the soul-attracting beauty of art and music.
Few have contributed to the Church’s understanding of this vocation more eloquently and effectively than Newman. During this Jubilee, may his timely declaration as Doctor remind us of the high and noble calling of the Catholic educator—it is a vocation of liberation!