On July 31st of this year, staff and members of The Coming Home Network awoke to the exciting news that many of us had anticipated for some time: Pope Leo XIV formally approved the title Doctor of the Universal Church for St. John Henry Newman, with the official conferral date to be announced later. Thanks be to God!
Newman has been a towering figure in the more than three decade history of CHNetwork. The core of our mission has always been to assist Protestant clergy who are seeking a home in the Catholic Church; that was the situation of Newman himself, who spent the first half of his life as an Anglican, and after much prayer, study and discernment, felt the movement of the Holy Spirit on his heart to become a Catholic. Like so many of the clergy converts we work with, he faced bitter opposition and deep misunderstanding from people he once called friends; like them, he had to figure out how to understand his gift and call in his new life as a Catholic. And in the process, he left us an extraordinary collection of letters, essays, homilies and poetry to help us better understand his journey.
Our work has taken many cues from the life and legacy of Newman; our Deep in History conferences and podcast are named for his famous statement that “to be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.” In our archive of more than 1700 conversion stories, some two hundred of them directly cite his influence. And just this year, at our first ever Clergy Convert Conference, Dr. Scott Hahn and the St. Paul Center presented our founder Marcus Grodi with the inaugural St. John Henry Newman Award.
So what, exactly, is a Doctor of the Church?
This is a distinction that is reserved for canonized saints who are specially recognized for their intellectual prowess and extraordinary holiness, and who have made concrete and enduring contributions to the life and thought of the Church. With the addition of Newman, there are now 37 such Doctors, and they include many other great minds who come up often in the stories of the men and women we work with at CHNetwork. Some of the most prominent names among them include St. Augustine of Hippo, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Teresa of Avila, St. Francis de Sales, and St. Irenaeus of Lyons, who, prior to Newman, was the most recent saint to be given the distinction of Doctor, having been named so by Pope Francis in 2022.
Among the interesting next steps is which title Pope Leo might give to Newman as Doctor. Not all Doctors of the Church have titles that go along with their names, but several do: St. Thomas Aquinas is known as the Angelic Doctor (Doctor angelicus), and St. John of the Cross is the Mystical Doctor (Doctor mysticus); meanwhile, St. Therese of Lisieux was referred to by Pope John Paul II as the Doctor of Love (Doctor amoris) and by Pope Francis as the Doctor of Synthesis (Doctor synthesis). Some possibilities for Newman, based on his body of work, could include Doctor of Conscience, Doctor of Development, or Doctor of Apologetics. It will be fascinating to see what title, if any, is chosen for him by Pope Leo.
As our founder, Marcus Grodi, once stated, “It would require reams of paper to enumerate all the ways that the writings and example of John Henry Cardinal Newman sparked, guided, and completed my personal journey into the Catholic Church, as well as the work of The Coming Home Network.” Ken Hensley, our Director of Pastoral Care and a former Baptist pastor himself, has echoed that sentiment many times, remarking that “statements by John Henry Newman… rattled my Protestant bones and forced me for the first time to look seriously at the early Church.” It is impossible to overstate the impact that St. John Henry Newman has had on our work as an apostolate, as well as on so many of our members, especially current and former Protestant clergy.
Newman was beatified only a decade and a half ago, on his native English soil in 2010 by Pope Benedict XVI. Nine years later, in 2019, he was canonized in St. Peter’s Square by Pope Francis. The Coming Home Network joins the universal Church in celebrating his recognition as Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIV here in 2025.
St. John Henry Newman, pray for us!
