What is a Doctor of the Church

From time to time, the Church recognises a great Christian theologian of the past whose teaching not only resonated for their own contemporaries, but whose wisdom and insight as an interpreter of the Gospel can still illuminate, instruct and inspire.

The Church gives them the title ‘Doctor’, from the Latin ‘docere’ meaning ‘to teach’, because she recognises that each of them has made an outstanding, or ‘eminent’ contribution to our knowledge of the faith, whether in its spiritual, intellectual or moral dimensions. They are all men and women of great holiness as well as great learning, Saints who continue to speak to the Church of today, despite the passage of time and the social and cultural boundaries that divide us from them, because of their own faithful discipleship, and responsiveness to the Holy Spirit.

Very few people in the history of the Church have been given this title, beginning with some of the early Church Fathers like St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, up until St. Thérèse of Lisieux. They are now joined by Saint John Henry Newman, who becomes only the thirty-eighth Doctor of the Church.

Saint John Henry Newman was canonised as a Saint by Pope Francis in 2019, but for more than a century his teaching has been valued for all these qualities that characterise a Doctor of the Church. Newman’s teaching has been acclaimed by many Popes, from Leo XIII to Leo XIV, including Pope St. Pius X, Pope Pius XI, Pope Ven. Pius XII, Pope St. John XXIII, Pope St. Paul VI, Pope St. John Paul II, Pope Benedict XVI and Pope Francis.    

            While many Doctors of the Church are notable for one particular aspect of their teaching, St. John Henry Newman is especially remarkable for the breadth of his teaching across many aspects of the faith, his influence upon various branches of doctrine and theology, and his engagement with problems of faith which remain burning issues in our own time.

Newman was a very prolific writer. He produced a daunting amount of material, whether in the form of book-length treatises, sermons, spiritual reflections, and a vast number of letters, as well as poetry, prayers, novels and essays. In the six pages that follow, the reader will find a short description of his influence upon five aspects of the faith which can help understand why Pope St. Paul VI wrote of Newman: 

He who was convinced of being faithful throughout his life, with all his heart devoted to the light of truth, today becomes an ever brighter beacon for all who are seeking an informed orientation and sure guidance amid the uncertainties of the modern world - a world which he himself prophetically foresaw.^[1]

^[1] “Address of Paul VI to the Participants in the Cardinal Newman Academic Symposium” (7 April 1975), in L’Osservatore Romano (English Edition), 17 April 1975, 368.