The Vatican announced Thursday that St. John Henry Newman will soon be declared a Doctor of the Church.
The Holy See press office said July 31 that Pope Leo XIV had confirmed the opinion of members of the Vatican’s Dicastery for the Causes of Saints that the title should be conferred on the 19th-century English theologian.
The last saint to be declared a Doctor of the Church was Irenaeus of Lyons in 2022. Pope Francis proclaimed the 2nd-century bishop “Doctor unitatis,” or “Doctor of Unity,” on Jan. 21, 2022, after first announcing that he would take the step in October 2021.
