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Pope Leo XIV points to St. John Henry Newman as a model for education today

September 4, 2026 · 1 min read

Pope Leo XIV received a delegation from the University of Oxford’s Oriel College at the Vatican on Sept. 4, highlighting St. John Henry Newman’s vision of education as a response to contemporary challenges.

Founded in 1326 at the initiative of King Edward II, Oriel is considered Oxford’s oldest royal foundation.

Marking the 700th anniversary of its royal charter, the pope noted that the college “has remained firm in its Christian identity” throughout the centuries.

He said the anniversary offered “an opportunity to celebrate its Catholic origins as the ‘College of the Blessed Virgin Mary.’”

That identity, he said, has been key to Oriel’s development “not just [as] an academic institution, but a true community of faith and scholarship in its deepest meaning.”

Oriel’s connection to St. John Henry Newman The college is also known for its role in the 19th-century Oxford Movement and its association with St. John Henry Newman, who was a fellow there before his conversion to Catholicism.

Leo praised Newman as “a shining example of a scholar who not only showed the inseparability of faith and reason in his works but even more admirably in his life.”

“There was a great…

Source: Catholic News Agency · Read the full story →

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Світлана Коваленко

It is interesting that the Pope specifically set Newman as an example. I read his "The idea of a university" in my youth, and it is really all about education not turning into just a set of knowledge, but forming a whole person. It is good that Oriel College is still holding on to its faith, despite all the centuries.

Elisabeth Wagner

Yes, Newman in “The Idea of the University” impressed me too – education should shape the whole person, not just accumulate facts. Nice to read that Oriel College still holds on to its Christian identity after 700 years. Does the Pope also mean our own schools, where often only grades count?

Bojana Savić

Newman's "The Idea of the University" has always been interesting to me, especially the part where he says that knowledge without faith ultimately leaves a man empty. I am glad that the Pope mentions him as an example, because today schools are turning into diploma factories. Oriel still lasted seven hundred years with the Virgin Mary in his name, that's no small thing.

Юрій Коваленко

It is interesting that you specifically mentioned "The idea of a university" - I also looked at it once, because my son was interested in it at school. Newman really emphasizes there that without faith the mind is simply "naked", as he wrote. And in what year did you read it, still at the institute?

Jelena Popović

I agree, Bojana, that part of Newman's about emptiness without faith was always the strongest for me. In our hospital, I see how people with diplomas, but without roots, quickly lose their meaning when hard days come. I'm interested, have you read his sermon on Christian education?