Roger Nutt, S.T.L., S.T.D.

Provost; Professor of Theology

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Among the dizzying diet of Jubilee year events in Rome, October 27-November 1, 2025, marks a special week for Catholic education and educators. The Jubilee of World Education was organized in conjunction with the commemoration on October 28 of the 60^th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s promulgation of the Declaration of Christian Education: “Gravissimum Educationis.”  The highpoint of these activities came today with Pope Leo’s promulgation of a new Apostolic Letter on Catholic education, titled “Disegnare Nuove Mappe di Speranza” (‘Drawing New Maps of Hope’). The document includes the declaration of St. John Henry Newman (with St. Thomas Aquinas) as the “co-patron saint of the mission of Catholic education.” The week will culminate on November 1 with Pope Leo declaring Newman a Doctor of the Church.  

These are reasons for celebration at Ave Maria University, and for the entire Church!  

For many Catholic educators, Newman has already served as a de facto patron due to his unsurpassed vision for higher education “defined and illustrated” in the nine discourses published under the book title The Idea of a University. These lectures were delivered by Newman from 1852-1858 when he was tasked with serving as the founding rector and of new the Catholic University in Ireland.

Recounting the Church’s engagement in education as part of her mission from the time of the apostles to today, a golden thread of continuity runs throughout Leo’s Apostolic Letter. Celebrating the 60^th anniversary of the promulgation of Gravissimum, Pope Leo acknowledges that, for the Church, education is not an “accessory activity” (#1) but rather “forms the very fabric of evangelization” as “the concrete way in which the Gospel becomes an educational act, a relation, and a culture” (#1). Today parents, students, and educators live in a difficult “setting,” Leo explains, that is “complex,” “fragmented,” and “digitized” (#1.2) It is precisely in the face of this setting that Leo positions his Apostolic Letter as a “wise” time for a “pause” so as to “refocus” our gaze on the “cosmology of Christian paideia” (1.2). Leo guides this refocus through the teaching of Gravissimum and many of his predecessors.  

For example, in his 1990 “Magna Charta” Apostolic Constitution on Catholic Universities, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, issued years before Newman’s beatification and canonization, St. John Paul II draws upon key ideas from The Idea of a University to underscore the core mission that the Church entrusts to institutions of higher learning. A mission which Newman now uniquely supports as its official co-patron. Central to this mission is the irrevocable “consecration” that Catholic universities have to the “cause of truth” (ECE #4), especially by the maintenance of the harmony between faith and reason. Newman labors to underscore the essential role in the integration of knowledge played by theology. Rooted in the highest form of scientific knowledge—Divine Revelation—theology unites the knowledge pursued by the specialized disciplines within the university under a unified and coherent view of reality worthy of the name “UNIVERSity.” In other words, there is meaning and unity to be discovered across disciplines and specializations: Catholic institutions of learning are dedicated to proclaiming this meaning and furthering the integration the growing avenues of knowledge under the light of divinely revealed truth. The very Catholic identity of these institutions strengthens their ability to realize this mission. In fact, the first citation to Newman’s The Idea of a University in Ex Corde, makes this point with force and clarity. In her “consecration to the cause of truth,” John Paul II explains citing Newman that the Catholic university holds “an intimate conviction that truth is (its) real ally ... and that knowledge and reason are sure ministers to faith.”

Connecting his arguments to John Paul II and Ex Corde, Leo explains the importance of the historical origin of the university within the mission of the Church: “‘from the heart of the Church,’ the first universities were born, from their beginnings they have been recognized to be ‘an incomparable center of creativity and dissemination of knowledge for the good of humanity’” (2.2). This venerable history, which Leo recalls through the charisms of various religious orders involved in education, is also the source of hope and provides a point of reference for Catholic schools and universities today.  

The importance of service to truth is at the heart of Leo’s vision for the future of Catholic education, and it is here where his hopeful outline meets Newman. Despite the new challenges to authentic Catholic education, Leo explains: “the foundation remains the same: the person, image of God (Genesis 1:26), capable of truth and relationship.” “Truth and relationship”—Leo accentuates the importance of Catholic community and culture for the formation offered by authentic Catholic schools and universities—something Newman appreciated more than is commonly acknowledged. “The educational community is a ‘we,’ Leo teaches, “where teachers, students, families, administrative and service staff, pastors, and civil society come together to generate life” (3.1).  

Leo cites a famous passage from Discourse III of Newman’s The Idea of the University which affirms that “Religious Truth is not only a portion, but a condition of general knowledge.” That is: without recourse and accountability to revealed knowledge, the other disciplines in the curriculum would lack a higher, unifying principal capable of explaining their relation within a comprehensive whole.  

Weighing in on the many pressures in education felt today, Leo reaffirms that “efficiency” is not the sole measure of the value of Catholic education. Here again, he appeals to Newman’s vision of a comprehensive cultivation of the human soul in light of the fullness of truth as the goal and mission of Catholic education. This vision based on the thought of St. John Henry Newman, Leo reminds, supports Catholic education in “going against a purely commercialistic approach that today frequently forces education to be measured in terms of functionality and practical utility” (#4.2).

Commenting on these words of Newman, Leo identifies his “great joy” in declaring him “co-patron of the Church’s educational mission along with Saint Thomas Aquinas.” Newman’s words about religious truth, in particular, Leo explains, “are an invitation to renew our obligation to a knowledge that is just as intellectually responsible and rigorous as it is profoundly human” (#3.1).  

Today under the guidance of Pope Leo XIV’s Apostolic Letter “Disegnare Nuove Mappe di Speranza” issued on the 60^th anniversary of Vatican II’s Declaration on Christian Education, Catholics have reason to celebrate, and to hope about the future of education. There are many new challenges, but the foundation of Catholic education, Leo’s reminds us, is the same: the cultivation of the human soul’s capacity for truth in an educational community where the Catholic faith unites all knowledge in its Divine source. Pope Leo has entrusted this noble mission to the co-patronage of St. John Henry Newman—soon to be Doctor of Church. Under the guidance of Leo’s teaching and Newman’s patronage, the entire Church should confidently face the challenges of the present with hope for a renewed future. Leo ends his letter with a reminder of what happens when the mission of Catholic education is faithfully embraced: “Then our constellation will not only sparkle, but it will also orient us toward the truth that makes us free (cf. Jn 8:32), toward the brotherhood that strengthens justice (cf. Mt 23:8), toward the hope that does not disappoint (cf. Rom 5:5).

In perhaps his most famous spiritual meditation, Newman prayed: “GOD has created me to do Him some definite service: He has committed some work to me which He has not committed to another.  I have my mission – I may never know it in this life, but I shall be told it in the next. I AM a link in a chain, a bond of connection between persons.  He has not created me for naught.  I shall do good, I shall do His work.” Newman lived this conviction during his saintly life, its universal truth for everyone underscores the importance of faithful Catholic education. Catholic education helps people actuate their purpose within God’s plan by enlivening their powers and gifts in the truth. Now as co-patron of the mission of Catholic education, Newman continues his work, his purpose, and will inspire countless others to find their work and purpose through Catholic education.