On October 5, 2025, our own NINS co-founder Catharine Ryan was invited to give a sermon at St. Mary's University Church in Oxford, standing at the same pulpit from which John Henry Newman preached 200 years ago. This sermon was first published on the University Church website and is reposted here with their permission.
Imagine a candlestick resting on a table in the corner of a dark room, whose flame does not fade, does not flicker, and does not burn out, but perpetually illuminates the corner and draws others towards its light. This everlasting flame is like a teaching of a Doctor of the Universal Church, seeking not to illumine the entirety of the dark room, but keeps the corner of the room illuminated. Similarly, the teachings of the Church Doctors illumine some component(s) of the mysteries of the Catholic faith without trying to plumb the entirety of the mystery of God.
July 31st, 2025, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (USA). The National Institute for Newman Studies (NINS) is delighted to announce that Pope Leo XIV has confirmed the affirmative opinion of the Plenary Session of Bishops, Members of the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, regarding the title of Doctor of the Universal Church, which will soon be conferred on St. John Henry Newman, Cardinal of the Catholic Church and Founder of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri in England.
In 2004, German Catholic scholar Hanna-Barbara Gerl-Falkovitz edited and published a posthumous edition of Ida Görres’ book on Newman, Der Geopferte: ein anderer Blick auf John Henry Newman, which Görres had originally written in the 1940s. In this interview, Jennifer Bryson asks Gerl-Falkovitz about the project and the knowledge gained in editing Görres' work. Bryson has published a new English translation of the book entitled John Henry Newman: A Life Sacrificed.
Two hundred years ago, on 13 June 1824, the young Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford, who today the Church celebrates as a saint, made his way down the High and St. Aldate’s with his surplice and his MA hood, to be made a deacon of the Church of England in Christ Church Cathedral, the former medieval nunnery and shrine to St. Frideswide until Thomas Wolsey chose it to become Cardinal College in 1525.
In the summer of 1824, John Henry Newman preached his very first sermon shortly after being ordained as a deacon. He would go on to preach myriad sermons of enduring value. Generations of Christians have been and continue to be nourished by both his Parochial and Plain Sermons and University Sermons, as well as sermons from his Roman Catholic period. Two-hundred years later, we gathered together not only to commemorate the beginning of St. Newman’s preaching ministry, but also to explore and reflect on the wider topic of “Newman as Preacher” at the very churches in which he preached. This intimate, on-site conference featured three public keynote lectures along with other spiritually-enriching activities.
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