The Jubilee of the World of Education opened on 27 October, with the Holy Father marking 60 years since the Declaration on Christian Education, known as Gravissimum Educationis, in an Apostolic Letter.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols has published a reflection on the Pope's letter, which was titled Drawing New Maps of Hope, drawing on its key themes such as that Christian education is a collective task; is person-centred; and is holistic. There is also an acknowledgement of serious contemporary challenges facing Christian education, chiefly from the digital environment; inequalities; and environmental issues. The following is an excerpt from the Cardinal's reflection:
Pope Leo’s Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope reaffirms the crucial importance of Catholic Education. The Holy Father reminds us, quoting his recent Apostolic Exhortation Dilexi te, that education is ‘one of the highest expressions of Christian charity’. (1.3) His letter is published sixty years after the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on education, Gravissimum Educationis, which, he says, ‘has lost none of its potency’. (1.3) But he sees changes in the educational environment, ‘complex, fragmented, digitised’, that make it ‘wise to pause and refocus our gaze on the “cosmology of Christian paideia [education]”: a vision that, over the centuries, has been able to renew itself and positively inspire all the multifaceted aspects of education.’ (1.2) He says, ‘Rapid and deep changes expose children, teenagers and young people to unprecedented fragility.’ (10.2).
At the culmination of a week of education-related Jubilee events Pope Leo announced a new Doctor of the Church and Co-Patron of Catholic Education, Saint John Henry Newman. The Cardinal has published a personal reflection on the news, for distribution to Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Westminster. The following is an excerpt:
On 13 October 2010, in a damp Cofton Park in Birmingham, Pope Benedict XVI declared Cardinal John Henry Newman to be Blessed.
On 19 September 2019, at St Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Francis declared him to be a Saint.
On 1 November 2025, at Mass in front of the same Basilica, Pope Leo XIV proclaimed, in Latin, these words:
‘We, having obtained the opinions of numerous Brothers in the Episcopate and many of Christ’s faithful throughout the world, having consulted the Dicastery for the Causes of Saints, after mature deliberation and with certain knowledge, and by the fullness of the apostolic power, declare Saint John Henry Newman, Doctor of the Church. In the name of the Father and of the Holy Spirit.’
And thus St John Henry Newman, for 40 years a parish priest in Birmingham, become only the third Doctor of the Church from England!
Unexpectedly, I found my eyes filling with tears of gratitude and sheer amazement.
It is difficult to find words to convey the immensity of this moment. We are being told beyond doubt that this man, in his life and all that he wrote, both as a priest of the Church of England and as a Catholic, is a sure guide and teacher of the true faith of the Catholic Church. I rejoice that in a man described as ‘an essentially English figure’ is to be found, without dissonance or discomfort, a full expression of Catholic faith.
Find out more about Gravissimum Educationis and Saint John Henry Newman
