Arguably no theologian has had a greater impact on the Catholic Church in the past 150 years than St. John Henry Newman, who is considered a forerunner of the Second Vatican Council and is currently under consideration to be the next doctor of the Church.

It likely comes as no surprise, then, that the 19th-century English convert, author and cleric is being cited as an important influence at the Catholic Church’s ongoing Synod on Synodality — and as a vital guide for following a sound theological road map for synodality today.

On Newman’s Oct. 9 feast day, participants at the Vatican synod session described the renowned Catholic intellectual, canonized by Pope Francis in 2019, as a “prophetic” voice whose study of doctrinal development and authority in the life of the Church helped pave the way for the current synod.

In particular, multiple participants referred to Newman’s insights about the relationship between the Church’s magisterium and the lay faithful in the transmission of doctrine, a theme fleshed out in his influential 1859 article “On Consulting the Faithful in Matters of Doctrine.” 

Newman’s insight, which relied upon looking back at how the Church had already operated in fact, not generating an abstract theory, showed how the lay faithful had helped preserve orthodox Christian belief during, for instance, the Arian crisis, when many bishops were heretics.

“His affirmation that the faithful, guided by the Holy Spirit, contribute to the sensus fidelium — the ‘sense of the faithful’ — which is integral to the Church’s discernment process, is quite prophetic regarding synodality,” said Bishop Anthony Randazzo of the Diocese of Broken Bay, Australia.

Bishop Randazzo, a synod delegate and president of the Federation of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences of Oceania, said Newman famously showed “that the Church would look foolish without the laity” and should help ease fears that collaboration with the laity is heterodoxical.

“I think that this way of thinking should liberate us in the Church from believing that any one group or vocation alone drives the bus,” said the Australian bishop, who made a powerful statement against pushes for so-called “women’s ordination” at an Oct. 4 synod press conference. “Jesus Christ is the driver — and we respond to the invitation, ‘all aboard.’”

At the same time, Newman’s theology underscored that while the lay faithful can bear witness to the truth of the faith, bishops alone possess the formal authority to teach and define doctrine. Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark, England, said that this emphasis can help correct wayward ideas that synodality is about democratically deciding doctrine. 

“Some people have a sense that this is almost about a kind of parliamentary referendum on aspects of Church teaching,” Archbishop Wilson, a synod delegate, told the Register. “That’s not what Newman said, and that’s not what Pope Francis said. He repeated it again at the beginning of this session that [the synod] is not a parliament.”

Bishop Matthieu Rougé of Nanterre, France, described one of Newman’s “essential elements” as the deepening of the “‘sacramental principle’ at work in the Catholic Church.”

In his 1845 book, An Essay on the Development of Doctrine, Newman speaks of the “sacramental principle” as the truth that divine things, including Revelation, can be conveyed through material and visible things, like human language. The principle underscores that God can reliably communicate with humanity through Scripture and Tradition, which the magisterium has authority to interpret and apply.

“This should encourage us, in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council, to root synodality firmly in sacramentality,” said Bishop Rougé.

Finally, Bishop Daniel Flores of the Diocese of Brownsville, Texas, who was unable to reply to the Register’s request for comment prior to deadline, has previously recognized St. John Henry Newman’s contribution to a sound theology of synodality.

Bishop Flores, who is head of the U.S. bishops’ doctrine committee and is one of nine synod members delegated by Pope Francis to lead daily proceedings, said Newman helps unpack how “the mirror-like quality of the way the Church teaches and how the Church hears, and that is infallible.”

Bishop Flores said that by looking at the Church’s history, Newman was “able to discern how in history the infalliblity of the [sensus fidelium] played out.”

However, Bishop Flores also stressed that discerning the sensus fidelium “in real life is a difficult thing.”

Some have suggested that the sensus fidelium on doctrinal issues, such as the Church’s moral prohibition of contraceptive sex, can be gauged through sociological means, like polling. Bishop Flores implied that Newman would not be on board with such assessments.

“As to that mystery of grace, and its playing out in history, we should be very humble about how we conceive of it in the actual moment of the Church’s history. It’s a movement,” the Texas bishop said in the November 2023 interview. “So I think he would counsel us to have great humility about saying: ‘Well, this is the sensus fidei today.’”

The Next Doctor of the Church?

Calls to declare Newman a doctor of the Church, a title given by the Catholic Church so far to 37 saints who have made a significant contribution to Catholic theology, began simultaneously with Newman’s October 2019 canonization by Pope Francis.

The effort formally began when the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, where Newman lived, petitioned Pope Francis in June 2023.

“We know this is a live issue and that the Holy Father is actively considering the proposal,” James Abbot, digital manager of the English and Welsh bishops’ conference, told the Register this week.

Twenty additional bishops’ conferences have since agreed to write additional petitions of support, including the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, who approved the measure at its Nov. 15, 2023, meeting by a vote of 240 in favor, two against.

Abbot told the Register that the wide degree of support for the cause “shows the universal appeal of Newman.”

Bishop Rougé said that although France’s bishops’ conference has not yet officially backed the cause, “there is a significant group of friends of Newman in France.”

Archbishop Wilson said that a formal declaration of Newman as a doctor of the Church would draw greater attention to not only his intellectual life, but also the English saint’s spirituality.

“Because, at heart, Newman was a disciple,” he noted. “A very clever one, but a disciple.”