John Henry Newman

John Henry Newman CO was an English Catholic theologian, academic, philosopher, historian, writer, and poet. He was previously an Anglican priest and after his conversion became a cardinal. He was an important and controversial figure in the religious history of England in the 19th century and was known nationally by the mid-1830s. He was canonised in 2019 by Pope Francis, and in 2025, it was announced that Pope Leo XIV approved the decision to name Newman a Doctor of the Church and would soon confer the title by a formal decree. He was a member of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri and founded the first house of that congregation in England.
Originally an evangelical academic at the University of Oxford and priest in the Church of England, Newman was drawn to the high church tradition of Anglicanism. He became one of the more notable leaders of the Oxford Movement, an influential and controversial grouping of Anglicans who wished to restore to the Church of England many Catholic beliefs and liturgical rituals from before the English Reformation. In this, the movement had some success.