Pope to issue document on Catholic education, name St. Newman co-patron

By Cindy Wooden, Catholic News Service

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — Pope Leo XIV will issue a document on Catholic education Oct. 28, marking the 60th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council’s declaration on education, a top Vatican official said.

Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, prefect of the Dicastery for Culture and Education, also told reporters Oct. 22 that in the document Pope Leo will name St. John Henry Newman “co-patron” of Catholic education.

St. Newman, whom Pope Leo will declare a “doctor of the church” Nov. 1, will join the current patron, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Cardinal Tolentino de Mendonça shared the news during a presentation about the Jubilee of the World of Education, which is scheduled for Oct. 27-Nov. 1. More than 20,000 people from 124 nations have signed up for the event celebrating the Catholic commitment to education from primary school through university, he said.

The Jubilee, the cardinal said, was planned to coincide with the anniversary of the Vatican II Declaration on Christian Education, often referred to by its Latin title, “Gravissimum Educationis.”

Promulgated Oct. 28, 1965, the declaration affirmed the right of parents to choose the type of education they want for their children, upheld the importance of Catholic schools and defended freedom of inquiry in Catholic colleges and universities.

The cardinal said the document affirmed “the universal right to education” and marked “a change in language — that is, in mentality — in speaking about schools not so much in terms of ‘institutions’ but rather as ‘educational communities.'”

Pope Leo’s document marking the anniversary, he said, insists the value of the Vatican II declaration “is not frozen in time: it is a compass that continues to point the way.”

“Rapid and profound changes are exposing children, adolescents and young people to unprecedented vulnerabilities,” the cardinal said, quoting the new document. “It is not enough to preserve; we must relaunch.”

In the new document, the cardinal said, Pope Leo asks “all educational institutions to inaugurate a new season that speaks to the hearts of the new generations, reconnecting knowledge and meaning, competence and responsibility, faith and life.”