Pope Leo will proclaim St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the church on November 1st. What criteria are used to make this decision? First of all, the word “doctor”
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Pope Leo will proclaim St. John Henry Newman a doctor of the church on November 1st. What criteria are used to make this decision? First of all, the word “doctor” in this sense does not refer to the person who treats your flu or to someone who fixes the ailments of the Catholic Church. The word comes from the Latin verb docere, meaning “to teach.” The first criterion is that the person must be eminent in doctrine, and naturally, their writings must be faithful to church teaching. The second requirement is that the doctors themselves must have a high degree of holiness and be canonized saints. And third, it must be the pope himself who names someone a doctor of the church. The first pope to do so was Pope Boniface VIII, who in 1298 proclaimed as doctors the four great Western Fathers of the Church, Sts. Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Gregory the Great.
