The pontiff urged Oxford scholars to seek truth courageously and promote an education rooted in human dignity, justice and the common good.

Pope Leo XIV received a delegation from the University of Oxford’s Oriel College at the Vatican on Sept. 4, highlighting St. John Henry Newman’s vision of education as a response to contemporary challenges.

Founded in 1326 at the initiative of King Edward II, Oriel is considered Oxford’s oldest royal foundation.

Marking the 700th anniversary of its royal charter, the pope noted that the college “has remained firm in its Christian identity” throughout the centuries.

He said the anniversary offered “an opportunity to celebrate its Catholic origins as the ‘College of the Blessed Virgin Mary.’”

That identity, he said, has been key to Oriel’s development “not just [as] an academic institution, but a true community of faith and scholarship in its deepest meaning.”

Oriel’s connection to St. John Henry Newman

The college is also known for its role in the 19th-century Oxford Movement and its association with St. John Henry Newman, who was a fellow there before his conversion to Catholicism.

Leo praised Newman as “a shining example of a scholar who not only showed the inseparability of faith and reason in his works but even more admirably in his life.”

“There was a great concreteness to his ideas, since his religious convictions were rooted in his personal relationship with God, while his scholarship was both sublime and eminently practical,” the pope said.

Leo also said Newman’s thinking on education remains especially relevant in the face of contemporary challenges.

“In the context of today’s challenges, Newman’s own thought on education is particularly relevant, for he proposes a Christian formation that embraces the entire person and measures the value of education according to human dignity, justice and the capacity to serve the common good,” he said, citing his October 2025 apostolic letter Drawing New Maps of Hope.

Addressing members of the delegation, the pope encouraged them “to seek the truth courageously and to promote this integral anthropological vision.”

“As a result, your work can genuinely facilitate a ‘heart to heart’ encounter with your brothers and sisters, and especially with our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the way, the truth, and the life,” he said.

Finally, referring to Newman’s celebrated hymn Lead, Kindly Light, Leo recalled the English saint’s trust that God would guide him amid life’s uncertainties and urged the delegation to entrust themselves and the college’s future to Christ.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, the Spanish-language sister service of EWTN News. It has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.