VATICAN INSIDER: A VISIT TO NEWMAN UNIVERSITY, NAMESAKE OF THE NEWEST DOCTOR OF THE CHURCH

VATICAN INSIDER: CARDINAL NEWMAN’S IDEAS ON EDUCATION LIVE ON AT HIS NAMESAKE UNIVERSITY

Join me again this week on Vatican Insider for a very special treat when Kathleeen Jagger, president of Newman University in Wichita, Kansas, returns to VI in Part II of our conversation as we further explore Newman University today. In particular, we talk about the mission of education as seen by Cardinal John Henry Newman, proclaimed last November 1^st as Doctor of the Church and co-patron with St. Thomas Aquinas of the Church’s education mission.

We spoke in my office and were joined by Sr. Maria of the Sisters Adorers of the Blood of Christ, the religious Order that founded Newman University’s predecessor in 1933.

Newman University has come a long way since its founding in 1933 in the middle of the Great Depression. First known as Sacred Heart Junior College for women, it was helping transform the lives of children and their parents by educating Sisters and lay women to be certified teachers. According to Newman’s website, in 1973, the college’s name was changed to Kansas Newman College to reflect the continued growth of the institution, the expanded range of educational programs, and to honor St. John Henry Newman, the 19^th century theologian and scholar known for his writings on the liberal arts and education.  In 1998, it became Newman University.

The tapestry on St. Peter’s Basilica on November 1, 2025, the day Cardinal Newman was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church (the 38^th) –

From the office of the president: President’s Office:

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HAPPENING TODAY: THE SEALING OF ST. PETER’S HOLY DOOR

HAPPENING TODAY: THE SEALING OF ST. PETER’S HOLY DOOR

The Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, the last of four papal basilicas for the Jubilee of Hope, will be sealed shut.

With the final sealing on Jan. 16 of the Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Holy See will complete the closing — which includes the actual masonry work — of the four Holy Doors of the papal basilicas following the Jubilee of Hope.

The concluding rite of closing the Holy Door of St. Mary Major Basilica took place Jan. 13. St. John Lateran Basilica’s was closed Jan. 14 and the Holy Door of St. Paul Outside the Walls was closed Jan. 15.

The Holy Door of St. Peter’s Basilica will be sealed shut on Jan. 16.

The so-called “sanpietrini,” the staff of the Fabric of St. Peter — comprising carpenters, cabinetmakers, and electricians — who normally handle the maintenance of the basilica, will repeat the process they have already carried out in the other three basilicas: They will erect a brick wall inside the church to permanently seal the Holy Door.

In addition, the traditional metal capsule (“capsis”), a bronze box, will be inserted into the wall of the church. It will contain the official closing document, the coins minted during the jubilee year, and the keys to the Holy Door.

These elements serve as material and symbolic testimony of the holy year, which, as the pope emphasized in the Jan. 6 ceremony in which he closed the great doors of the Vatican basilica, has concluded on the calendar but not in the spiritual life of the Catholic Church.

In all the papal basilicas, the official document of closing the Holy Door has been deposited along with the key to the door and several pontifical medals from the last sealing, during the conclusion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy in 2016 to the present day.

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. St. Peter’s Holy Door to be sealed Jan. 16