3 November 2025
On Saturday 1st November 2025, The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani joined the Archbishop of York and other representatives from the Church of England at a Mass in St Peter's Square Rome, at which Saint John Henry Newman was declared a Doctor of the Church.
John Henry Newman was a former Anglican priest who became a Roman Catholic in 1845 – midway through his life – and eventually a Cardinal. He is regarded as one of the most influential figures from his era for both Anglicanism and Roman Catholicism.
An important theologian, preacher, and pastor in his years as an Anglican priest, he was one of the key leaders of the Oxford Movement that heralded a revival in the life of the Victorian Church of England that spread around the Anglican Communion.
He remains a central figure in both Catholic and Anglican theology: a profound scholar, powerful preacher and the founder of religious communities.
He was Canonised as a Saint in 2019.
Following the Mass, The Most Rev. and the Rt Hon. the Lord Archbishop of York. Stephen Cottrell and The Rt Revd Dr Guli Francis-Dehqani, Bishop of Chelmford reflected on the Declaration.
A video of their reflections can be watched below.
