The 2025-2026 Newman Guide will be released in December to assist families in finding Catholic educational programs. The Cardinal Newman Society will publish the new edition as an e-book and a print book. This edition marks the first time the guide will recommend elementary, secondary, college, and graduate programs. The guide aims to provide a path to faithful Catholic education, especially given the decline in Catholic school enrollment. The Newman Guide has been a trusted resource for 20 years, helping families identify schools committed to Catholic teachings.
21 days ago
The Cardinal Newman Society is set to release the 2025-2026 edition of the Newman Guide in December, marking a significant expansion to include recommendations for Catholic elementary, secondary, college, international, and graduate programs.1
This guide, available as both an e-book and a digest-sized print book, has traditionally focused on colleges for 20 years but now addresses a broader range of educational levels.1
The expansion coincides with key Church events, including St. John Henry Newman's declaration as the 38th doctor of the Church and his naming as a patron saint of Catholic education by Pope Leo XIV.1
These recognitions underscore the guide's emphasis on faithful Catholic formation amid a reported 55% decline in Catholic school enrollment over the past 50 years.1
The Newman Guide serves as a trusted resource for over 75,000 families annually, helping them identify schools committed to Church teachings in academics, athletics, faculty hiring, and campus life.1
Testimonials highlight its influence: a student credited it for choosing a college that upholds Catholic values, while a mother used it to find a faithful grade school during a family relocation.1
Headmasters note that graduates from recommended schools are more likely to continue practicing their faith.1
Schools must demonstrate strong Catholic identity, adhering to the society's "Principles of Catholic Identity in Education" and using Catholic curriculum standards derived from Church documents like the Catechism.1
Key elements include a focus on the salvation of souls, fostering a Catholic community, integrating prayer, Scripture, and sacraments, and promoting integral formation with a Christian worldview.1
To qualify, institutions align policies with Church guidance from councils, popes, and bishops' conferences, ensuring curricula address objective reality and transcendent truth.1
The guide responds to challenges in Catholic education by promoting evangelization and spiritual formation as the Church's most effective tools.1
Since expanding beyond colleges, 28 elementary schools and 55 graduate programs have gained recommendation, aiming to reverse enrollment trends through reliable options.1
How does the Newman Guide reflect the Catholic Church’s educational mission?
The Catholic Church views education as a vital extension of its evangelizing mission, aimed at forming the whole person—body, mind, soul, and spirit—in the image of Christ. This integral formation seeks to integrate faith and reason, fostering not only academic excellence but also moral virtue, liturgical participation, and a commitment to the common good. While the Newman Guide to Choosing a Catholic College, published by the Cardinal Newman Society, is a contemporary tool designed to evaluate and recommend Catholic higher education institutions based on their adherence to these principles, my analysis draws directly from authoritative Church documents. These sources outline the Church's timeless educational vision, which the Newman Guide reflects by prioritizing colleges that uphold orthodoxy, sacramental life, and holistic student development. Although the provided references do not explicitly reference the Newman Guide, they illuminate the core criteria it employs, such as fidelity to magisterial teaching and the promotion of a vibrant Catholic campus culture.
At the heart of the Church's educational mission is the conviction that education is not merely a secular pursuit but a divine mandate entrusted primarily to the Church. The Second Vatican Council's Declaration Gravissimum Educationis (1965), commemorated in Pope Leo XIV's recent Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope (2025), emphasizes that Christian education "aims to create for the school community an atmosphere enlivened by the Gospel spirit of freedom and charity," relating "all human culture eventually to the news of salvation" so that "the light of faith will illumine the knowledge which students gradually gain of the world, of life, and of the human family." This vision positions Catholic institutions as places where faith permeates every aspect of learning, countering fragmentation in a "complex, fragmented, digitized educational environment" by renewing the "cosmology of Christian paideia"—a holistic approach blending faith, reason, and culture.
The Newman Guide reflects this by assessing colleges on their commitment to the apostolic constitution Ex Corde Ecclesiae (1990), which mandates that Catholic universities serve the Church's evangelizing mission through orthodox theology departments, mandatory religion courses, and faculty who uphold Church doctrine. For instance, the Guide highlights institutions where theology is taught in fidelity to the Magisterium, ensuring that students encounter Christ as "the way, the truth, and the life" (Jn 14:6), much like the Church's call for education to "cooperate with divine grace in forming the true and perfect Christian" by shaping "Christ Himself in those regenerated by Baptism." Historical papal teachings reinforce this: Pope Pius XI in Divini Illius Magistri (1929) asserts that the Church's mission to educate is preeminent, as it alone can provide the "supernatural beauty and excellence" needed to prepare souls for eternal life, warning against schools where religion is "stinted" or absent. By recommending colleges that integrate Catholic identity into governance, curriculum, and daily life, the Guide safeguards this mission against secular dilution, echoing Pope Leo XIII's insistence that education must be "pervaded with a religious feeling" under the Church's vigilance.
The Church's educational ethos demands the formation of the whole person, encompassing intellectual rigor, moral virtue, and spiritual growth. The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) describes education in the faith as beginning in the family but extending through the Church's institutions, where parents and educators collaborate to teach prayer, vocation, and Gospel witness. This extends to higher education, where catechesis "aims at teaching [learners] to meditate on the Word of God in personal prayer, practicing it in liturgical prayer, and internalizing it at all times in order to bear fruit in a new life." Pope Pius XI elaborates that Christian education "takes in the whole aggregate of human life, physical and spiritual, intellectual and moral, individual, domestic and social," elevating it "in accordance with the example and teaching of Christ" rather than reducing it.
In practice, the Newman Guide embodies this by evaluating campuses for robust spiritual programs, including daily Mass, Eucharistic adoration, and retreats, which foster the "Gospel spirit" called for in Gravissimum Educationis. It prioritizes schools where moral formation counters contemporary challenges like relativism, aligning with the Code of Canon Law's directive that pastors ensure "all the faithful have a Catholic education" leading to the "fullness of the Christian life." For example, the Guide critiques institutions lacking in pro-life advocacy or chastity education, reflecting the Church's broader social doctrine where education transfigures culture through justice and charity, as seen in the Ukrainian Catholic Catechism's emphasis on schools nurturing "Christian and civic consciousness" to "transfiguring the culture in which they live." Pope John Paul II, in addresses to bishops, urged the renewal of Catholic education to prepare students as "disciples of Christ" who evangelize society, a standard the Guide upholds by favoring colleges that balance academic excellence with virtue formation. This mirrors Divini Illius Magistri's warning that without religious permeation, "little good can be expected from any kind of learning, and considerable harm will often be the consequence."
A key pillar of the Church's mission is respecting parental primacy in education while promoting the common good. Parents have the "duty and right" to choose schools that align with their faith, as affirmed in canon law and papal encyclicals. Pope Leo XIII in Officio Sanctissimo (1887) lamented the risks of "neutral" schools that silence God, urging Catholic alternatives to instill piety and citizenship. Similarly, Gravissimum Educationis and Pope Leo XIV's letter stress education's role in addressing global crises like poverty and migration, calling for "generous dedication" to make the Gospel an "educational gesture" for all.
The Newman Guide directly supports this by empowering parents to select colleges where Catholic identity is non-negotiable, avoiding those compromised by dissent or secularism. It reflects Pope Pius XI's declaration that advocating for Catholic schools is a "religious enterprise demanded by conscience," producing citizens "attached to [their] country" through faith-formed principles. In regions like the United States, where Pope John Paul II praised Catholic education's two-century legacy in moral character-building, the Guide extends this by rating institutions on residential life, student activities, and community service that embody charity in truth. This ensures education serves not just individuals but society, as Pope Benedict XVI noted in Caritas in Veritate, where authentic development flows from love and truth rooted in Christ.
Controversies in Catholic higher education often arise from tensions between academic freedom and doctrinal fidelity, or between Church autonomy and state involvement. Sources like Divini Illius Magistri address this by insisting on the Church's "eternal vigilance" to prevent errors like materialism. More recent documents, such as Pope John Paul II's Ecclesia in Oceania (2001), call for renewed catechesis amid media influences, ensuring religious freedom and partnership with civil authorities. Where interpretations diverge—such as on the balance of lay and clerical input—newer teachings like Pope Leo XIV's letter take precedence, urging creative responses to modern uncertainties while preserving unity. The Newman Guide navigates these by transparently ranking colleges, noting areas for improvement, and promoting those that foster "ecclesial communion" through the Catechism of the Catholic Church as a reference.
In conclusion, the Newman Guide serves as a practical instrument for realizing the Church's educational mission, guiding families toward institutions that form authentic disciples amid secular pressures. By emphasizing orthodoxy, integral formation, and parental choice, it echoes the prophetic vision of Gravissimum Educationis and its enduring legacy: education as hope, bridging faith and culture for a renewed world. This alignment ensures that Catholic colleges remain beacons, forming students who, in the words of Christ, receive the little ones in His name and thus receive Him.