ACTION ITEM: IMPORTANT – On the use and, especially, abuse of Newman’s “development of doctrine”

At the substack of Catholic Unscripted (three great brits) there is a piece by Rev. Stephen Morgan, whom I have known for years.  Brilliant and “good value” (a phrase I learned from him), a convert, who is now heading up a Catholic University in Macao (after working in finance and obtain multiple serious degrees).

He wrote “the book” on John Henry Newman’s key concept, which many cite and few grasp.

John Henry Newman and the Development of Doctrine: Encountering Change, Looking for Continuity

US HERE

At Catholic Unscripted, his piece – NOT behind a paywall because it is that important –  is called… I’ll give you a taste…

Hijacked Development
Rescuing Newman from Misuse in the Church’s Moral Crisis
By Stephen Morgan

In February 2023, the Anglican Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, addressed the Church of England Synod with a bold theological claim. Seeking to justify the blessing of same-sex unions, he invoked St. John Henry Newman’s theory of doctrinal development to argue that revealed truth can change into its opposite. What was once considered sin could now, under the banner of “development,” be embraced as sacramentally significant.

The invocation was more than theologically strained—it was ironic. Newman had left Anglicanism precisely because his theory of development, written in the dying days of his life as an Anglican, but in fact worked out over the previous twelve years, demonstrated that the Church of England lacked doctrinal coherence, lacked the authority to validate the changes it had made to the Catholic and Apostolic faith. Yet today, even within the Catholic Church, Newman’s name is misused in precisely the same way: to provide theological cover for innovations that appear, under scrutiny, to contradict apostolic teaching.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, has repeatedly cited Newman’s Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine (1845) to defend controversial interpretations of documents such as Amoris Laetitia and Fiducia Supplicans. In both cases, Newman’s theory has been used to claim that the Church is not reversing her teachings but developing them—suggesting that it was possible to adapt pastoral practice while preserving doctrinal principle, as if the one does not act upon the other in the order of reality.

[…]

I think you can see where this is going.

I urge you to take a few minutes and read Morgan’s piece at Catholic Unscripted.

Some popping quotes from the piece:

“Despite the clarity of Newman’s method, recent years have seen it misappropriated by those seeking to justify changes that clearly fail his tests.”

“The misuse is particularly offensive because it both seeks to endorse grave moral evil and leverages Newman’s authority to undermine the very tradition to which the end point that the logic of the Essay on Development…”.

“A true development builds on what came before without undermining it. This is not what Amoris Laetitia does.

The 2023 declaration Fiducia Supplicans intensified this misuse.”

“The original purpose of Newman’s Essay was to demonstrate Catholicism’s consistency with apostolic faith. Today, that same essay is cited to justify inconsistencies. The difference could not be starker. Newman offered a grammar of development—what is now being practiced is a rhetoric of change.”

“In declaring him a Doctor of the Church, Pope Leo XIV has rightly recognized Newman’s genius. But that genius must be honoured with fidelity, not reinterpreted beyond recognition. If the Church is to remain credible in the eyes of the faithful and the world, it must cease weaponising Newman’s name and begin applying his method.”

See?

This is an important essay.  Please give it attention and perhaps drop a note of thanks to Catholic Unscripted for getting it out there!