This morning, in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, the Holy Father Leo XIV received in audience the members of a delegation from Oriel College, University of Oxford.

The following is the greeting addressed by the Pope to those present at the meeting:

Address of the Holy Father

In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.

Peace be with you!

Good morning to you all, and welcome.

Your Eminence,
Dear friends,

On your pilgrimage to Rome, in the footsteps of Saint John Henry Newman, to commemorate the 700th anniversary of the granting of Oriel College’s royal charter, I am pleased to welcome to the Vatican the Provost, together with Fellows and other members of the College.

Oriel certainly has a long and illustrious history, which naturally, over such an extended period of time, has witnessed and experienced many changes, events and even upheavals.  Yet the College has remained firm in its Christian identity.  Your anniversary is therefore an opportunity to celebrate its Catholic origins as the “College of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”  Indeed, this identity is key to what has made and can continue to make Oriel not just an academic institution, but a true community of faith and scholarship in its deepest meaning.  The College can thus look with confidence to its past contributions as a sure foundation and guide for its future endeavors.

In this regard, Saint John Henry Newman stands 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 profound depths of both dimensions of his life were recognised in his Declaration as a Doctor of the universal Church and co-patron of the Church’s education mission.  It is surely providential that your anniversary pilgrimage occurs in close proximity to an event of such significance both for you and for the entire Catholic Church. 

Moreover, 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 (cf. "Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope, 4.2, 28 October 2025").  In your personal academic endeavours, I similarly encourage you 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 (cf. Jn 14:6).

Finally, in his famous hymn “Lead, Kindly Light,” Newman showed his great trust that God would guide him despite the uncertainties of life.  I urge you, then, to entrust yourselves and the future of the College to the unfading Light of the world, so that you too, like Our Lady, may reflect his glory to the world.  

With these thoughts, I commend each of you to the intercession of Saint John Henry Newman and the Blessed Virgin Mary. 

And I invite you now to stand and I will very gladly impart to all of you, your families, and loved ones the Apostolic Blessing.

And may the blessing of Almighty God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, come down on you and remain with you for ever.  Amen.