Meet the biggest admirer of Saint John Henry Newman in Taiwan

Saint John Henry Newman has inspired many “Newman converts” to follow his same path of conversion from Protestantism to Catholicism, including a 24-year-old Taiwanese young man who is a fervent devotee of the 19th century English saint.

When Kao Chih Hao, a recent convert to Catholicism living in Taipei, heard the news that Pope Leo XIV had decided to declare Newman a Doctor of the Church, he said he was deeply moved by the announcement.

“After hearing this news, I almost cried,” Kao said. “It is the happiest news for me this year, because I admire him very much.”

Kao, who works in sales for a computer hardware company and uses the English name “Newman” in honor of his favorite saint, spoke recently after Sunday Mass at Holy Rosary Parish in Taipei about how St. John Henry Newman inspired his conversion.

A lover of history since high school, Kao said that a phrase from Newman’s essay “Essay on the development of Christian doctrine” caught his attention: “To delve deeper into history is to stop being Protestant.”

Newman, born in 1801, was a respected Oxford academic, Anglican preacher and public intellectual before his conversion to Catholicism in 1845. His decision to become Catholic was highly controversial in Victorian England and cost him many friends, including that of his sister, who never spoke to him again.

He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1847 and founded the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in England. Dedicated to education, he established two boys’ colleges and founded the Catholic University of Ireland.

His work “The idea of ​​a university” It became a fundamental text on Catholic higher education. He was a prolific author and epistolary writer, and died in Birmingham, England, in 1890, aged 89.

As Kao discerned his own conversion, he said he was inspired by Newman’s courage in resigning his position at Oxford University to follow his convictions.

“Even if you are a chaplain at Oxford University, if you experience the real presence of the Catholic faith in the Eucharist, you should follow it,” Kao said.

Pope Leo XIV will officially declare Saint John Henry Newman a Doctor of the Church on November 1. Additionally, this week the Pope named him co-patron of Catholic education, along with Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Kao was fully received into the Catholic Church, receiving his first Communion and Confirmation in October 2023. He said the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas helped him understand the mystery of transubstantiation.

“After reading the theology of Saint Thomas Aquinas, I began to understand that it is about the real presence of Jesus Christ,” Kao explained. “And the true experience for me of feeling Jesus Christ in the Eucharist is also during Eucharistic adoration.”

Kao is one of many young “Newman converts” around the world. During Newman’s canonization in 2019, a 24-year-old American woman told CNA that she had decided to become Catholic two years earlier, after a friend lent her a copy of the “Essay on the development of doctrine”.

As an enthusiastic new Catholic, Kao has set three goals for himself: performing the spiritual exercises of Saint Ignatius of Loyola, reading the Theological Summation of Saint Thomas Aquinas and pilgrimage to the Holy Land with the Franciscan friars, who have served there since 1217. He recently completed his first three-day Ignatian retreat.

His advice to those considering converting to Catholicism is simple: “If you experience real presence in the Eucharist, just follow it. Follow Jesus. Go to Jesus, go to church, find a priest, talk about the Eucharist and the Virgin Mary, and don’t be afraid,” he concluded.

Translated and adapted by ACI Prensa. Originally published in CNA.