John Henry Newman British cardinal late th century Newman was a leading priest in the Church of England whose conversion to Catholicism was a major event of the s Newman was a popular speaker and a scholar at Oxford making his conversion all the more welcome to Catholics and shocking to Anglicans Newman had been ordained as an Anglican priest in he was ordained as a Catholic priest in and in he was created a cardinal by Pope Leo XIII His Apologia Pro Vita Sua is considered a classic among religious autobiographies
