Soon to be recognised as a saint, John Henry Newman is too major a figure to belong to anybody. Yet the battle to recruit him on the side of the critics of Pope Francis has already begun. Conservative voices have made most of the running, and can be expected to reach maximum volume on that day in October when Newman is formally canonised. This would be to dishonour Newman’s legacy, both in the Church of England and after his conversion. Taken as a whole, he is Francis’ best advocate. He respected dogma but rejected dogmatism, as does the Pope.

Take Newman’s famous remark, that if he had to drink a toast to the Pope and to conscience, he would “drink to conscience first, and to the Pope afterwards”. This tailors with his almost equally famous observation that conscience comes first as it is “the aboriginal Vicar of Christ”, which reminds Catholics of the phrase “Vicar of Christ”, sometimes used to refer to the Pope. For decades, Newman’s view of conscience gave comfort to progressive-minded Catholics unconvinced by such papal teachings as Humanae Vitae, with its prohibition of contraception; now conservative Catholics resisting the teaching of Amoris Laetitia, that there are circumstances in which divorced and remarried Catholics may be admitted to Holy Communion, take a similar line.