In Idea of a University, John Henry Cardinal Newman argued that the university is dedicated to the search and transmission of all truth, including the fundamental truths revealed by Christ through His Church. Newman's thought and Pope John Paul II's 1990 Apostolic Constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae, guide all efforts of the Cardinal Newman Society.

Today's Catholic university or college certainly can be authentically Catholic. However, the Catholic identity of many Catholic institutions of higher education in the United States has become increasingly clouded and the essential elements of Catholic education have been discarded for the sake of a mistaken notion of academic freedom. Many Catholic colleges and universities have pursued a secular model as the university ideal to a point where their own Catholic identity and mission within the Church is no longer clear.

Our patron, John Henry Cardinal Newman, was a great defender of the principle that the academic nature of a university is strengthened by a strong Catholic foundation and adherence to the teachings of the Church. His Holiness Pope John Paul II further developed this message in 1990 in his Apostolic Constitution on Catholic higher education, Ex Corde Ecclesiae (From the Heart of the Church).

The fundamental purpose of a university education is to seek and discover truth. Through this discovery, man comes to an understanding of God, himself, and the created order. Catholic higher education provides students with the unique opportunity to seek understanding through Faith and Reason, made complete by a free obedience to the Eternal Law. Gaudium de veritate, the joy of truth's discovery, is the treasure entrusted to the Catholic university.

It is with this conviction that the Cardinal Newman Society was established in 1993 to promote awareness within the Catholic academic community of the nature and value of a truly Catholic university education and to seek the faithful implementation of Ex Corde Ecclesiae.