ROME (AP/NICOLE WINFIELD) — Pope Leo XIV urged his fellow Augustinians on Monday to work humbly for unity in the Catholic Church, as he opened the global assembly of the ancient religious order that is now very much in the spotlight since one of their own is history’s first Augustinian pope.
Leo has emphasized that he is very much a “child of St. Augustine,” the 5th-century theologian who inspired the 13th-century religious Augustinian order as a community of “mendicant” friars. Today, Augustinian spirituality is rooted in a deep interior life of prayer, living in community, and journeying together in search of truth in God.
The pope, who headed the order from 2001-2013, seemed very much at home among his confreres gathered at the Basilica of St. Augustine off Piazza Navona, which houses the tomb of Augustine’s mother, St. Monica.
Aware that not everyone in the pews spoke Italian, Leo summarized his homily for them in English. He joked that over the coming days, as they gather for their global meeting, they might want to pray to the Holy Spirit for help understanding one another.
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“Not necessarily for the gift to understand or speak all languages, but the gift to listen, and the gift to be humble and the gift to promote unity within the order and through the order throughout the church and the world,” Leo said.
Every few years, religious orders convene these general assemblies, with elected representatives coming to Rome to chart their future paths, priorities and elect new leaders.
Leo, the then-Rev. Robert Prevost, recalled the novelty of his final assembly as prior general in 2013. He has said that “sort of as a whim,” he invited Pope Francis, who had just been elected pope a few months prior, to celebrate the opening Mass.
“We’ve been in order since 1244, and the pope has always sent delegates. The pope has never presided,” Prevost told a conference last year at a church in Illinois. “So I write this letter to him, and he said ‘yes.’ And then I was like, ‘Oh my God, now what do we do? The pope is coming!’”
In the end, Francis presided over the conference and greeted all Augustinians present, including his eventual successor.
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