Pope Leo XIV’s first-year themes of unity and community have Augustinian ties

CHICAGO (OSV News)—One of the first things Pope Leo XIV said from the central balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica at the Vatican upon his election on May 8, 2025, was “I am a son of St. Augustine, an Augustinian.”

The statement signaled to the world and its 1.4 billion Catholics that they were going to experience a papacy heavily influenced by a doctor of the Church, whose extensive writings from 1,600 years ago continue to shape the Church today.

Pope Leo’s brothers in the Order of St. Augustine have said their patron’s way has marked—and so far defined—the pope’s leadership during his first year.

“While it is true that Augustine is an intellectual giant, particularly when we think of his theological and doctrinal contributions, I also see his pastoral contributions—which are grounded in the human experience and his understanding of the human experience,” said Augustinian Father Kevin DePrinzio, who serves in Rome as assistant general for English-speaking provinces of the Order of St. Augustine.

In an e-mail to OSV News, Father Kevin pointed to St. Augustine’s Confessions as one of the theologian’s best-known works that remains popular to this day. The introspective spiritual autobiography is written in the form of a prayer in which Augustine traces his life of sin as a young adult, including having a concubine and fathering a son out of wedlock. He also recounts his willful rejection of his parents’ counsel and his efforts to make a name for himself as a teacher of rhetoric. Through it all, Augustine’s restless heart is led by grace to seek and ultimately find God in a powerful conversion.

Father Kevin said the book highlights St. Augustine as “one of the first [theologians] to begin to articulate a Christian understanding of friendship” and “that somehow in and through relationship, God is found.”

“This, I believe, contributes to Leo’s pastoral approach. We hear Leo often speaking about being ‘together,’ and the importance of not going at it alone,” said the former vice president of mission and ministry at the Augustinian-founded Villanova University, Pope Leo’s own alma mater in suburban Philadelphia.

“That the human person is meant to be in relationship, to live in the potential of encountering the other as a friend, to search for home and belonging—this drives Leo’s call to engage in dialogue, to reach out and to walk together,” he continued.

An example of that call was evident in Pope Leo’s first video message to young people on June 14, 2025, which aired at Chicago’s Rate Field during the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Mass of thanksgiving and celebration of the first American pope’s election. He described the Trinity as a community of love and told young people to “continue to build up community, friendship as brothers and sisters, in your daily lives, in your parishes, in the archdiocese and throughout our world.”

Augustinian Father Allan Fitzgerald, an Augustine scholar and former director of Villanova’s Augustinian Institution, said Pope Leo is teaching that “faith doesn’t just touch the head. It also touches the heart.”

“Augustine learned to be a person of heart,” he explained. He said the saint’s mother, St. Monica, was “a person of heart” and his father was an “irascible” businessman. Yet St. Augustine saw his parents eventually come to be “on the same page.”

“So, the pulling together of head and heart was a crucial piece of his own growing and his own development,” Father Allan said. “And I think that’s what is, in fact, happening in the life of Pope Leo at this point.”

Father Allan, 85, has edited the St. Augustine Bible, teaches at Villanova and regularly holds international retreats on St. Augustine for fellow Augustinians. He told OSV News this relationship between the head and heart is apparent in St. Augustine’s definition of friendship, especially that he had “all sorts of dimensions to what it means to be a good friend.”

“I think in some ways, friendship is the thing that underlies that whole head and heart combination. It’s hard to be a really good friend if you’re not in some way pulling your own self together,” he said.

His fellow Augustinians have observed the way Pope Leo has maintained the strong sense of Augustinian community throughout his pastoral journey, which included years as a missionary in Peru, leadership roles within the order and now as the vicar of Christ leading his flock throughout the world.

Augustinian Father Tom McCarthy, the incoming Midwest Augustinians’ provincial superior, told OSV News that Pope Leo continues to sustain relationships in person with Augustinians in Rome and via text and e-mail with others worldwide.

“We have to support him and say, ‘Keep it going. Good job,’ ” said Father Tom, who is stepping into a role in the Chicago-based province that Pope Leo—then Father Robert Prevost—once held himself.

Father Tom, 60, currently is the province’s vocations director. He said each week, the friars read and reflect on one chapter of Augustine’s eight-chapter rule.

“Throughout the year, you’re reading the rule completely six times,” he said of the Augustinians, whose order was established in 1244 and based on a rule of life St. Augustine wrote around 400. “And we’re doing it because Augustine said, ‘This should be read to you once a week.’ Just as you look in a mirror to see how you look, you look through this rule in a mirror of your spiritual life. How are you doing?”

Father Tom said the rule gives guidance on how to live together in community, how to carry out fraternal correction and dealing with the difficulties of religious life, among other rubrics.

He noted that Pope Leo entered the order’s minor seminary at 13 years old, giving him “56 years of being formed and trained in the way of Augustine.”

“So, this is nothing new for [the former Father Robert] as pope,” said Father Tom. “This is him just being who he is.”

He also noted the pope often quotes St. Augustine in his messages and homilies or refers to his writings, just as his brothers do regularly in conversation.

On the world stage, Pope Leo also has not shied away from directly addressing the U.S.-Israel war with Iran and other conflicts around the world, by passionately calling for peace.

The pope has also spoken out about the U.S. government’s immigration crackdown that has led to thousands of arrests of those without proper authorization to remain in the country.

Father Allan said the times call for the pope to speak out on what is morally wrong, just as St. Augustine did when he refuted the heresy of Manichaeism, a dualistic faith using cosmology to explain the forces of good versus evil while incorporating elements of Christianity and other religions. Talking about morality amid “so-called political decisions is really just a way of being human,” Father Allan said.

Father Kevin sees in Pope Leo a contemporary embodiment of the spirit of the saint who died in 430, and remains the inspiration of his religious community. “St. Augustine was concerned about fostering unity and communion,” and he “was masterful at dialogue and in bringing people to the table,” he said.

With Pope Leo on the world stage, “we will see [and have already seen] Leo call for encounter and dialogue, engage differences, gather, bring together and cut through polarization,” he said in his e-mail. “It’s in his bones to be this way, and it’s up to us and the world to listen attentively to this invitation to go deeper together, to walk together, as St. Augustine urged his followers 1,600 years ago.”

That, Father Kevin said, is also reflected in Pope Leo’s motto, drawn from one of St. Augustine’s sermons:

“In Illo uno unum,” or “In the One, we are one.” †