The new Pope, Leo XIV, spent most of his life as a monk in the order of St. Augustine, a religious community of the Roman Catholic Church. His experience of the institution being able to shape its approach to the Pope.
Experts said that Augustine's commitment to two elements of education – a missionary outreach and listening widely before making decisions – is likely to have a certain influence, just like Pope Francis' identity that the Jesuits led his Pope. Leo used his first Mass as Pope on Friday to call for “missionary outreach.”
Once upon a time, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevast Pope grew up in the Chicago area. He attended a boarding school for boys near the city of Netherlands, Michigan, run by the Augustines. The school was then closed.
In 1977 he graduated from Villanova University, the Catholic University of Augustine's Order in the United States. That year he entered into amendment to the Order of St. Augustine of St. Louis. Four years later, at age 25, he vowed to join the order, according to Vatican News, St. Sea's news service.
According to Sister Gemma Simmons, author and senior researcher at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology at Cambridge University, the decision to take part in the order rather than becoming a parish priest is important to understand Leo's approach to life of faith.
The parish priest has been charged with submission to his bishop, but is largely independent, she said, but members of the order promise to live, pray, eat, worship and make decisions in the community.
“The focus is on collaboration and community life,” said Gemma, a sister who belongs to the congregation of Jesus, another Catholic religious order. “That's very interesting to the Pope, because it means he's being directed towards joint decisions.”
One of many within the Catholic Church, the Order of St. Augustine has a distinct character of its own. It was founded in 1244. This is a united group of Pope Innocent IV United serving the church as a monk's community. The group committed to a mix of poverty lifestyle and contemplation and pastoral service.
The Augustinians turn their eyes to Aurelius Augustine, one of Christianity's most important early theologians, and Aurelius Augustine, bishop of the hippos, who was born in Algeria in the fourth century. Augustine is probably most famous for his autobiographical work called “Confessions.”
He also wrote a guide to religious life known as the principles that are the cornerstone of the Augustinian order. The members said, “We promise to live together in harmony.
The order is divided into three branches: Friars, Nuns and Lay Member, and according to its website it exists in around 50 countries, particularly Latin America. Augustinians.org. Leo led the Augustines as former general from 2001 to 2013.
On Thursday, Augustine welcomed the election of the new Pope and said “we will renew our commitment to serving his mission as Augustine.”
That mission, especially in Peru, defined the new Pope's career. As a priest, he first went to the country in 1985 and worked at Augustine's Mission in the northwestern town of Chulcanas. Over the next year, he moved to a more advanced role in the Augustine Mission in Trujillo, where he was also a professor of Canon Law and Theology.
That year, the country was plagued by violence that plagued the Maoist guerrilla movement, the Shining Path.
The legacy of several Christian missionary works has attracted criticism, especially in Latin America, which has helped to promote conquest and colonization for centuries. The church is committed to its heritage, but the concept of mission holds a strong hold on Catholic thinking in the sense that it crosses the barriers of institutions and reaches communities that often fall into poverty.
Vatican veteran analyst John Allen said Leo's experience as a missionary is likely part of what attracted Cardinals to him in the Pope Conclave.
“One of the things he did is to insist that mission leadership will become Indigenous,” Allen said in an interview. “It reflects the mind of the missionary, and I think that's what Cardinals saw.”
