Pope Leo XIV
Habemus Papam!
It's with great joy that we welcome our Holy Father, Pope Leo XIV , elected on May 8th, feast day of our blessed Marie-Catherine of Saint-Augustin!
''Peace be with you all!
Dear brothers and sisters, these are the first words spoken by the risen Christ, the Good Shepherd who laid down His life for God’s flock. I would like this greeting of peace to resound in your hearts, in your families, among all people, wherever they may be, in every nation and throughout the world. Peace be with you!
It is the peace of the risen Christ. A peace that is unarmed and disarming, humble and persevering. A peace that comes from God, the God who loves us all, unconditionally. '' (Vatican News)
We add to our joy that the Pope is a religious from the Order of St Augustine ! He quoted the saint who said: “With you I am a Christian, and for you I am a bishop''. In this sense, all of us can journey together toward the homeland that God has prepared for us'' , continued the first American-born Pope. (Vatican News)
May Blessed Marie-Catherine of Saint-Augustine intercede for him throughout his pontificate, as a little sister through Saint Augustine, united in Christ. Long live the Pope!
Discover the coat of Arms of the Holy Father
Adorned with pontifical insignia, the coat of arms includes the keys of Peter, in gold and silver, in reference to the power to bind and loose granted by Christ to the apostle and his successors. The second pontifical insignia is the miter, which replaces the cardinal's hat present on the emblem of the man who was previously called Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost.
Pope Leo's coat of arms reflects his Augustinian heritage and his Marian devotion. The coat of arms is divided diagonally into two sections: a blue section with a white fleur-de-lis, symbolizing the Virgin Mary. The new pontiff's love for the Virgin Mary was evident from his first public appearance, when he movedly entrusted the Church to Mary and invited the crowd to recite a Hail Mary; May 8th is also the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary of Pompeii and, for us, the feast of Blessed Mary Catherine of Saint Augustine.
The lower part features a red heart pierced by an arrow, resting on a closed book, a symbol of Saint Augustine's conversion, his experience of God's love and of his Word in it. In our Marian exhibition, Hail… Our Lady! , we have a stole bearing the symbol of the heart pierced by an arrow, recalling the Saint's words: You have pierced my heart with your Word (Confessions, Book X, VI, 8) and You pierced our hearts with the arrows of your charity, and we carried your words, planted in our entrails. (Confessions, Book IX, II, 3)
His motto, IN ILLO UNO UNUM, ("In the One, we are One"), is taken from a commentary by Saint Augustine on Psalm 127. This clearly reflects his Augustinian roots, and in particular, the unity and communion within the Church and in Christ. One heart and one soul. (Acts of the Apostles; 4:32-37); a phrase echoed at the opening of the Rule of Saint Augustine: “Above all, live in unity at home, with one mind and one heart turned toward God. Is this not the reason for your gathering?”
As Cardinal Prevost himself explained, '' unity and communion are part of the charism of the Order of Saint Augustine and also of my way of acting and thinking. I believe it is very important to promote communion in the Church, and we know very well that communion, participation, and mission are the three key words of the Synod. Therefore, as an Augustinian, promoting unity and communion is fundamental to me. Saint Augustine speaks a lot about unity in the Church and the need to live it.” (Vatican news 2023)
Augustine had a great desire for a common life, and (around 391?) established a monastery, living with his brothers according to the Rule of the Apostles. For Saint Augustine, this common life reflects the unity of the Trinity. "Whatever the Father, the Son, and their common Spirit do, they do together, all equally and in perfect harmony." (Saint Augustine, Trinitate, XIII, 11, 15)
We find in the Gospel according to Saint John, chapter 17, verse 21, "That they may all be one, as you, Father, are in me, and I in you. That they also may be one in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me." and in John 10:30, "The Father and I are ONE." The pontificate of Pope Leo calls us all to live according to the fact that the more we cling to Jesus, the more we find ourselves members of one another. And the more we conform ourselves to his humility and charity, the more his glory, that we are united in the unity of Christ, is manifested in the world. It is with the same hope that we work and move forward.
Through fraternal love, because God is love and charity, the Christian can have here below a certain experience of the Trinitarian mystery, and of the unity that unites the Father, the Son, and the Spirit.
"Therefore, if the charity of God in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us makes many souls one soul and many hearts one heart, how much more are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit one God, one light, and one Principle." » (Saint Augustine, Homilies on the Gospel of Saint John 39:5)
In the Church, the sacramental unity of the totus Christus, we are the mystical body of Christ who gathers the multitude into himself and makes them one.
References :
Vatican News, Lys blanc, fils de saint Augustin: l’emblème pontifical de Léon XIV, 10 mai 2025.
Sœur MARIE-ANCILLA, o.p., La Charité et l’unité, Éditions Mame, Paris, 1993.
Thomas Harmon, In Illo Uno Unum: Augustine, Pope Leo XIV, and the Longing for Unity, Church Life Journal, 15 mai 2025.
Leo XIV, ''son'' of St Augustine & blessed Marie-Catherine, ''daughter'' of Saint-Augustin
Pope Leo, a member of the Order of Saint Augustine, and Blessed Mary Catherine of Saint Augustine of the Canonesses Regular Hospitallers of the Mercy of Jesus of the Order of Saint Augustine, share the same roots: both are connected by Saint Augustine and by the desire to seek God together, aspiring to form "one heart and one soul in God." Rule of Saint Augustine.
Life journey
Robert Francis Prevost, 69 years old, was born on September 14, 1955 in Chicago, Illinois.
He spent his childhood and adolescence with his family and studied first at the Minor Seminary of the Augustinian Fathers and then at Villanova University in Pennsylvania, where in 1977 he earned a Degree in Mathematics and also studied Philosophy.
On September 1 of the same year, Prevost entered the novitiate of the Order of Saint Augustine (O.S.A.) in Saint Louis, in the Province of Our Lady of Good Counsel of Chicago, and made his first profession on September 2, 1978. On August 29, 1981, he made his solemn vows.
The future Pontiff received his theological education at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. At the age of 27, he was sent by his superiors to Rome to study Canon Law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum). In Rome, he was ordained a priest on June 19, 1982, at the Augustinian College of Saint Monica
- He was sent to the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru (1985–1986).
- Prevost was appointed vocation director and missions director of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Olympia Fields, while doing his thesis.
- The following year, he joined the mission in Trujillo, also in Peru, as director of the joint formation project for Augustinian candidates from the vicariates of Chulucanas, Iquitos, and Apurímac.
- Over the course of eleven years, he served as prior of the community (1988–1992), formation director (1988–1998), and instructor for professed members (1992–1998), and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar (1989–1998) and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary “San Carlos y San Marcelo.” At the same time, he was also entrusted with the pastoral care of Our Lady Mother of the Church, later established as the parish of Saint Rita (1988–1999), in a poor suburb of the city, and was parish administrator of Our Lady of Monserrat from 1992 to 1999.
- In 1999, he was elected Provincial Prior of the Augustinian Province of “Mother of Good Counsel” in Chicago.
- He was then elected General Prior from 2001 to 2013.
In October 2013, he returned to his Augustinian Province in Chicago, serving as director of formation at the Saint Augustine Convent, first councilor, and provincial vicar—roles he held until Pope Francis appointed him on November 3, 2014, as Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Chiclayo, and ordained bishop on December 12.
On September 26, 2015, he was appointed Bishop of Chiclayo by Pope Francis. In March 2018, he was elected second vice-president of the Peruvian Episcopal Conference, where he also served as a member of the Economic Council and president of the Commission for Culture and Education. Bishop Prevost will serve in Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023.
In 2019, Pope Francis appointed him a member of the Congregation for the Clergy (July 13, 2019), and in 2020, a member of the Congregation for Bishops (November 21). Meanwhile, on April 15, 2020, he was also appointed Apostolic Administrator of the Peruvian Diocese of Callao.
On January 30, 2023, the Pope called him to Rome as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, promoting him to the rank of Archbishop.
Pope Francis created him Cardinal in the Consistory of September 30, 2023, and assigned him the Diaconate of Saint Monica. He participated in the Pope’s most recent Apostolic Journeys and in both the first and second sessions of the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on synodality, in 2023 and 2024. He brings his experience of synodal assemblies already acquired previously as prior of the Augustinians and representative of the Union of Superiors General (UGS).
Meanwhile, on October 4, 2023, Pope Francis appointed him as a member of the Dicasteries for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches), for the Doctrine of the Faith, for the Eastern Churches, for the Clergy, for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, for Culture and Education, for Legislative Texts, and of the Pontifical Commission for the Vatican City State.
Finally, on February 6, 2025, he was promoted to the order of bishops by Francis, obtaining the title of Suburban Church of Albano.
Vatican News, Biography of Pope Leo XIV, May 8th 2025.
'' I was chosen, without any merit of my own, and now, with fear and trembling, I come to you as a brother, who desires to be the servant of your faith and your joy, walking with you on the path of God’s love, for he wants us all to be united in one family. ''
HOMILY OF THE HOLY FATHER LEO XIV for the beginning of the Pontificat, Saint Peter's Square
Sunday, 18 May 2025
https://www.vatican.va/content/vatican/fr.html