Pope Leo XIV is the first pope who belongs to the Order of Saint Augustine, whose principles, priests say, offer a window into what type of pontiff Leo may be.
Augustinians follow spiritual ideals aimed at bringing people together, guided by the ethos of the fourth- and fifth-century theologian saint. The order — a religious community that dedicates itself to a specific family of thought — focuses on unity, harmony, friendship, charity and service.
Those who know Leo — formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost — say he embodies those ideals. With the cardinals’ selection, Leo becomes the second successive pope who belongs to a religious order; Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, was a Jesuit.
“The main focus for Augustinians is on getting a community together and sharing our lives, our goods, our work,” said the Rev. Allan Fitzgerald, an Augustinian priest, Villanova University professor and the editor of an encyclopedia of Saint Augustine.
The most important part of what Pope Leo is talking about is bridging gaps — getting people back together and away from all the anger, the infighting,” Fitzgerald said, and “the nonsense that goes on around minor details when our humanity is something we hold in common.”
The Augustinians’ principles make Leo a natural successor to Francis, some experts said. While the two pontiffs’ religiousorders are different, both men were steeped in a strongly religious family and way of prayer, said the Rev. Peter Folan, a Jesuit priest and an assistant professor in theology and religious studies at Georgetown University.
As a young adult, Leo attended Villanova, an Augustinian Catholic institution outside Philadelphia, graduating in 1977. He was ordained in 1982. He later led the Augustinian community in Chicago and was twice elected to be the Augustinian order’s top leader.
He evoked Augustine’s teachings in his first public address after being named to the papacy Thursday. “I am a son of Saint Augustine, an Augustinian,” the pontiff said from a balcony overlooking St. Peter’s Square. “He said, ‘With you I am a Christian, for you a bishop.’ So may we all walk together toward that homeland that God has prepared for us.”
Leo’s citation of Augustine’s well-known line indicated his ethos of unity, said the Rev. Joseph McCormick, a Chicago area Augustinian priest who has known Leo for decades and said he is “steeped in the teachings of Augustine.”
“He’s not above the community or anything like that, he’s one of us,” McCormick said. “He will be listening not just to the higher-ups, but he will be listening to the individuals and also the different threads in all the different societies in the world.”
There is one ordained priesthood in the Catholic Church, but priests can belong either to religious orders — working in schools, parishes, as missionaries — or to dioceses, where they serve a particular church, Folan said. The religious orders — Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans and so on — all follow various figures’ teachings.
For Jesuits, the order to which Francis belonged, the focus is “to be out there in the world and fighting the good fight,” Fitzgerald said. “For Augustinians, it’s helping people come together to see the benefits of others and work toward at least acceptance if not friendship.”
Augustinian spirituality is based on the teachings of Saint Augustine of Hippo, who lived in North Africa is perhaps best known for chronicling his conversion to Christianity after a libertine youth in his autobiographical work “Confessions.” The Order of Saint Augustine was established in 1244.
Saint Augustine is remembered as a thoughtful and empathetic theologian and bishop who valued community and was welcoming to others, according to the Province of Saint Thomas of Villanova, one of three organized U.S. centers for Augustinians.
Over the centuries, “we have been hermits and monks and friars,” McCormick said, “and in more recent times, we’ve been teachers, missionaries — as Pope Leo, [formerly] our Father Bob, has been — and parish priests and serving in hospitals.”
Augustinians serve all over the world, according to geographical provinces. Besides Villanova, U.S. provinces are in Chicago and in Southern California. Philadelphia was the first area where Augustinians established activity in the United States, founding the Villanova province in 1796.
The Chicago-based Augustinian province said in a statement that Leo would bring the “heart of an Augustinian” to the papacy, with “a love for community, a thirst for truth, and a shepherd’s care for the people of God.”
“We see him as a bridge-builder, rooted in the spirit of Saint Augustine, walking forward with the whole Church as a companion on the journey,” said the provincial leader, the Rev. Anthony B. Pizzo. “We are honored that he is one of our own.”
The cardinals’ selection of a second successive pope who belongs to a religious order is likely significant, Folan said.
“In the Augustinians, their particular charisms — those gifts that the community has and Cardinal Prevost embodied — could be something the cardinals saw and said, ‘I think the time is right right now in the church for this set of gifts,’” Folan said.
Sammy Westfall contributed to this report.
THE ARTFUL DILETTANTE 
