The cellphone of the leader of the Order of St. Augustine, the Rev. Alejandro Moral Antón, buzzed for what seemed like the hundredth time, and he jumped. He had been up since 2:30 a.m. fielding calls, trying to explain to people across the globe how his order, the one that formed Pope Leo XIV, would shape the papacy.
This time, it was his dentist. He had missed an appointment.
“You know what’s happening?” he told the dentist on Monday afternoon in Rome. “The new pope is an Augustinian!”
The world’s sudden interest in the small order of fewer than 3,000 members had forced Father Moral Antón, an affable, 69-year-old Spaniard, to distill Augustinians’ principles and spiritual ideals to their essence. Charity, truth and unity, he recited in Latin and translated into Spanish.
Pope Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, is an American with Peruvian citizenship, but his identity may have been most deeply molded by his connection to the Augustinians, which began when he was 14 and led to his ordination in 1982 as an Augustinian priest. He moved to Peru as an Augustinian missionary and eventually ran the order for 12 years from Rome. In that position, he developed extensive international connections that helped raise his profile last week in the conclave of cardinals who elected him.
As the first Augustinian friar to become pope, Leo is expected by Augustinians to emphasize missionary outreach and the importance of listening widely before making decisions, both central to the Augustinian way of life.
“The Holy Father will certainly be inspired by this search for communion and dialogue,” said Pierantonio Piatti, a historian of Augustinians with the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, a Vatican office. That would mesh with the concept of “synodality,” fulfilling Francis’ vision of a church that brings bishops and lay people together to make big decisions.
