(ZENIT News / Rome, 08.14.2025).- Nearly four decades before he stepped onto the balcony of St. Peter’s as Pope Leo XIV, the future pontiff was immersed in the quiet rigor of doctoral research. That work, long of interest to scholars but accessible only in specialized settings, is now set to reach a wider audience.
This October, The Catholic University of America Press will publish in both print and Kindle formats the English edition of «The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of St. Augustine». The academic study, defended in 1987 at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome, earned the young Fr. Robert Prevost his doctorate in canon law. At the time, few could have predicted that its author would one day become the Bishop of Rome.
Framed by a new foreword from Dominican theologian Fr. Thomas Joseph White, rector of the Angelicum, the volume is more than an exercise in ecclesiastical governance. While rooted in the specific duties of a local prior within the Augustinian tradition, it unfolds broader reflections on the Church’s life and leadership — reflections that, in hindsight, may serve as a window into the theological and pastoral instincts of the current pope.
The dissertation situates the local prior not merely as an administrator but as a spiritual anchor for his community, with the Eucharistic liturgy at the heart of communal life. It emphasizes the common good of the Church, the value of consultation alongside hierarchical authority, and the mutual respect due to the varied gifts within the Body of Christ. Central to its vision is an Augustinian understanding of the spiritual life: the primacy of God’s love, the inner work of grace, and a deep conformity to Christ.
Canon lawyers may be drawn to the meticulous way the future pope examined the Augustinian Constitutions in light of the then newly promulgated Code of Canon Law. Historians and theologians, meanwhile, might find in these pages the early contours of a pontificate that has shown a marked sensitivity to both the demands of tradition and the pastoral needs of the present.
When The New York Times and other media outlets sought to discern the mind of Pope Leo XIV soon after his election, they found in his doctoral thesis an early map of his ecclesial convictions. The forthcoming English edition, complete with Fr. White’s interpretive introduction, now invites a much broader readership into that conversation — offering not only an academic study of Augustinian governance, but also a glimpse into the convictions and hopes of a young priest whose vocation would one day embrace the universal Church.
Pre-release sales are open through CUA Press and Amazon.
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