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“The most important thing is to convey the beauty of faith and the joy of knowing Jesus. This means that we ourselves must live it and share in this experience.”

Let us welcome Pope Leo XIV with sympathy and empathy, with faith and hope, so that through his person and his service as “Servant of the Servants of God,” unity—unfolding in peace, justice, and love—may be ever more fully realized in our university communities.

(Vice-Rector Ferenc Janka)

On May 8, 2025, white smoke rising from the chimney of the Sistine Chapel signaled that the conclave had elected Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost as the 267th bishop of Rome, who took the name Leo XIV. The new pope stood in silence and visibly moved for an unusually long time on the balcony of St. Peter’s Basilica before addressing the world for the first time as pope with a greeting to the disciples of the risen Christ:
“Peace be with you all!”

Rome’s new bishop is the first Augustinian and the first North American pope. He was born in 1955 in Chicago to French, Italian, and Spanish ancestry. He studied mathematics and philosophy and later earned a doctorate in canon law in Rome. He served for over a decade in Peru as a missionary, parish priest, and theology lecturer. He was elected superior general of the Augustinian Order (2001–2013), and later became Bishop of Chiclayo. In 2023, Pope Francis appointed him prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, and in 2024 he was made cardinal. He likely took his name in homage to Leo XIII, known as the pope of peace and justice. His motto is: “In Illo uno unum” – “In the One, let us be one” (Saint Augustine).

His personal insights are drawn from close familiarity with the social, economic, cultural, and religious life of both North and South America. His education—rooted in the sober rationality of mathematics, the integrative vision of philosophy, the empathetic openness of theology to divine and human mystery, and the canonical order seeking to embody saving love amidst everyday challenges—shapes his worldview. In addition to his native English, he speaks Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian fluently, and reads German and Latin. As Superior General of the Augustinian Missionaries, he visited religious communities in 50 countries. He is seen as a man of Providence, someone who deeply understands the challenges facing a global Church, and who can be a sign and promoter of unity between God and humanity, and among people themselves.

Accounts of his spiritual profile describe him as a servant-leader who does not seek authority through hierarchy, but rather through presence among people. During his mission years, he taught in small villages, heard confessions, and shared meals with the poor. A man of simplicity, he rarely wore clerical attire, and was often seen in an open shirt, playing ball with children in a church courtyard. He is a soul striving for inner peace, a devotee of silence, prayer, and fraternal dialogue. He believes that God speaks most clearly through silence.

Quotes attributed to him:

• “Christ doesn’t ask what titles you hold, but whose feet you have washed.”
• “Periphery is not just a geographic concept. It begins where people feel they don’t matter.”
• “The Church will be authentic only if it listens more than it speaks.”
• “I don’t want to reform the Church but to return with it to the source: Jesus, who entered the city on a donkey, not in a carriage.”
• “The test of power is whether you can love while kneeling.”

In an interview during his time as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops—which can be read as something of a spiritual manifesto—he said the following about the role of a bishop:

“First of all, one must be ‘Catholic’: a bishop sometimes risks focusing solely on the local level. But it is important for a bishop to have a much broader vision of the Church and of reality, and to experience the Church’s universality. It is also essential to be able to listen to others, seek counsel, and to possess psychological and spiritual maturity. A key element of identity is the pastoral dimension: being able to stay close to the members of the community, starting with the priests, for whom the bishop is both father and brother. Living out this closeness with everyone, without excluding anyone.

Our authority lies in service, in accompanying priests, in being shepherds and teachers. We often focus on teaching—on how to live our faith—but we tend to forget that our primary task is to teach what it means to know Jesus Christ and to bear witness to our closeness to the Lord. This is the first and foremost duty: to communicate the beauty of faith, the beauty and joy of knowing Jesus. That means we must also live it ourselves and share in that experience.”