When Pope Leo XIV stepped out onto the loggia on St. Peter’s Square May 8, perhaps few people were more delighted than his brothers in the Midwest Augustinians, the members of the Order of St. Augustine based in Chicago.
They had faith that his Augustinian formation and charism would help him, and they stand ready to support him.
What they perhaps didn’t expect is the amount of interest they have seen in their community, which now consists of 57 brothers and priests in vows.
Augustinian Father Anthony Pizzo, the prior provincial, was on vacation in Italy during the conclave. He’d already had plans to travel from Sicily to Rome around the time of Leo’s election, he said, and hoped to take then-Cardinal Robert Prevost to dinner if the conclave was over.
That didn’t happen. Instead, “I had 350 messages and phone calls in the first 24 hours,” Pizzo said. “It’s amazing my head didn’t explode.”
Augustinian Father Thomas McCarthy, Midwest Augustinian vocation director and rector of the Shrine of St. Rita of Cascia, 7700 S. Western Ave., said the community’s website got 34,000 hits the week after Pope Leo was elected. Prior to Leo’s election, the site averaged “maybe 50 or 60 hits a week,” he said.
In that time, about 300 men filled out the web form to talk to someone about a possible vocation to the Augustinians — “Before, we might not have had 300 in a year,” McCarthy said — and, after assessing qualifications (such as being Catholic and not married) and seriousness, McCarthy is continuing discussions with 10 men.
That might not sound like a lot, but a usual vocation class for the province would be two or three, he said.
“We’re calling it the Leo effect,” McCarthy said. “It’s been a lot of fun; it’s been a lot of work.”
Augustinian formation includes a year of pre-novitiate, usually at St. Clare of Montefalco Parish on the Southwest Side, he explained, followed by year of novitiate near Villanova University outside Philadelphia.
After novitiate, new Augustinians take their first simple vows, which are renewed each year, and study theology at Catholic Theological Union in Hyde Park. They also complete a “pastoral year” after their third year of theology studies.
Some go on to be ordained priests and others choose to remain brothers. The earliest an Augustinian can apply to make solemn, or permanent, vows is five years after their first vows.
Augustinian Brother David Marshall, who works in pastoral ministry and the music department at Providence High School in New Lenox, said he has definitely seen more interest since the election of Pope Leo in May.
“My non-Catholic friends were actually reaching out to me and asking me about what it meant to elect a pope,” said Brother David, who has completed his studies but not yet taken solemn vows. “Catholic friends are asking, ‘What’s an Augustinian?” People in religious life are reaching out and saying, ‘Who’s Pope Leo?’ People are reaching out and asking questions to bring them one step closer.”
McCarthy said that many people, even Catholics, are not as aware of the Augustinian order as they are of other communities, such as the Jesuits and Franciscans, even though the order was founded nearly 800 years ago, in A.D. 1244, and is based on the rule of St. Augustine.
Indeed, until the election of Pope Leo, most people found the Augustinians by reading “The Confessions of St. Augustine,” McCarthy said.
“Everything for the Augustinians is about community,” McCarthy said. “Building community, living community. We do it very intentionally. Everything for Augustine was about friendship. What we say is, ‘To be of one heart and one mind intent upon God.’”
The Augustinian charism in the United States is lived out through operating schools and parishes, he said, with 10 high schools, including Chicago’s St. Rita of Cascia, two colleges and about a dozen parishes in the United States, he said.
Augustinian Brother Nathan Fernandes, who expects to be ordained next year, said he had been in formation to be an archdiocesan priest in Toronto, but he was ill and took some time away.
During that time, he lived in an Augustinian community in suburban Ontario, with no intention of discerning a vocation to religious life, and found himself drawn to the charism of community and friendship that he found there.
“They took care of me when I didn’t belong to them,” said Brother Nathan, now doing a pastoral year at St. Turibius Parish. “They gave me a job and a place to stay. I was able to make friends with the friars who were there. They mentored me spiritually, told me about Augustine and his spirituality, and those values fit very well with my spirituality.”
On hearing of the election of Augustinian pope, Fernandes said, he pondered what it meant about God’s plan.
“If an Augustinian pope is elected, does the church need the Augustinians right now, our charism and our spirituality?” he said. “What does the church need from us, from me? Is there something our order is meant to offer?”
Brother Nathan and Brother David said most people want to know whether they have met Pope Leo; the answer is no, because had been serving in Peru and Rome since they came into the community.
But many of their fellow friars, including Pizzo, have.
Pizzo said he has enjoyed hearing the pope speak as an Augustinian and about his Augustinian foundation.
“His history indicates that he has always been appreciated and deeply respected because of his openness and listening skills, his synodality, but also his pragmatism,” Pizzo said, “He’s a practical guy. He listens carefully. … He’s a very intelligent guy, but he’s not pretentious about his academic prowess. He’s very down to earth.”