Pope Leo to open Augustinian General Chapter

Pope with his Augustinian confreres, 2 June 2025 ©Osafund - Fondazione Agostiniani nel Mondo

Source: Vatican Media

Pope Leo XIV will preside at the opening Mass for the 188th General Chapter of the Order of St Augustine on Monday, 1 September in the Basilica of St Augustine in Campo Marzio, Rome.

The Mass will inaugurate the work of the Chapter, which will continue at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum until September 18. The day also marks the 48th anniversary of Pope Leo's entry into the novitiate in 1977.

The celebration will be broadcast live on Vatican News' website, YouTube channel, and Facebook page, with simultaneous commentary in English, as well as Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Polish.

Held every six years, around 100 Augustinians will attend the General Chapter - 73 of them, representing 46 countries and 41 jurisdictions of the Order, will participate with voting rights.

Together they represent the 2,341 Augustinians who, as of December 31, 2024, serve in 395 communities across five continents, according to the Central Office of Church Statistics of the Holy See.

The delegates will be tasked with electing the 98th Prior General of the Order, following the 12-year leadership of Father Alejandro Moral, who has completed his second term. The program also includes sessions with contributions from the presidents of the federations of Augustinian religious sisters and from lay members of the Augustinian family, though they will not have voting rights.

Twelve years ago, the late Pope Francis opened the General Chapter in the same Roman basilica, marking the conclusion of Robert Prevost's term as Prior General after two six-year mandates. At that time, Fr Prevost-now the 266th Successor of Peter-along with his council, invited the then newly-elected Pope to preside at the 28 August opening Mass of the Chapter.

"To everyone's great surprise," Francis accepted, as he recalled in his final interview as a Cardinal with Vatican News.

In his homily at the Mass in 2013, Pope Francis highlighted that "the restlessness of the heart is what leads us to God and to love."

He stressed that St Augustine calls us to keep alive "the restlessness of spiritual seeking, the restlessness of encounter with God, the restlessness of love."

Pope Francis described Augustine's spiritual legacy as an attitude of "always going out toward God and always going out toward the flock." He portrayed the Bishop of Hippo as "a man caught in tension between these two directions - always on the way, always restless! And this is the peace of restlessness."

Pope Francis also warned against "privatizing love" and concluded by explaining that "restlessness is also love - always seeking, without pause, the good of the other."