II. Education & Dissertation
Before Robert Francis Prevost became Pope Leo XIV, his mind was already deeply immersed in questions of authority, obedience, and how religious life should be structured in service to truth. His education and the doctoral work he completed offered early hints of what his pontificate might hold.
After finishing his undergraduate studies (B.S. in Mathematics at Villanova in 1977), Prevost entered the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago for his theological formation.¹ The Augustinian Order then sent him to Rome in his late twenties to study canon law at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, the Angelicum.² He professed solemn vows in the Order of Saint Augustine in 1981, and during those years his studies combined academic rigor with the lived experience of religious commitment.³
He earned the licentiate in canon law in 1984.⁴ Soon after, he embarked on a more ambitious path: a doctoral dissertation defended in 1987, titled The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.⁵ The dissertation explored a vital question: how does one lead as a superior within a religious community so that authority is not overbearing, but faithful, service-oriented, rooted in the Rule, respectful of conscience, and attentive to both individual and communal flourishing.⁶ This doctoral thesis is scheduled for publication by the Catholic University of America Press in October 2025.⁷
In his doctoral work, Prevost juxtaposed older traditions of authority, including juridical norms from Augustine’s own writings, with the post–Vatican II legal context and the newly promulgated 1983 Code of Canon Law. ⁸ He asked: What is the role of the local prior, the superior who lives and leads among the brothers? How should that role balance hierarchy and obedience with listening, co-responsibility, and the common good? ⁹
One of the striking themes is the way Prevost emphasizes that authority must originate from above (the Church, Christ, the Rule) but be exercised from within: with humility, consultation, and love of souls.¹⁰ He does not treat canonical power as detached or purely juridical; rather, he places the liturgy, common prayer, spiritual guidance, and formation of conscience at the heart of how authority is made real.¹¹ The dissertation argues that the superior’s office includes teaching (docendi), sanctifying (sanctificandi), and governing (regendi). This echoes Augustine’s understanding of Christian community and the threefold office of Christ. ¹²
Another important thread is how obedience is conceptualized. For Prevost, obedience is not blind submission, but a moral and spiritual discipline where the will consents freely through understanding, where conscience is to be respected, and where accountability and mutual respect prevail.¹³ Even as a young canonist, he showed concern about abuses of power, misuse of authority, and how leadership that fails to respect a community’s dignity will fracture the unity it is meant to preserve.¹⁴
Because his dissertation was written in the early 1980s, just after the 1983 Code of Canon Law and not long after Vatican II, it engages the tension of reform: how to maintain tradition and order while being responsive to the Spirit, to transformation, and to growth. ¹⁵ The work is scholarly and precise, yet deeply pastoral. It imagines what religious life looks like lived out in concrete communities, with real people: brothers, novices, priests, soul care, formation, conflict, loyalty.
As listeners, one might reflect this is not simply a legal treatise. It reveals Prevost’s sense of leadership, his hope for a Church where structure and love exist together, where authority is service, and where obedience is freedom in truth. These are the qualities that would later mark the early days of his pontificate, even when the tasks seemed gigantic.
Tension exists between authority and service
Hesitation to real assessment, most pastors advice let the dust settle for a year. Long term opinions based on argument for silence. This shouldn’t use it for criticism. Element in some way, hard to know if “Leos words” are his on twitter. Need a real patience, to grow in his teaching office.
First initial actions begin a slow original prayer in Latin. Teaching office Our Father, small catechesis in Latin. Permit pontifical High Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica. Juxtaposed teaching authority with other bishops in Francis’s name shutting Masses and document from Francis.
Done in America, all Leo’s formative year in USA, once this ruptured, how do this correct? Regather the sheep scattered.
Notes
- Vatican News, “Biography of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost,”Vatican News, May 8, 2025.
- “Future Pope Leo XIV’s Doctoral Thesis Offers Clues to His Pontificate,”CNA, May 15, 2025.
- Vatican News, “Biography of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost,”Vatican News, May 8, 2025.
- “How Leo XIV’s Rarely Seen Thesis Sheds Light on His Vision for the Church,”National Catholic Register, May 17, 2025.
- Vatican News, “Biography of Pope Leo XIV, born Robert Francis Prevost,”Vatican News, May 8, 2025.
- “How Leo XIV’s Rarely Seen Thesis Sheds Light on His Vision for the Church,”National Catholic Register, May 17, 2025.
- Catholic University of America Press, “CUA Press Announces Pope Leo XIV’s Doctoral Thesis Publication – October 2025,”The Catholic University of America, accessed October 29, 2025, https://www.cuapress.org/9780813240626/the-office-and-authority-of-the-local-prior-in-the-order-of-saint-augustine/.
- “Future Pope Leo XIV’s Doctoral Thesis Offers Clues to His Pontificate,”CNA, May 15, 2025.
- “Pope Leo XIV’s Ecclesiological Manifesto — housed in the University of Sydney library,”Library & News, University of Sydney, May 29, 2025.
- “Future Pope Leo XIV’s Doctoral Thesis Offers Clues to His Pontificate,”CNA, May 15, 2025.
- “Pope Leo XIV’s Ecclesiological Manifesto — University of Sydney …,”Library & News, May 29, 2025.
- “How Leo XIV’s Rarely Seen Thesis Sheds Light on His Vision for the Church,”National Catholic Register, May 17, 2025.
- “Future Pope Leo XIV’s Doctoral Thesis Offers Clues to His Pontificate,”CNA, May 15, 2025.
- “How Leo XIV’s 1980s Dissertation Reveals Vision of Humble Leadership and Authority,”Associated Press, May 16, 2025.
- “Pope Leo XIV’s Ecclesiological Manifesto — University of Sydney …,”Library & News, May 29, 2025.