Peru’s Augustinian friars remember ‘Monsignor Roberto’ as defender of ‘those who have nothing’
VILLANOVA, Pa. — Augustinian Father Robert Hagan said that fellow order member Pope Leo XIV has “always been a brother to us” — one who encouraged him from his early days to his own leadership role in the order.
Father Hagan, prior provincial of the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, said he was in the order’s novitiate when he first met then-Father Robert Prevost, having been assigned to an Augustinian-run parish in Racine, Wisconsin, for a spiritual year in the Midwest Augustinian Province.
“He’s about 10 years older than me … so when I entered — and I was a bit of a later vocation — he was already well on his way in his life as an Augustinian,” said Father Hagan.
After a career as a criminal defense attorney, the future Father Hagan was “a newbie … a rookie” to religious life.
“That is what ‘novice’ means,” he said. “I didn’t know much about the life of an Augustinian, what it means. And here he is, welcoming me, introducing me to other friars and brothers in the Chicago province, … encouraging me, you know, in my vocation.”
Father Hagan said the future pope bolstered him with exhortations to “persevere” and “hang in there,” saying the order offered “a good life.”
That advice was all the more appreciated by the Augustinian novice, who admitted that “there’s something humbling about coming into the order after having had a career.”
“Quite frankly, when you’re in Augustinian formation, nobody really cares much about your career,” said Father Hagan. “You’re kind of like back at the bottom of the totem pole, kind of learning the rule of St. Augustine, and this way of life and the vows. That doesn’t mean that you don’t bring who you were and your experience … but I think there’s so much being thrown at you in terms of what you don’t know, and so … where you were and what you were doing isn’t as important as what you still need to learn in terms of your Augustinian formation and growth.”
But the future pope — who holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum — “was actually interested in what I did do,” he said.
As Father Hagan pursued his vocation — which included being named team chaplain for Villanova University’s football and men’s basketball teams, as well as the school’s senior associate athletic director — he would “kind of overlap” with the future pope at Augustinian functions.
“A lot of times you’re celebrating the vows of another friar or ordination, and so you would see him from time to time, as friends do,” said Father Hagan.
When Father Hagan was elected three years ago as prior provincial of the St. Thomas of Villanova Province, “one of the first emails I received” was from the future pope, he said.
“He’s had leadership positions, and he sent me this very warm, affirming note of congratulations and offering prayers and support,” Father Hagan said. “And I think it was just somebody who knew some of the burden of leadership and the responsibilities involved. And he was offering me his support as a brother.”
The moment the newly chosen Pope Leo XIV “emerged on that balcony, for a lot of us … was just surreal and breathtaking,” sparking “surprise and shock and joy and enthusiasm,” said Father Hagan. “It was like a family member had been announced and stepped out there.”
And his Augustinian family doesn’t mind bragging a bit, he added.
Father Hagan highlighted the future pope’s years of ministry in Peru, “working with the poorest of the poor,” as well as the entire arc of his vocation — “in formation, working as director in the seminary, as a teacher, as a preacher” — saying, “all those gifts now come to bear (fruit) for the world.”
And, Father Hagan said, “the world is the beneficiary, the flock.”
The new pope “will immerse himself in the culture and listen to the struggle, listen to the heart, and listen to voices that aren’t always at the table,” he said. “(He will) listen to the poor, listen to those on the margins.”
Father Hagan described Pope Leo’s leadership style as “very Augustinian, because Augustine was about two things, and not one or the other — contemplation and action,” mirroring Christ’s own earthly ministry.
“He’s a person who reflects before he speaks,” Father Hagan said of the new pope. “He’s always been a brother to us, you know?”
‘He doesn’t complicate life’
Father Jorge Majail still remembers feeling nervous as a young seminarian ahead of a visit from the then-superior general of the Order of St. Augustine, Father Robert Francis Prevost — the man who would become Pope Leo XIV.
“You would expect that the general who is going to arrive will be a person who shows his authority. But, no,” Father Majail, now spokesman for the Augustinians in Peru, said.
“Right from the start, (he was) a simple man. As we say in Peru, ‘He doesn’t complicate life,’” he explained, using a local phrase which might be translated as: “He doesn’t sweat the small stuff.”
“Here is where he learned to be a missionary priest,” Father Majail said. “A priest, when he develops his ministry … is marked by the places where he begins to be in contact with people, to develop his pastoral work, to work with the community. And Peru was that place for him.”
The future Pope Leo first visited Peru as a missionary in 1985, serving in a project sponsored by his U.S. province in the community of Chulucanas — “an area punished by poverty,” Father Majail said.
He returned to Peru in the late 1980s, serving in the city of Trujillo and was eventually named bishop of Chiclayo, some 480 miles north of Lima, in 2015.
Father José Luis Romero Toscano, vicar of the St. Augustine parish in Chiclayo, described his former bishop as someone who connected with people. “He was a person who did not avoid people approaching him,” Father Romero said. “If you came over to ask him for a photo, ask him a question or talk to him, he would stop his secretary for a while and talk to you,” he added. “It wasn’t: I’m busy, I have to go.”
Pope Leo learned the nuances of the local language — including slang — and adjusted his vocabulary to connect with his audience.
For his part, Father Majail said, “I’m really looking forward to his first apostolic letter. There he’s going to show his heart. And it’s definitely going to appear like he’s Peruvian since he’s definitely from Latin America.” He added, “The gesture to Leo XIII will be noticeable: Defending the campesino, the worker, those who have nothing, those who cry out.”
David Agren, OSV News, contributed to this story.
