The pope's doctoral thesis drew on St. Augustine's idea of religious authority as service, not power
By The Associated Press (AP) — The Rev. Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, wrote his doctoral thesis on the way local Augustinian superiors exercise authority, the university rector said Friday. It's an issue that is perhaps newly relevant now that Prevost is the leader of the 1.4-billion strong Catholic Church.
The way religious superiors exercise authority has long been a topic of study for scholars. In recent years it has come under renewed scrutiny in light of cases where such authority has been abused: When a superior takes advantage of his or her authority, and the obedience that is owed to him or her by underlings, for sexual or other ends.
It's an issue that Prevost would have dealt with as a superior of the Augustinian religious order from 2001-2012, bishop of Chiclayo, Peru from 2014-2023, and as prefect of the Vatican's dicastery for bishops, from 2023 until his election last week as pope. The Vatican office not only vets nominations of bishops around the world but also reviews cases of bishops who are accused of abusing their authority.
The Rev. Thomas Joseph White, rector of the Dominican-run Pontifical St. Thomas Aquinas University where Prevost studied from 1981 to 1985, said Prevost's canon law thesis demonstrated a 'very mature and nuanced' understanding of religious life and authority, especially for someone his age. Prevost would have been at the university, known as the Angelicum, from around 26 to 30 years old.
White said that Prevost was specifically interested in the issue of religious authority in light of the modernizing reforms of the Second Vatican Council and the new legal code that the Catholic Church adopted in 1983, while Prevost was at the university. In an email, he said Prevost underscored that all exercise of authority is meant to be a selfless act of service for the common good.
White highlighted a line from the thesis drawing from St. Augustine's concept of authority and service: 'There is no room in Augustine's concept of authority for one who is self-seeking and in search of power over others,' Prevost wrote.
'The exercise of authority in any Christian community requires the setting aside of all self-interest and a total dedication to the good of the community,' he wrote. 'This is the attitude which must be adopted as the starting point for an authentic understanding of the role of the local superior.'
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Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP's collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
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