Pope Leo's Doctoral Dissertation: Thoughts on Power and Authority

New York Times

22-05-2025

Almost 40 years ago, an American graduate student in Rome was closely examining the question of what it meant to be a wise and effective leader in the Catholic Church.
Today, the doctoral dissertation that Robert Prevost produced in the mid-1980s is one of the most detailed glimpses into the early intellectual life of the man who became Pope Leo XIV this month. The publication is all the more notable because Mr. Prevost didn't produce many public texts, interviews and speeches in the intervening years.
The 167-page text is written in English and titled 'The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.' It focuses, often very technically, on authority in the religious order that he joined as a young man. He also addresses how the order's local leaders should function in the organization, and more broadly expounds on the essence and purpose of leadership itself.
'There is no room in Augustine's concept of authority for one who is self-seeking and in search of power over others,' the future pope wrote in one passage. '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.'
That theme has carried through his life and may suggest how he aims to lead as pope. During the homily at his inaugural Mass at St. Peter's Square, Pope Leo echoed an idea and a particular Bible verse from the document. 'Peter must shepherd the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him,' he preached on Sunday.
He wrote in his thesis that 'the virtue of humility is indispensable for any superior' and referenced the New Testament book of 1 Peter: 'Be examples to the flock, not lording it over those assigned to you.'
In a section on 'safeguarding the life of the community,' Mr. Prevost addresses how a local leader should handle serious disciplinary cases involving a member of the order, including sexual offenses.
Previous pontiffs arrived in the office with volumes of published materials that offer insight into their thinking and interests. Benedict XVI, who was pope from 2005 to 2013, was a prolific theologian and a respected scholar who served for decades as the head of the Vatican's top doctrine office. When Pope Francis, Leo's predecessor, was selected, he had recently published a compilation of his 'reflections,' which he wrote as an archbishop in Buenos Aires.
Pope Leo, by contrast, spent almost his entire career working for the Order of the Augustinians, a relatively small order founded in the 13th century. After earning degrees at Villanova University and Catholic Theological Union in the United States, he earned two degrees at Rome's Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, including a doctorate that was published in 1987. The thesis that was the culmination of his studies in Rome quite literally gathered dust on university library shelves, just another record of another graduate student's extensive studies. Except this student would become the pope.
The text finds Leo writing to address a practical issue, if a dry one: how religious orders should function in light of a major revision of canon law that was issued in 1983, just four years before the dissertation was published. That revision was initiated in the 1960s, and developed in the long wake of the Second Vatican Council, which reshaped almost every aspect of the church's relationship to the modern world. Mr. Prevost's dissertation is primarily focused on pragmatic affairs: how long a prior can stay in office, the structure of mandatory retreats, even how he must advertise workshops.
But it also contains hints to how he may lead a global church in the next phase of its long history. Here are eight passages that capture the new pope's thinking as a young scholar on leadership, authority and some of the church's most pressing dilemmas.
Mr. Prevost refers in his introduction to the 'painful struggle' since the 1960s that led to so much upheaval in the church and the wider world. Citing Pope Paul VI, who led the church from 1963 to 1978, he stresses the need for balance between the values of love and freedom, and obedience and order. A new 'age of personalism' was influencing life in religious orders, too.
Mr. Prevost was very concerned with authority and its potential for misuse. He draws this theme from St. Augustine, who is cited everywhere in his thesis. Augustine was concerned about the human lust for domination, and how leaders and institutions needed to work to put boundaries on unchecked power. This was a theme that also concerned Pope Francis, who warned that 'where there is domination, there is abuse,' specifically in the treatment of women.
Mr. Prevost repeatedly emphasizes that authority should be a service rather than an opportunity for control. Again citing Augustine, he notes that authority in religious life is not an end to itself. In the order, a leader's role is to help those in the community 'live harmoniously,' guiding them through potential pitfalls and conflicts, and to listen, discuss and respect the talent and intelligence of all. True authority, he writes, requires trust and humility.
The act of listening is an Augustinian principle, both listening to God and to one another. It brings the community together, which the prior, as a leader of the community, has a key role in. This 'theology of listening' was present when Pope Leo first addressed the world from St. Peter's balcony after his election. He called for a 'synodal church,' referencing the process of listening and discussion between church leaders and lay people that Pope Francis prioritized, and that Pope Leo is expected to advance.
Another recurring theme is the importance of personal relationships in smoothing the inevitable challenges of communal life, including conflicts between authorities and those they lead. Mr. Prevost emphasizes that a 'collegial,' approachable authority can more easily address struggles in the community. But he also writes that while both authority and obedience have communal dimensions, 'in the end there must also be an individual who retains the authority to make decisions and to guide the life of the religious.'
Mr. Prevost's dissertation briefly addresses how a prior should handle a wide range of serious disciplinary cases involving a member of the order, including those dealing with sexual offenses. .
Citing canon law and the rule book of the Augustinians, Mr. Prevost lists offenses that might lead someone to be dismissed from the order. They include issues like losing 'the religious spirit completely' but also homicide, kidnapping, procuring an abortion or an 'offense against the sixth commandment with force or threats or publicly or with a minor below the age of sixteen.' The sixth commandment in Catholic teaching prohibits adultery.
Mr. Prevost emphasizes the importance of charity and sensitivity in enforcing any penalties against a member. 'In the most urgent cases, if no other steps can be taken, the local Prior can, with the consent of his Council, expel a Brother from the house,' he writes. 'The purpose of correcting one of the Brothers is to seek his conversion and to safeguard the life of the community.'
Near the end, he clarifies that the prior's role is more than rules and practicalities. For Mr. Prevost, administration and spirituality are intertwined. From a young age, he too had prominent administrative skills — from auditing the finances of his high school yearbook to earning a reputation as a competent leader in the curia. At the Vatican, cardinals are already talking about how he may bring those skills to reform the bureaucracy.