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Forbes
17-05-2025
- Business
- Forbes
Why Pope Leo Can Skip FATCA, But Not FBAR
There has been a lot of discussion about the possible U.S. tax obligations for Pope Leo XIV, the first U.S. citizen Pope. Some of the assertions have generated confusion, leaving key U.S. tax concepts insufficiently addressed. One of the biggest areas of misunderstanding has been the Pope's possible FBAR reporting (FinCEN Form 114) versus FATCA reporting (IRS Form 8938) obligations for financial accounts at the Vatican Bank. Some of the discourse has been conflating the FBAR requirements under the Bank Secrecy Act with those of FATCA Form 8938 requirements under the U.S. tax laws. It is important to distinguish between the two. This article explains why, notwithstanding his vow of poverty with the Order of St. Augustine, Pope Leo XIV might face a legal duty under the FBAR rules to disclose financial accounts at the Vatican Bank, but need not report them under the mandates of FATCA on Form 8938. The holdings of the Vatican Bank are significant, totalling €5.4 billion in assets and serving 12,361 clients according to its 2023 Annual Report. The FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is mandated under Title 31 of the U.S. Code, the Bank Secrecy Act. The BSA was enacted in the 1970s to fight terrorism, tax evasion and other financial crimes. It is not part of the Internal Revenue Code and does not impose any tax. Instead, it is an informational form requiring U.S. persons to report any 'financial interest in or signature authority over' foreign financial accounts if the aggregate value of all such accounts exceeds $10,000 at any point in the calendar year. The FBAR rules provide that having control over disposition of assets in a foreign financial account by direct communication with the financial institution is signature authority, sufficient to trigger FBAR filing obligations if the threshold is met. It is immaterial that one lacks ownership of the account. Additionally, the FBAR reporting obligation applies regardless whether the person is required to file a U.S. income tax return. All of this makes sense since the aim of FBAR is transparency about foreign financial accounts and not taxation. FATCA, enacted in 2010, is part of the U.S. tax laws, under Title 26 of the U.S. Code (Title 26 embodies the U.S. Internal Revenue Code). FATCA information reporting is carried out by completing IRS Form 8938 to report an individual's ownership of so-called 'specified foreign financial assets' that meet a certain threshold. It is a different regime altogether from the BSA and its concomitant FBAR filing obligations. FATCA, like FBAR, is aimed at offshore asset transparency, but has crucial differences. First, foreign financial assets that must be reported on the Form 8938 are only those assets in which the person has a beneficial ownership interest. While signature authority alone doesn't trigger Form 8938 reporting, it serves as an absolute and independent linchpin for FBAR disclosure. Second, Form 8938 is mandated only if the U.S. person is required to file a U.S. tax return and the specified foreign financial assets exceed certain thresholds. FBAR, by contrast, is not tied to a tax return. It must be filed even if the individual has no tax return filing obligation and even if he earns no income. These distinctions are vital in the case of Pope Leo XIV. When he was in his 20's, Pope Leo XIV took a vow of poverty as part of the Order of St. Augustine. The vow he took is very strict and means that he does not own personal property or assets; all are turned over to the Order. Additionally, any income he may earn or gifts he may receive are also turned over to the Order, a tax-exempt entity. This vow of poverty may exempt him from the need to file a U.S. tax return altogether even though as a general matter, U.S. persons living and working in foreign countries must file a tax return. Filing in the typical case is required, even if the foreign earned income falls below the special exemption amount for Americans overseas. Furthermore, the vow would mean that Pope Leo has no foreign financial assets in which he holds a beneficial interest. Accordingly, for these reasons, the Pope would have no duty to file FATCA Form 8938. The Pope's possible duties under FBAR are completely different. The requirement to file FBAR arises independently from ownership of any assets or earned income. It arises from control—specifically, signature or other authority over foreign financial accounts. The pressing issue is not whether Pope Leo XIV personally owns accounts at the Vatican Bank, formally known as the Institute for Works of Religion, but whether he has "signature or other authority" over the IOR accounts within the meaning of the FBAR regime. Under FBAR regulations, signature authority exists when an individual can control the disposition of assets in a financial account by direct communication (whether in writing or otherwise) with the institution maintaining the account. The Holy See is the Catholic Church's governing authority, led by Pope Leo, and is recognized as a sovereign entity. In 2022, Pope Francis mandated that all Holy See assets be consolidated in the Vatican Bank. This is a policy inherited by Pope Leo and it is this centralized control which raises questions whether the Pope's role equates to a de facto signature authority over IOR accounts. As the sovereign head of the Vatican and supreme authority over Vatican entities, including its financial institutions, Pope Leo XIV arguably exercises such control. Some recent discussions that have speculated on the Pope's potential U.S. tax obligations, seem to have a misunderstanding or misapplication of the relevant legal frameworks. Confusing FBAR and FATCA is a common, but very significant error. It is an error that can result in very harsh penalties as well as the stress of audits and an open-ended statute of limitations if the Form 8938 remains unfiled when otherwise required. Pope Leo XIV's vow of poverty likely shields him from income tax filing and FATCA's Form 8938 requirements. However, his potential control over the Vatican Bank raises important questions about FBAR filing duties. Since the Pope is a U.S. citizen and potentially exercises signature authority over foreign financial accounts that undoubtedly exceed $10,000 in aggregate, he may well have an FBAR obligation, regardless of his personal lack of wealth. In this era of financial transparency, even a pontiff may not be exempt from the long arm of U.S. financial reporting laws. The intriguing case of Pope Leo and his possible U.S. reporting obligations underscore the vast reach of FBAR and FATCA. While not everyone can be the Pope, this situation is a startling reminder that all U.S. citizens and residents must abide by FBAR mandates. It also serves as a warning to foreign employers who do not want company accounts to be disclosed to the IRS, that they should re-think giving U.S. persons control over such accounts. Stay on top of tax matters around the globe. Reach me at vljeker@ Visit my U.S. tax blog
New York Times
09-05-2025
- General
- New York Times
Live Updates: Leo XIV's Service to Poor Propelled Him to Papacy, Cardinals Say
The new pope, Leo XIV, has spent most of his life as a friar in the Order of St. Augustine, a religious community in the Roman Catholic Church. His experience of joining, serving and leading that institution could shape his approach to the papacy. Experts said that a commitment to two elements of Augustinian teaching — missionary outreach and listening widely before taking decisions — would most likely have a particular influence, just as Pope Francis' identity as a Jesuit guided his papacy. Leo used his first Mass as pope on Friday to call for 'missionary outreach,' possibly an early sign of the order's influence on him. The pope, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, grew up in the Chicago area. He attended a boarding school for boys near the city of Holland, Mich., that was run by the Augustinians. The school has since closed. In 1977, he graduated from Villanova University, the premier Catholic university of the Augustinian order in the United States. That year, he entered the novitiate of the Order of St. Augustine in St. Louis. Four years later, at age 25, he made his vows to join the order, according to Vatican News, the Holy See's news service. The decision to join an order rather than become a priest in a diocese is crucial to understanding Leo's approach to a life of faith, according to Sister Gemma Simmonds, an author and senior research fellow at the Margaret Beaufort Institute of Theology at Cambridge University. A diocesan priest is charged with obedience to his bishop but is otherwise largely independent, she said, while a member of an order makes a commitment to live, pray, eat, worship and make decisions in community. 'The emphasis is on collaboration and community life,' said Sister Gemma, who belongs to the Congregation of Jesus, another Catholic religious order. 'That's very interesting for a pope, because it means that he is geared toward collaborative decision making.' The Order of St. Augustine, one of many within the Catholic Church, has its own distinct character. It was founded in 1244, when Pope Innocent IV united groups of hermits in service to the church as a community of friars. The group committed to a lifestyle of poverty, and a mix of contemplation and pastoral service. Augustinians look to one of Christianity's most important early theologians, Aurelius Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, who was born in what is now Algeria in the fourth century. Augustine is perhaps most famous for an autobiographical work called 'Confessions,' which in part details his conversion to Christianity after an immoral youth. He also wrote a guide to religious life, known as a rule, which is the cornerstone of the Augustinian order. It commits its members to 'live together in harmony, being of one mind and one heart on the way to God.' The order is divided into three branches — friars, nuns and lay members — and has a presence in around 50 countries, most notably in Latin America, according to its website. Leo led the Augustinians, as Prior General, from 2001 to 2013. On Thursday, the Augustinians welcomed the new pope's election and said it would 'renew our commitment as Augustinians to serve the Church in its mission.' That mission, especially in Peru, defined the new pope's career. As a priest, he first went to the country in 1985, working at the Augustinian mission in the northwestern town of Chulucanas. Over the following years, he moved into more senior roles at the Augustinian mission in the city of Trujillo, where he was also a professor of canon law and theology. In those years, the country was plagued by violence fomented by the Shining Path, a Maoist guerrilla movement. The legacy of some Christian missionary work has attracted criticism, not least in Latin America where over the centuries it helped promote conquest and colonization. While the church has wrestled with that legacy, the concept of mission, in the sense of reaching beyond the institution's walls into communities that are often impoverished, retains a powerful hold on Catholic thinking. John Allen, a veteran Vatican analyst, said that Leo's experience as a missionary was likely part of what attracted the cardinals to him in the papal conclave. 'One of the things he did is to insist that the leadership of the mission becomes indigenous,' Mr. Allen said in an interview. 'That reflects the heart of a missionary, and I think that is what the cardinals saw.'
ABC News
09-05-2025
- Politics
- ABC News
'One people always in peace': Pope Leo XIV as a bridge-builder in a deeply divided church and world - ABC Religion & Ethics
Pope Leo XIV is a citizen both of the United States and of Peru — he thus represents the very antithesis of political tendency to build walls between North America and Latin America, between the rich and the poor. In a broader sense, he is a global citizen, having served two terms as the international leader of the Order of St Augustine and lead the dicastery that helped Pope Francis to choose bishops around the world. Friendship, community, love, the pursuit of wisdom and peace — these are the key Augustinian values. The Augustinians thus have a long-standing commitment to work for justice, peace and what Pope Francis called 'integral ecology'. Indeed, Pope Leo's first words to the crowd gathered in St Peter's Square was greetings of peace. He went on to reiterate the word 'peace' several more times in the space of his short address. The pursuit of peace is a key challenge of our times and could well be the focus of Leo XIV's teaching. The choice of the name 'Leo XIV' cannot help but call to mind Pope Leo XIII, whose landmark 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum (on the condition of the working classes) is widely regarded as marking the beginning of modern Catholic social teaching. His choice of the name thus signals an ongoing commitment to the inseparability of love of God and love of neighbour — not just at the level of interpersonal relationships, but also in our social relations. It affirms the social dimension of the mission of the church. It places continuity with Pope Francis's concern for justice, ecology and peace in the broader context of the Catholic social justice tradition. Interiority and prayer are essential to Augustinian spirituality. I think we can look forward to Pope Leo XIV continuing Pope Francis's more explicit integration of spirituality into Catholic social teaching and the decision-making processes in the church. He has already indicated that he will walk with the people of God continuing along the path of synodality, which requires prayerful communal discernment. The famous saying of St Augustine of Hippo, 'freedom in what is uncertain, unity in essentials, and love in all things', may provide inspiration for how to hold in creative tension the diversity of the global church. Sandie Cornish is a Senior Lecturer in Theology at the Australian Catholic University. She is a member of the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development and coordinator of the Synod's Study Group 2. She is a specialist in Catholic Social Teaching and was an expert facilitator at the two assemblies of the Synod on Synodality. US religious celebrate with the Stars and Stripes flag the newly elected Pope Leo XIV, Robert Francis Prevost, after he arrives for the first time on the balcony of the central loggia of St Peter's Basilica on 8 May 2025. (Photo by Andrea Mancini / NurPhoto via Getty Images) The right pope at the right time Stewart Braun The fact that Pope Leo XIV has already drawn ire and outrage from the republican MAGA movement in the United States over his support for humanitarian rights and economic justice strongly suggests to me that he is the right pope at the right time. Consider the reaction of MAGA influencer and informal presidential advisor Laura Loomer, who wrote on X that Pope Leo is 'anti-Trump, anti-MAGA, pro-open Borders, and a total Marxist like Pope Francis'. Extreme distortion and brazen falsehood aside, Loomer is probably right that the new pope will likely continue much of Pope Francis's project. In his work as cardinal, Robert Prevost was openly supportive of humanitarian immigration and care for the poor and marginalised, sometimes challenging the MAGA movement. The fact that he also chose the name Leo — with its connection back to Pope Leo XIII, who is deeply connected with the Catholic social justice tradition — suggests he will devote much of his pontificate to addressing precisely such matters. With the rise of the extreme right in countries like the United States and Hungary, the new pope is likely to serve as a strong-counter voice of inclusivity, humility and charity — much like his predecessor. There was a very real danger that with the passing of Pope Francis the world would be left without an influential voice that would pushing back against the extreme ideology of MAGA-style politics. Absent such a voice, it would be possible that distortions like those peddled by Vice President JD Vance — who argued incorrectly that the support wealthy nations owe the global poor is severely limited — would be left to fill the void. With the election of Pope Leo XIV, I believe that danger is very much mitigated. The new pope is likely to work to ensure that the Catholic Church supports those most in need. As he stated in his first address, the church must be one 'that always seeks charity, that always tries to be close especially to those who suffer'. Of course, there will be questions about Pope Leo's position regarding LGBTQI+ rights, but I suspect his commitment to an inclusive church that is guided by a sense of synodality will lead him to be respectful and humble concerning the matter. In the end, Pope Leo XIV seems to be the right pope to steer the Catholic Church at a crucial moment when it needs to confront strong challenges to its core message of charity and love. Stewart Braun is Senior Lecturer in the School of Philosophy and an Associate of the Institute for Religion and Critical Inquiry at Australian Catholic University. Pope Leo XIII at the beginning of his pontificate in 1878. (Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images) What's in a name? Benedict Coleridge Pope Leo XIV's predecessor in the long line of Leonine popes famously inaugurated many of the central themes of modern Catholic social teaching with his 1891 encyclical 'on the condition of the working classes'. I recently re-read Rerum Novarum with friends, and we were struck by how contemporary it seemed, and how important its emphases are for the church today. Rerum Novarum was an attempt to respond to the profound material and political upheavals of the late-nineteenth century, with its declaration on the 'rights and duties of capital and labour'. It asserted the dignity of labour and the rights of working people, using vivid language that many non-Catholics may not necessarily associate with Catholic social thought. Thus the encyclical insists: If we turn not to things external and material, the first thing of all to secure is to save unfortunate working people from the cruelty of men of greed, who use human beings as mere instruments for money-making. It is neither just nor human so to grind men down with excessive labour as to stupefy their minds and wear out their bodies. We live in a world that is being rapidly transformed by new industries, new technologies and, with them, newly reductive ways of re-casting the social role of labour and instrumentalising the human person. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrated how, behind the virtual world of the digital economy, there are hardworking people 'wearing out their bodies' with physical effort, just as the unending migrant crisis 'wears out bodies' in the human search for hope. In such a world, it strikes me how easy it is for different veins of social or political experience to become mutually unintelligible. Do the wealthy understand the terror of precarity? Can the settled imagine the despair of war? Pope Leo XIV's Urbi et Orbi address struck me for its emphasis on the need to turn to see each other, and crossing the bridges of dialogue to encounter one another across social roles, forms of labour and cultural traditions. Across the vastly different experiences of social and economic life in the globalised world of the twenty-first century, Leo XIV gently urges us to adopt a synodal spirit, to practice solidarity with 'those who suffer' and to search for a 'disarming peace' in which we can begin to hear the voices of others. He urges a turn away from the reduction of human beings to instruments and their restoration as members of 'that homeland that God has prepared for us'. Benedict Coleridge is an Australian political and legal theorist and scholar of international relations who completed graduate and doctoral studies at the University of Oxford and Yale Law School. Newly elected Pope Leo XIV addresses the crowd on the main central loggia balcony overlooking St Peter's Square on 8 May 2025. (Photo by Francesco Sforza – Vatican Media via Vatican Pool / Getty Images) 'Peace be with you!' Clare Johnson The announcement of the new pope, Leo XIV, is exciting for the church and for the world. A pontiff of North American origin and South American missionary experience will certainly bring a varied and rich perspective to the papacy. Pope Leo's Urbi et Orbi speech began with a greeting of peace to the city and to the world, and signalled his intention to be a bridge-builder. Touchingly, he indicated his great respect for his predecessor, Pope Francis, and his desire to maintain continuity with Francis's synodality initiatives. Pope Leo's pastoral experience working with the poor in Chiclayo, Peru, will have shaped his view of how the church can serve and his Augustinian charisms — focusing on parish work, education, healthcare and missions — will mean that he has a grassroots understanding of key areas of the church's ministry. The choice of the name 'Leo' is interesting. The last Pope Leo XIII was known for his Catholic social teaching, especially through the 1891 encyclical Rerum Novarum and his keen interest in the plight of workers. Pope Leo XIV is an inspired choice, and it will be very interesting to watch his initiatives take shape in the years to come. Clare Johnson is Professor of Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at the Australian Catholic University, and Director of the ACU Centre for Liturgy. The newly elected pontiff, Pope Leo XIV, leaves after being seen for the first time from the balcony of St Peter's Basilica on 8 May 2025. (Photo by Christopher Furlong / Getty Images) A pope for both sides of the Catholic Church Miles Pattenden An American pope? For many, that was unexpected. And yet the momentum behind Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost — now Pope Leo XIV — seemed to have been building in Rome all week. Support for Secretary of State Pietro Parolin had stalled. Cardinals were growing increasingly uncertain about Luis Antonio Gokim Tagle of Manilla. Whereas Prevost ticked all the boxes. Sure, he had been born in the United States, but should that really be held against him? Pope Leo XIV has had an impressive career in the missionary church in Peru. He has been in charge of the Diocese of Chiclayo — which he mentioned by name in his Urbi et Orbi address — and he has run a Vatican department. For cardinals looking for a bit of everything, and looking for it quickly, he was the perfect pontiff for the present moment. This papal election was about several things — but I believe it was, above all, about where the church's future should lie: with rich Westerners, whose views are increasingly at odds with Catholic social teaching, or with the ever-expanding numbers of the faithful in the Global South? Prevost, as a dual passport holder, gives the Catholic Church leadership in both directions. He is known to be moderate on social issues, but he also is a passionate evangelist of the poor. We can expect him to continue with the emphases of Pope Francis, but in a more orderly and measured manner. The name 'Leo XIV' is important, as was the choice of vestments he made when he appeared on the balcony of St Peter's Basilica. Wearing the muzetta (the velvet cape) which Francis has eschewed, he gave a nod to Benedict XVI and the traditionalists. He may not be one of them, but it was a sign that he includes them. The name 'Leo' takes us back to Leo XIII, the great pope at the end of the nineteenth century who was, in many ways, the founding figure of both the modern papacy and Catholic social teaching. Leo XIII, after the unhappy pontificate of Pius IX which saw the pope lose his role as a temporal ruler in Rome, reinvented the papal office as a great spiritual and moral institution. His encyclical Rerum Novarum tried to reconcile capitalism and socialism, Catholicism and democracy. Leo XIII was the pope who shepherded the Catholic Church into the modern age. Leo XIV has already set out his stall: he will be a bridge-builder who will do the same for post-modernity. Miles Pattenden is a medieval historian and researcher at Deakin University and the University of Oxford. He is the author of Electing the Pope in Early Modern Italy, 1450-1700.
New York Times
08-05-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
‘He Checked All the Boxes.' Pope Leo XIV Overcame a Liability — Being American.
In retrospect, Pope Leo XIV had it all going for him. The new pope, whose election on the second day of the conclave stunned the Roman Catholic world, seemed to be from two places at once. He was born and educated in the United States, a country vital to the church's finances. But he was also a missionary, pastor and bishop in Peru who ran the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, a part of the world where the church is vibrant. He had the good papal housekeeping seal of approval from Pope Francis, his predecessor, who put him in one of the top jobs in the Roman Catholic Church. There, as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, he led the office that helped that pope choose bishops and, thus, determine the future of the church. He knew, and was one of, the voting cardinals in the church's powerful bureaucracy, but he put liberals at ease with his strong support for Francis' arguably greatest change, which sought to make the church's decision-making process more bottom-up and closer to the faithful. In uncertain times, he ran a global religious group, the Order of St. Augustine, that required a sophisticated understanding of the world. His deep theological formation may have put conservatives worried about doctrine at ease. At age 69, the new pope is the ideal age for a papal candidate. The major strike against him was his American nationality, a deal breaker in decades past because it was seen as being too closely aligned with the world's dominant super power. But in a world order that has changed significantly and in a church that increasingly sees beyond nationality, that apparently turned out not to matter to the 133 cardinals voting in the Sistine Chapel. 'He checked all the boxes,' said John Allen, a veteran Vatican analyst and author of the book 'Conclave.' He added, 'Geography and nationality stopped being a voting issue.' After a dozen years of Francis' shaking up the church, the College of Cardinals apparently wanted to keep moving in Francis' direction but with fewer detours and crashes. They chose a mild-mannered pastor, moderate in tone but resolute in his defense of doctrine, one with deep Roman experience and governing chops. 'We must seek together how to be a missionary church,' Pope Leo said in Italian from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in his maiden address on Thursday as the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. He said the church needed to work together 'to build bridges and to keep our arms open, like this very piazza, welcoming.' Only hours after his election, it was impossible to know how Leo would govern. But his first words, and the name he took, gave some clues. The Vatican said his name echoed the previous Leo, a pope in the late 1800s who helped establish the church's Catholic social justice tradition. He also name-checked Francis, saying, 'Thank you, Pope Francis!' and prompting an outburst of applause from the crowd below. He said the word 'synodality,' which means little or nothing to secular ears but which inside the church spoke volumes about his intention to carry out Francis' vision for a church that rules less from on high in Rome than by consulting its faithful, bringing bishops and lay people, including women, together to make the big decisions. And he spoke about peace and being close to those who suffered, reflecting his pastoral sense, but also reverted to Vatican tradition by appearing on the balcony in a vestment that Francis had shed. While the Americans in the crowd rejoiced at the naming of one of their own — 'U.S.A.! U.S.A.!' some chanted — and received congratulations from the Italians who seemed bewildered by the unfamiliar face on the balcony, supporters of Francis expressed a sigh of relief. The front-runner to succeed Francis had been the church's secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, who, while an experienced diplomat with an distinguished career in the church, did not have pastoral experience. In the weeks and days leading up to the conclave, critics of Cardinal Parolin, including Italian cardinals, spoke admiringly of other candidates, including Cardinal Prevost, suggesting that Cardinal Parolin's support was softer than expected. But when the white smoke billowed from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel on the second day of voting, many liberals worried that it meant the voters had coalesced around Cardinal Parolin, a bureaucrat they feared would suck out all the fresh air Francis had breathed into the church. Cardinal Parolin did emerge on the balcony, but still cloaked in cardinal red. He smiled easily, a background figure to a new pope who liberals believed would protect Francis' legacy. In October 2024, Cardinal Prevost sounded much like Francis when he told Vatican News that a 'bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom, but rather called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them and to suffer with them.' Vatican analysts expect Leo to clearly stick up for migrants, the poor and those exploited by great powers, though perhaps less provocatively than Francis did. He is viewed as pastoral, and so open to listening to the concerns of a wide variety of Catholics. But, at least for now, he is seen as less than likely to make changes to church teaching on issues like the ordination of women as deacons, birth control and the status of gay men in the church. Alberto Melloni, a church historian, said that while Leo was clearly in Francis' mold on his vision of a church moving closer to the people and being governed more from the bottom-up, on hot-button social issues, 'he kept his hands free.' But as Francis showed, people change when they become pope: He was considered a conservative cardinal in native Argentina. In a 2023 interview with Catholic News Service, Leo, then a cardinal, stressed that clerics respond to problems in their parishes by reflecting on their oath to 'live and work in communion with the Holy Father.' That is now him.
Globe and Mail
08-05-2025
- General
- Globe and Mail
New pope led Order of St. Augustine dedicated to the poor and service
Cardinal Robert Prevost, the first U.S. pope in the 2,000-year history of the Catholic Church, previously led a Catholic religious order. Prevost, 69, who chose the name Pope Leo XIV, was formerly the prior general, or leader, of the Order of St. Augustine, which was formed in the 13th century as a community of 'mendicant' friars – dedicated to poverty, service and evangelization. The requirements and ethos of the order are traced to the fifth century St. Augustine of Hippo, one of the theological and devotional giants of early Christianity. The Order of St. Augustine has a presence in about 50 countries, according to its website. Its ethos includes a contemplative spirituality, communal living and service to others. A core value in their rule is to 'live together in harmony, being of one mind and one heart on the way to God.' A religious order is a community of Catholics – which can include priests, nuns, monks and even lay people – dedicated to a particular type of mission and spirituality. Unlike diocesan priests, who work within a particular territory, religious-order priests might be assigned anywhere in the world. At the same time, they might handle tasks similar to diocesan priests, such as being pastor of a parish. Pope Francis was the first pope from the Jesuit religious order, and he was the first pope in more than a century and a half to come from any religious order. The previous one was Gregory XVI, a Camaldolese monk (1831-1846). In all, 34 of the 266 popes have belonged to religious orders, according to America, a Jesuit magazine. Also according to the magazine, there had been six Augustinians to become pope before Leo XIV.
