Pope Leo XIV’s dissertation – which he defended in 1987 for his doctoral degree in canon law – will soon be widely available through The Catholic University of America Press in Washington. Source: OSV News.
The university announced on Mondy that its publishing division would release the text in print and Kindle editions in October, having obtained the exclusive English-language rights for the work.
In 1987, the former Fr Robert Prevost submitted “The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of St Augustine” as part of his degree requirements at the Pontifical University of St Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum, in Rome.
The original 167-page English language text to be published by CUA Press will now include a forward by the Angelicum’s current rector, Dominican theologian Fr Thomas Joseph White.
The future Pope Leo presented his research just five years after his 1982 priestly ordination, and amid two pastoral assignments – a 1985-1986 Augustinian missionary posting in Chulucanas, Peru, and a 1987 appointment as director of both vocations and missions of the Mother of Good Counsel Augustinian Province in Olympia Fields, Illinois.
The work was also produced four years after St John Paul II promulgated the Church’s revised code of canon law in 1983, making the text of interest to canonists wishing to assess then-Fr Prevost’s analysis of the Augustinian constitutions in light of that revised canon law, The Catholic University of America said.
In its press release, the university noted that despite the specificity of the dissertation’s topic – which treats the role of the Augustinian prior as the local superior – the future Pope’s “insights as a young priest in areas such as Church authority, the spiritual life following the way of St Augustine, and the mission of the priesthood are of interest as they relate to contemporary Church leadership and Church life.”
The university said the dissertation centred on “key ideas regarding the common good of the Church, the Eucharistic liturgy at the centre of the life of the community, the role of hierarchy and consultation, and mutual respect for the diverse contributions of each person.”
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Catholic University of America Press to publish Pope Leo’s dissertation (By Gina Christian, OSV News)
