The Vatican has released a new documentary, Leone a Roma, about Pope Leo XIV’s early years in Rome before his election to the papacy. Source: EWTN News.
Following its previous documentaries, León de Perú and Leo from Chicago, the documentary premiered on Wednesday on the Vatican News YouTube channels in English, Italian, and Spanish.
The documentary covers the then-Fr Robert Prevost’s nearly two decades in the Eternal City. He first came to Rome to study canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas from 1981 to 1987, served as prior general of the Augustinians from 2001 to 2013, and led the Dicastery for Bishops from 2023 to 2025.
Many of his former Augustinian confreres reminisce about their time with Fr Prevost, particularly their trips with him throughout Italy and for his light-hearted moments with his fellow Augustinians.
Serving as Augustinian prior general for 12 years required Fr Prevost to travel frequently to meet other Augustinians worldwide. Fr Miguel Ángel Martín Juárez OSA expressed surprise that Fr Prevost could do it all while based in Rome.
“He travelled. He had a provincial chapter in Australia, then on the way back, he would stop to visit a province, who knows which one.”
“Then he would arrive here [at the Augustinian General Curia in Rome] in the afternoon, maybe after the whole night on a plane. In the afternoon, he was already working in the office. It was tremendous physical and also mental endurance,” Fr Juárez told Vatican News.
Raised to the cardinalate by Pope Francis in 2023, Cardinal Prevost returned to Rome that year after serving as a bishop in Peru to serve as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops. This was his most recent post before he was elected Pope Leo XIV in 2025.
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Vatican releases biopic on Pope Leo XIV’s early years in Rome (By Ishmael Adibuah, EWTN News)
