Interested in the Church’s liturgical year and calendar? On Mon., June 2, and Mon., June 9, there will be a 2 weeklong Apologetics / Adult Faith Formation. Both sessions are at 6 p.m. in the Church at St. Bartholomew.

We have had the meetings with the 8th Graders and their parents for Confirmation. If there is anyone who didn’t attend and is thinking about Confirmation, please have a parent call the office to find out more information.

As we honor and pray for all deceased U.S. Soldiers on Memorial Day, let us pray for peace and justice in our nation and in the world!

Here is the second (of three) part of a great article, on May 11, in the National Catholic Register, by Solène Tadié and Zelda Caldwell:

From Chicago to the Chair of Peter: The Journey of Pope Leo XIV: Raised in Chicago, formed as a bishop in Peru, and forged by St. Augustine’s witness, Leo XIV begins his papacy with a quiet strength and global heart.

A Missionary Priest

After graduating, he joined the Augustinian Order in 1977 and was ordained a priest in Rome in 1982. His early ministry blended intellectual pursuit with pastoral zeal, culminating in a doctorate in Canon Law from the Angelicum, The Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, writing his thesis on “the role of the local prior of the Order of St. Augustine.”

The missionary call soon led him far from his native Illinois. From 1985 onward, Peru became his home for almost 15 years. He served in multiple roles, both pastoral and judicial, earning him the respect of the Peruvian people.

At the Augustinian mission in Trujillo, he filled many shoes: as formation director, instructor for professed members, and in the Archdiocese of Trujillo as judicial vicar and professor of Canon Law, Patristics, and Moral Theology at the Major Seminary San Carlos y San Marcelo.

During this time, he was also pastor of a parish in a poor suburb of the city, and parish administrator at another church. Known as a builder of communities, Prevost brought Augustinian spirituality to the fore: a vision of unity, charity and humility.

“With you I am a Christian, for you I am a bishop,” he said in his first address as Pope, echoing St. Augustine’s famous words and underscoring his identity as a pastor before all else.

Prevost returned to Chicago in 1999 after being named provincial of the Augustinian Province of Chicago. He was elected in 2001 as prior general of the Augustinians, placing him in charge of friars in 50 countries. He was reelected to a second six-year term in 2007.

In 2014, Pope Francis sent him back to Peru to be apostolic administrator (and then bishop a year later) of the Diocese of Chiclayo.

His episcopal motto, In Illo uno unum — “In the one Christ we are one” — underscored his desire to preserve the unity of the Church. The phrase is taken from St. Augustine’s Exposition on Psalm 127, where he explains that “although we Christians are many, in the one Christ we are one.”

“As can be seen from my episcopal motto, unity and communion are truly part of the charism of the Order of Saint Augustine, and also of my way of acting and thinking,” then-Cardinal Prevost said in a 2023 interview with Vatican News. “I believe it is very important to promote communion in the Church, and we know well that communion, participation, and mission are the three keywords of the Synod. So, as an Au-gustinian, for me promoting unity and communion is fundamental.”

His spiritual and theological affinity with St. Augustine has been evident throughout his ministry. This was also the yardstick by which he assessed the pontificate of Benedict XVI in the 2008 documentary The Papacy of Reason. Then-Father Prevost said, “Pope Benedict finds in so many different parts of Augustine elements of his spirituality, of his love of the Word of God, of the need to — as the prophets say, as Augustine says — devour the Word of God, to delve into the beauty that God reveals to us through His Word.”

“Augustine did that constantly,” he said. “I think Pope Benedict does that in his own writing, in his own preaching, time and again. And he finds in Augustine, I think, kind of an echo of some of his own experience, as a man, as a pastor, as a bishop, and as a theologian.”

Pope Leo XIV’s missionary DNA is unmistakable. His long years in Peru shaped his pastoral instincts. As bishop of Chiclayo (2015-2023), he oversaw a vast diocese during years of political and social unrest, praised for mediating and safeguarding the Church’s institutional stability.

In an interview with The Associated Press, Father Alexander Lam, an Augustinian friar from Peru who knows the new Pope, described him as a champion of social justice issues and environmental stewardship.

“Even the bishops of Peru called him the saint, the Saint of the North, and he had time for everyone,” Father Lam said. “He was the person who would find you along the way. He was this kind of bishop.”

“The Holy Father knows our land intimately: from the warm sands of our coasts, the indomitable strength of our mountains, and the green heart of our Amazon,” the Peruvian Episcopal Conference said in a statement.

“During his evangelizing journey through Peru, he strengthened faith with his message attentive to the needs of the humble, with his wise and prudent words that educated us in the search for truth, with his affable approachability to all, believers and those far away, always moved by love for Jesus Christ,” the statement said.

Father Guillermo Inca Pereda, deputy secretary of the episcopal conference, told ACI Prensa, the Register’s sister news agency based in Peru, that “the emotion of hearing Cardinal Robert Prevost’s name called as Pope, Pastor of the Universal Church, was truly indescribable, an unforgettable moment.”

“We’ve worked with him; we’ve shared many decisive moments from my field of service to the General Secretariat. We’ve had many opportunities to talk, and I’ve been able to discover his prudence, his perseverance, his tenacity, and that simplicity that characterizes him, but always with great depth to resolve any issue, any situation, no matter how delicate,” he said.

“I believe that Peru’s experience will give him the nuance that every pope can have in his heart, because he knows our people, he knows our people, he has experienced popular religiosity, which is such a great asset we have among us, he has also seen the situations of poverty among our people, but even amidst these difficulties, he has seen that hope is never lost,” the Peruvian priest said.

In 2023, Pope Francis called him to Rome to serve as Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, where he became the key figure shaping the global episcopate. His tenure in the Curia was marked by discretion and a reputation for careful listening and synthesis. He earned praise for balancing progressive openness with fidelity to tradition.

“The bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom,” he said in an interview with Vatican News last year, aligning with Francis’ call for servant leadership. Yet, he also stood firm on sensitive issues: opposing the German “Synodal Way” and rejecting the idea of women’s ordination.

In a May 8 press conference after Leo XIV’s election, Bishop Michael Martin of Charlotte, North Carolina, recounted a private meeting he had in April with the future Pope in Rome where they discussed diocesan issues for more than an hour.

“I was very taken by his friendly nature but also about his awareness of the dynamics not just of the Church in the United States, but more importantly about the Church and around the world,” Bishop Martin said.

What made the greatest impression on him, the bishop said, was Prevost’s calm demeanor.

“His interest in me and his interest in what was happening in Charlotte, in particular, the things we were talking about, I just had the sense of someone who cared very deeply about what was important to me, more so than maybe what was important to him,” Bishop Martin said. [end of part 2 of 3]

Saint Joan of Arc, pray for us. Father Miller