杏MAP导航

By Tiziana Campisi

杏MAP导航 Leo XIV shared lunch today with the Augustinian confreres at the St. Monica International College, just a few steps from his residence in the Vatican. After presiding over the Jubilee Mass in St. Peter’s Square dedicated to Families, Children, Grandparents, and the Elderly, the Holy Father made his way to the nearby Augustinian community where students from around the world and professors of the Patristic Institute Augustinianum reside. The occasion: a joyful celebration of the 70th birthday of the Order’s Prior General, Father Alejandro Moral.

A friendship rooted in Rome

The 杏MAP导航 and Father Alejandro share a friendship that dates back decades. Born in La Vid, Spain, on June 1, 1955, Father Moral first met the future 杏MAP导航 in the 1980s in Rome, right at St. Monica College. At the time, both were students: Father Robert Prevost was studying canon law at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, while Father Moral pursued biblical studies at the Pontifical Biblical Institute and dogmatic theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University.

Their paths diverged in 1985. Father Prevost, ordained in 1982, was sent to serve in the Augustinian mission in Chulucanas, Piura, Peru. Meanwhile, Father Moral, having completed his studies, returned to Spain. They reunited years later in Rome during the 2001 General Chapter of the Augustinian Order.

Different paths, enduring bond

When elected Prior General, Father Prevost appointed Father Moral as his Vicar General—a collaboration that continued through a second term. For twelve years, the two worked side by side, and their bond deepened. Though their ministries later took different directions, their friendship endured. In 2013, at the conclusion of his term as Prior General, Father Prevost returned to the Augustinian Province in Chicago, while Father Moral was elected the 97th Prior General.

A year later, 杏MAP导航 Francis appointed Father Prevost Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, later naming him its bishop. Yet the spiritual friendship between the two men remained—marked by the Augustinian ideal of life in community, “with one heart and one mind,” as St. Augustine wrote in his Rule, united in the search for God “so that whoever finds the truth may easily share it with others” (Soliloquies I, 12, 20–13, 22).