The 188th General Chapter of the Order of Saint Augustine, opening Monday in Rome, is the first in the Order’s history to be held while an Augustinian Pope sits on the Chair of Peter. Precisely for this reason, Pope Prevost, himself a former Prior General, has decided to personally open the Chapter, which will decide the succession after the twelve-year tenure of the Spanish Father Alejandro Moral Antón.
There are 83 capitulars with voting rights, representing 41 circumscriptions from nearly fifty countries. Some sessions will include addresses from the presidents of the federations of Augustinian nuns and the laity of the Augustinian family, though they will not have an active vote. “We have reached the 188th Chapter,” explained Father Pasquale di Lernia, the Secretary General, to SIR, the bishops’ news agency. “In the modern era, the schedule is fixed: an elective ordinary general chapter is held every six years; a non-elective mid-mandate chapter is held to verify the Order’s progress.”
Robert Francis Prevost served as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine from September 14, 2001, until September 4, 2013. Shortly after his election last May 8th, Pope Leo unexpectedly visited his Augustinian brothers on his first available day of rest, May 13th, joining them for Mass and lunch. He has since returned and maintained close contact with the outgoing Prior General, Alejandro Moral Antón, who turns 70 today. In fact, Pope Leo returned to the Augustinian curia for lunch on June 1st to celebrate Father Moral Antón’s birthday. “With Leo,” Father Moral Antón had stated in an interview with ANSA, “there will be no steps backward.”
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