On 1 September, Pope Leo XIV presided at the inaugural Mass in the Basilica of St Augustine in Campo Marzio for the 188th General Chapter of the Order of St Augustine.
Eighty-three delegates from fifty countries gathered for the assembly—the highest authority within the Augustinian Order—which convenes every six years. They will elect a new Prior General to succeed Fr Alejandro Moral Antón, who steps down after twelve years in office. The Chapter will also determine the Order’s pastoral priorities for the coming term. The ceremony coincides with the anniversary of the Pope’s own entry into the novitiate in 1977 and formally begins nearly three weeks of deliberations at the Pontifical Patristic Institute Augustinianum.
