Description
About the book
‘The contributors of this current work address different facets of Pope Leo’s (aka Robert Prevost, OSA) theological, ministerial and spiritual journey from early personal encounters with him to current discourse impacting a world hungry for a message of hope.
This project offers personal enrichment, capturing the bridge between the historical ‘personal encounters’ and his ‘current discourse’. This offers a powerful way to frame his legacy and offer a message of hope to a world entangled in disarray.
It is source of great joy and satisfaction to myself, and the Midwest Province, that this volume is a publication in a new Augustinian Series. I thank all those involved in any aspect of this production. It is edited by an Augustinian friar, has a number of Augustinian contributors, and gives details of ‘Bob’s’ (Pope Leo) life as friar, both in the US and Peru, and his time when he was Prior Provincial of the Midwest Province as well as Prior General of the Order of St Augustine, Bishop of Chiclayo, Peru and then Cardinal Prefect. This book then, adds to the various books being researched, written and published about his life and ministry, but more importantly is one which brings a very distinctive Augustinian ‘flavor and focus’. I can only commend it to all readers, Augustinians and beyond!’
From the Foreword by Anthony B Pizzo, OSA
Contributors: Dianne Bergant, CSA, Enzo Del Brocco, CP, Edinson Edgardo Farfán Córdova, OSA Mark R Francis, CSV, John Lydon, OSA, John T Pawlikowski, OSM, Anthony Pizzo, OSA, Thomas Taylor, OSA, Daniel Turley, OSA
About the editor:
John Lydon, OSA, Born and raised in Canada, John Lydon studied at Villanova University, graduating in 1977. After finishing these studies, he entered the Augustinians and did theological studies in Washington, DC. Immediately upon finishing theology, he volunteered to go to the Augustinian missions in Chulucanas, Peru, working in the parish of San José Obrero for five years. In 1987, the Augustinians decided to open their own formation house in Trujillo, Peru, and he was sent to Rome to finish his doctorate in Missiology at the Gregorian University in order to collaborate in that endeavour. Upon his return in 1990, he was sent to Trujillo to work in the Major Seminary, San Carlos and San Marcelo as a professor and to work as a member of the formation house community. Shortly afterwards, he was elected to his first of three terms as the major superior of the Augustinians in northern Peru. He was also chosen as the Secretary-General of the Organization of Augustinians of Latin America (OALA) for two terms. He served as pastor in Trujillo, then in a small village on the Pacific coast (Pacasmayo), and finally as president (rector) of the Catholic University of Trujillo for 6 years. He was for numerous years Vicar General in the Archdiocese of Trujillo. In 2023, he began a new ministry at Villanova University and in 2025 was named the first director of the Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration at Villanova.
His most recent publication was Catholic Social Doctrine, Its History and Teachings, first published by the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru, Editorial PUCP, with the English translation by AFT Press of Australia.
