Pope Leo’s Doctoral Dissertation: Thoughts on Power and Authority

Almost 40 years ago, an American graduate student in Rome was closely examining the question of what it meant to be a wise and effective leader in the Catholic Church.

Today, the doctoral dissertation that Robert Prevost produced in the mid-1980s is one of the most detailed glimpses into the early intellectual life of the man who became Pope Leo XIV this month. The publication is all the more notable because Father Prevost didn’t produce many public texts, interviews and speeches in the intervening years.

The 167-page text is written in English and titled “The Office and Authority of the Local Prior in the Order of Saint Augustine.” It focuses, often very technically, on authority in the religious order that he joined as a young man. He also addresses how the order’s local leaders should function in the organization, and more broadly expounds on the essence and purpose of leadership itself.

“There is no room in Augustine’s concept of authority for one who is self-seeking and in search of power over others,” the future pope wrote in one passage. “The exercise of authority in any Christian community requires the setting aside of all self-interest and a total dedication to the good of the community.”

That theme has carried through his life and may suggest how he aims to lead as pope. During the homily at his inaugural Mass at St. Peter’s Square, Pope Leo echoed an idea and a particular Bible verse from the document. “Peter must shepherd the flock without ever yielding to the temptation to be an autocrat, lording it over those entrusted to him,” he preached on Sunday.

He wrote in his thesis that “the virtue of humility is indispensable for any superior” and referenced the New Testament book of 1 Peter: “Be examples to the flock, not lording it over those assigned to you.”