Pope Francis embraced discernment: the equivalent for Leo XIV is community

Elise Ann Allen/ Crux• June 4, 2025

Early on in Pope Francis’s papacy, it became clear that “discernment” would be one of his buzzwords, and the Ignatian concept went on to become a bedrock of his Magisterium and pastoral decision-making process.

Discernment is a loaded term for the Jesuits, carrying with it a specific interpretation and certain rules for how to exercise it according to Ignatian spirituality, as laid out by St. Ignatius in his famed Spiritual Exercises.

This emphasis on discernment became so central to Francis’s papacy, that at times it could be difficult to understand him and many aspects of his papacy without having at least a basic knowledge of the Jesuit spin on it.

In much the same way, for Pope Leo XIV – who like Francis, also belongs to a religious order, the Augustinians – a sense of “community” is quickly becoming a defining aspect of Leo’s papacy and ministry.

For just as the Jesuits place a strong emphasis on the process of discernment, the Augustinians emphasise a harmonious community life before all else.

Almost immediately after the election of Pope Francis, he had a private meeting with the Father General of the Jesuit order, Spanish Father Adolfo Nicolás, and he also made a visit to the Jesuit curial headquarters in Rome, located a stone’s throw from the Vatican walls.

Likewise, Pope Leo XIV after his election on 8 May made a surprise visit to the Augustinian headquarters in Rome, not far from the Vatican, where he celebrated Mass and joined them for lunch, just as he had done almost daily as a cardinal when in Rome.

He had a private audience on 16 May with the Augustinian Prior General, Spanish Father Alejandro Moral, whose 70th birthday celebratory lunch he then attended on 1 June at the St. Monica International College adjoined to the Augustinian order’s headquarters.

The Rule of St. Augustine, written around the year 400 – making it the oldest monastic rule in existence – outlines the essentials for a religious life lived out as a community and as guided by the Gospel, rather than spelling out specific instructions for details such as schedule, furniture arrangement or the kinds of foods that can be consumed.

In a sense, Augustinian spirituality is almost entirely centred on community life, and how to live it well.

The preface of St. Augustine’s Rule stresses the need to place love of God and of neighbour before all else, as based on Jesus’s instructions in the Gospel.

In Chapter one of the Rule it immediately states that for friars, “The main purpose for your having come together is to live harmoniously in your house, intent upon God, with one heart and one soul.”

Friars are called, among other things, to share what they have with the rest of the community, to maintain a strong prayer life, and to support one another in their spiritual journeys, striving to avoid internal conflict and to apologise to one another when needed.

Community life is described by the Augustinians themselves as “the axis” around which their religious life turns, as they live “harmoniously together, united by a single soul and a single heart, seeking God together and open to the service of the Church”.

The goal is to imitate the first community of apostles who came together and shared all things in common while ministering to God’s people, being “of one mind and heart on the way to God”.

It is becoming increasingly clear that this sense of community and life in common is central to Pope Leo, who has continued to visit the Augustinian community in Rome just as he did as a cardinal.

Though it is not just Pope Leo who is taking the Augustinian sense of community seriously in the Church. During the pre-conclave general congregation meetings held in the weeks before the electing cardinals entered the Sistine Chapel to cast their votes for the next pontiff, two of the key words that routinely emerged from those conversations were communion and unity.

In a deeply divided and polarised society, with such divisions also being replicated in the Church, the cardinals saw the need to seek a path of unity and communion, and they were looking for a candidate whom they believed could help the Church bridge its internal divides and lead the faithful down a clear path toward unity.

It is perhaps less of a surprise, then, that an Augustinian was elected, whose formation in a harmonious “life in common” could lay the groundwork for a type of unity that so many cardinals saw as of paramount importance for the Church at this fraught and divided time.

Pope Francis by emphasising discernment encouraged Catholics to find a path to God in any circumstance, even amid life’s most complex situations and problems.

By stressing the importance of community, not just in words and actions, but even subconsciously, Pope Leo is inviting the faithful to walk this path together and to embrace harmony rather than being divided – and he is doing it with the heart of an Augustinian.

Photo: Pope Leo XIV celebrates the birthday of his friend Father Alejandro Moral (second from right) during lunch with other Augustinian friars at the St. Monica International College adjoined to the Augustinian curial headquarters, Rome, Italy, 1 June 2025. Also present was Bishop Luis Marín de San Martín (left), undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops. (Credit: Order of Saint Augustine Facebook page, via Crux.)