Praying for Pope Leo XIV

An email message sent to the Assumption Community on May 8, 2025:

Dear Assumption Community,

Assumption University joins the Church, Catholics worldwide, and all people of good will in prayer for Pope Leo XIV. Taking up the seat of St. Peter, the new Holy Father holds an office that dates back nearly two millennia—now living out a history, like the rich educational tradition that arose from it, that inspires us both in its majestic endurance and unwaning relevance.

As intellectual modesty challenges us to wrestle seriously with enduring ideas in the just respect that they have earned over time—even as we apply our own reason to grapple, understand, and assess them—the unbroken continuity of the papacy should also induce the awe that two millennia of faith, ideas, and history lay before us.

In his joyful first words from the balcony, Pope Leo XIV described himself as “a son of St. Augustine”—a legacy we at Assumption share. As he brings the gift of that intellectual and spiritual inheritance to the global Church, we take heart in his words: “Without fear, with God and among ourselves, we go forward.”

In celebration, Assumption University, itself a child of the Augustinians of the Assumption, prays that God continues to bless the Holy Father and the Catholic Church.

Sincerely,

Greg Weiner, Ph.D.
President
Assumption University