Augustinian priests from Villanova University and across the Philadelphia area will award the province’s highest honor, the St. Augustine Medal, later this month.
This year’s recipient, who is one of the most recognized people on the planet, will be conspicuously absent. Pope Leo XIV, the former Cardinal Robert Prevost, OSA, was due to be in Philadelphia before his unexpected promotion earlier this year.
Augustinian Father Michael DiGregorio said that for the past year, plans for the St. Augustine Medal dinner were moving along nicely, and then May 8 happened. A man DiGregorio and his fellow friars have known for decades and their 2025 Saint Augustinian Medal recipient – Cardinal Prevost — became Pope Leo XIV.
“Cardinal Prevost would have been able to be there,” DiGregorio said. “Certainly Pope Leo XIV is not able to be there.”
A Chicago native, only a cardinal for a short time, a Villanova graduate and an Augustinian friar, Prevost was set to be in Philadelphia on Aug. 28 to receive the medal, which is awarded to a person exemplifying qualities of truth, unity and love.
Father Paul Galetto, administrator at Saint Augustine Parish in Old City, has known Pope Leo for nearly 50 years. He had immediate doubts that the pope would still be coming to receive the medal.
“He got a job promotion,” Galetto joked.
He said Prevost’s original plans included a vacation and family time, as well as a stop at Villanova. He alerted Augustinian colleagues a day or two after ascending to the papacy.
“So coming for this medal, he already set up that he was going to visit family and other stuff and stop at the university … All of that went up in smoke. White smoke, actually,” Galetto said.
“It was something he was looking forward to, and we certainly were looking forward to it,” DiGregorio said. “But all that changed radically.”
The show will still go on. While the pope received the medal last week, Mass on Aug. 28 will be celebrated at St. Augustine, the grand colonial church that is the first permanent establishment of the Augustinians in the U.S., dating to 1796. A reception follows at the Union League. The pope has already recorded a message for guests at the event.
“I understand it’s over 700 people,” DiGregorio said. “We’re sold out.”
Call it the “Pope Leo effect.”
“I wonder if some people thought he was coming over for the event and that’s why they bought a ticket …What? He’s not coming!” Galetto said with an incredulous laugh.
Galetto says in all seriousness, interest in the Augustinian order has skyrocketed by 3,000%. Personal interest in the pope is also high.
“I’ve become a Pope ‘Leo-aholic,'” he said. “Every news item that comes out, ‘Oh my God, look at what Bob’s doing now.”
More from CBS News