Pope Leo XIV: Irish priests recall 'the quiet guy' who went on to inherit the chair of St Peter
Pope Leo visiting Tipperary in Ireland in 2005: Then Augustinian Order provincial general Robert Prevost (now Pope Leo XIV), centre, with Fr John Meagher OSA who celebrated Mass, and Fr Gerry Horan OSA, at the Augustinian Abbey in Fethard.
The new Pope Leo XIV seemingly came from nowhere to become the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, and he kept a similarly low profile on numerous visits to Ireland in the noughties, according to those who met him.
Amiable and unfailingly polite, nevertheless Fr Bob, as he was then known, kept his innermost thoughts close to his chest when in Ireland, even on the most seemingly innocuous subjects.
Either Augustine priests are a tightlipped lot or there really is little to be said about Pope Leo’s time in Ireland when he ran the order.
Nobody who met the then Fr Robert Prevost has anything personally revealing to say about him other than the fact that he may like pasta, the odd glass of wine, and “could” be a fan of the Beatles.
This is despite his five or six visits here between 2001 and 2013 in his capacity as Prior General to, in effect, check up on things around the country, in counties including Cork, Limerick, and Tipperary.
Apart from attending 'chapters' — official meetings to discuss, among other things, doctrine — every four years, he also came over for what were known as vistiations, where he went round each of the order’s bases in Ireland.
Other than these times, he is also known to have come over especially in 2003 to attend the launch in Trinity College Dublin of a volume of essays celebrating the 75th birthday of the leading Irish Augustinian theologian, Fr Gabriel Daly.
That he made the journey at all is interesting because Fr Daly, a strong advocate of reform in the Catholic Church, was a renowned critic of the Vatican.
Some say it could point to the pope being more likely to be as either progressive or more progressive than Pope Francis was.
But work aside, the search for something altogether more colourful about his time in Ireland yields little.
With his reported love of horses, for example, one would have hoped there might — in a country where there are more racecourses per head of population than any other country in the world — be a photograph or even a memory of him jubilantly cheering on a horse. But there isn’t.
Fr Gerry Horan was the order’s principal general when the future pope visited Ireland in 2005, and stayed temporarily in Fethard, Co Tipperary.
He insists they didn’t even visit the famous Thurles Racecourse once, let alone set inside a bookies.
He told the : “I brought him around all our houses in Ireland, and churches and so on, and we didn’t stop at any racetracks during those 12 or 14 days.
“The time he was with us, he was on the road solid, and there wasn’t time to blink.
Pub landlord Vincent Murphy, who owns and runs McCarthy’s Bar in Fethard, Co Tipperary, remembers him when he came to Fethard, Co Tipperary, in 2005.
One might have thought, or hoped, his recollection might feature memories of the future pope standing in the midst of seated regulars staring up at him in spellbound silence as he sang ballads or regaled them with hilarious stories about life in Rome.
But that didn’t happen.
“I was introduced to him when he came in for a meal one day,” Mr Murphy, who is also the local undertaker, told the .
“He was with Fr Gerry, who was running the Augustines at the time.
“He introduced him to me as his boss, and I joked to Gerry that I thought he was the boss.
“He said ‘Oh, this is the real boss’.
“So, I just welcomed him to Fethard and they sat down and they had their meal.”
Did he have a pint of Guinness, perhaps? Nothing of the sort.
“They had no alcohol,” Mr Murphy recalled. “I’d say the only refreshment they had was courtesy of (the local water board).”
As to anything he might have done in his spare time, like — perhaps — going to the races — Mr Murphy said he had “no idea”.
“I was introduced to him, and he had his dinner, and he complimented it on the way out the door,” he added.
As to what he ate, Mr Murphy says he has no idea because it was a long time ago, but suggests with a laugh that it was “maybe loaves and fishes.”
Given Fr Iggy O’Donovan studied in Rome at the same time as the man he knows as “Bob”, you’d think he might be the one to shed some light on the most harmless of the man’s non-ecclesiastical proclivities.
Was he, for example, a Bruce Springsteen fan? Elvis maybe?
The Augustinian priest, who studied history in Rome the same time as Fr Prevost was studying law, while they both lived in the Augustinian headquarters, was stumped by the question.
He replied: “Would you believe, I couldn't [tell you].
“It is nearly 40 years ago now and he was actually a rather low-profile student.
“I knew him, and he will always be Bob Prevost to me, but we parted company and went our separate ways in 1985.
“I remember in those days I was a fan of things like Michael Jackson and that type of thing. I grew up in the 1960s and I was a great Beatles fan.
“He would have been a Beatles fan. Anybody that grew up in the 60s would have been but exactly how much [of a fan] he was, I wouldn’t be certain.
“The couple of years I knew him he was pretty busy studying law, and I was doing church history.
“He did all the ordinary things, like — we came and went, we socialised, we drank a few glasses of wine and we had our spaghetti and so forth.
It was when he met up again in Ireland that he got one or two casual reminders about who was “the boss”.
He recalled: “I attended meetings and so forth.
“He would look for your opinion, and he would give his own opinion on how he thought you were doing because he was a micromanager when he was in charge.
“You will notice he went always with the trajectory upwards, whereas mine was a little horizontal.
“There were times when he told me that my way of expressing myself and my way of getting involved with the media and giving opinions on this and the other mightn’t always be appreciated in Rome.
On any socialising he might have done when he was in Ireland, even behind the walls of various Augustinian houses, Fr Iggy can shed little light.
Did he play the guitar, sing songs, tell jokes or — God forbid — get drunk?
Almost apologetically, Fr Iggy replied:
“Normally in the evenings, we’d gather for the chat and a drink or that and he would sit in on that, and chat away and move along the crowd.
“He would be a careful, cautious person.
“I don’t think he would ever wake up in the morning and wonder ‘what the hell did I say last night?’.
“That would never have happened.”
Maybe that is why he is where he is today?
Fr Iggy agrees.
“I know it sounds like a cliché, [he’s] a safe pair of hands,” he said.
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