Almost two decades prior to becoming the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, who was then Father Robert Francis Prevost, had made a visit to a school in Tamil Nadu’s Coimbatore. A photo of his visit to Shenbagam Matriculation Higher Secondary School at Pollachi during 2006 has gone viral on social media in recent times.
He was the Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine at the time of this October 2006 visit, a position he remained in from 2001 to 2013. The then commonly shared picture was even uploaded on Instagram by Trinamool Congress (TMC) Rajya Sabha MP Derek O’Brien.
Posting the photo, O’Brien described: “The new Pope. 19 years ago in 2006, a 50-year-old priest, Fr Robert Prevost travelled to India. He was at that time then the world leader of the Order of St. Augustine.” He also mentioned the school was being run by the “Augustinian Fathers under the Diocese of Coimbatore.”
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Emphasizing the legacy of the Augustinian Order, the MP further stated: “There are a total of 2,800 Augustinian priests serving in 47 nations across the globe.” He also stated that the mission in India started 450 years ago when Portuguese missionaries came to Goa.
Today, the Order of Saint Augustine runs two schools and three parishes in India.
Father Prevost came to India twice while he was the Prior General first in 2004 and then again in 2006. During both his visits, he met Augustinian congregations in Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In 2013, when his term ended, he went back to Chicago, where he went on to work in different capacities. In November 2014, Pope Francis named him as the Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Chiclayo in Peru, Vatican News informs.
Adding to the narrative, Father Wilson Injerappu, regional Vicar of the Augustinian Order in India, informed PTI that Pope Leo XIV had come by car from Kochi to Pollachi. Describing him as a humble man, he remembered: “He encouraged the students in the school” during his visit.
Seconding this, Father Binu Yesudasan stated that it was “a proud moment for them” that Father Prevost had visited the school.
