Leo in Rome

TOMORROW'S AMERICAN CATHOLIC | JUL 10, 2026

Last night I watched the film Leo in Rome (Leone a Roma), a short documentary produced by the Vatican’s Dicastery for Communication that assembles archival images, interviews, and contemporary footage to tell the story of Robert Francis Prevost’s time in Rome prior to his becoming Pope Leo XIV. We hear from his classmates at the Angelicum, his alma mater, as well as former parishioners and members of the Augustinian Order of which he served as Prior General from 2001 to 2013. Interspersed with these recollections are photos of the young Prevost growing into his vocation—presiding over Mass in one, participating in a protest against nuclear weapons in another. The sum total is a portrait of a man who seems to have arrived to his place in history naturally, without any of the convoluted maneuverings we associate, rightly or wrongly, with the Roman Curia.