World
In Augustinian Order, Pope Leo XIV Found Unity, Charity and ‘Eternal Friendship’
The cellphone of the leader of the Order of St. Augustine, the Rev. Alejandro Moral Antón, buzzed for what seemed like the hundredth time, and he jumped. He had been up since 2:30 a.m. fielding calls, trying to explain to people across the globe how his order, the one that formed Pope Leo XIV, would shape the papacy.
This time, it was his dentist. He had missed an appointment.
“You know what’s happening?” he told the dentist on Monday afternoon in Rome. “The new pope is an Augustinian!”
The world’s sudden interest in the small order of fewer than 3,000 members had forced Father Moral Antón, an affable, 69-year-old Spaniard, to distill Augustinians’ principles and spiritual ideals to their essence. Charity, truth and unity, he recited in Latin and translated into Spanish.
Pope Leo, formerly Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, is an American with Peruvian citizenship, but his identity may have been most deeply molded by his connection to the Augustinians, which began when he was 14 and led to his ordination in 1982 as an Augustinian priest. He moved to Peru as an Augustinian missionary and eventually ran the order for 12 years from Rome. In that position, he developed extensive international connections that helped raise his profile last week in the conclave of cardinals who elected him.
As the first Augustinian friar to become pope, Leo is expected by Augustinians to emphasize missionary outreach and the importance of listening widely before making decisions, both central to the Augustinian way of life.
“The Holy Father will certainly be inspired by this search for communion and dialogue,” said Pierantonio Piatti, a historian of Augustinians with the Pontifical Committee for Historical Sciences, a Vatican office. That would mesh with the concept of “synodality,” fulfilling Francis’ vision of a church that brings bishops and lay people together to make big decisions.
“The other great element of Augustinian spirituality,” Dr. Piatti added, is a “search for balance between action and contemplation, between contemplation and action.”
In part because of their small size, Augustinian priests are a tight-knit community around the world, and many have encountered Leo over the years.
“Even when we disagree on something like politics, we have no trouble talking to one another,” said Father Allan Fitzgerald, 84, an Augustinian priest and longtime professor at Villanova University northwest of Philadelphia, which Leo graduated from in 1977. “I think we are, in some ways, an image of the U.S. There is certainly a whole swath of us that is to one side and to the other. Even if we can’t talk directly about politics, we are still able to talk about things that matter.”
The order was founded in 1244, when Pope Innocent IV united groups of hermits in service to the church as a community of friars. The group committed to a lifestyle of poverty, along with a mix of contemplation and pastoral service.
Augustinians take their name from one of Christianity’s most important early theologians, Augustine, the Bishop of Hippo, who was born in what is now Algeria in the fourth century. He is perhaps most famous for an autobiographical work called “Confessions,” which in part details his conversion to Christianity after an immoral youth.
The order’s place in the broader Roman Catholic Church was threatened by one of its most prominent 16th-century members, Martin Luther, whose calls for reform in the church ended up leading to the Protestant Reformation.
Augustine also wrote a guide to religious life that became the cornerstone of the Augustinian order. Its members commit to “live together in harmony, being of one mind and one heart on the way to God.” Leo’s new coat of arms reflects that heritage, displaying the Latin motto “In illo uno unum,” or “In the One, we are one.”
Augustinians are generally far less known compared with larger groups like the Jesuits and Franciscans. Part of that has to do with the personality and style of the orders, Father Fitzgerald said.
“If you are a Jesuit, you are very good at telling people who you are,” he said. “Augustinians are not great at telling people who we are. I think it is unusual for us to be self-promoting.”
In the years after he became head, or prior general, of the order in 2001, Leo tried to share on a global stage the ideas and practices for missionary outreach that he had developed in Peru.
He outlined his theological underpinnings in a speech in Rome in 2023. Mission is a means of carrying out the church’s fundamental duty of evangelization, he said. Without this perspective, charity work by the church becomes little more than “humanitarian action,” which, while important, will not be distinctively Christian.
“On the contrary, when we help each other to constantly remind ourselves that our primary mission is evangelization, it does not matter whether our resources are small or large because the fundamental thing is already given,” he said.
“To evangelize means, among other things, to be willing to leave the comfort zones, the comfortable bourgeois life,” he said, in an apparent nod to his life-changing decision to leave his life in the United States for a missionary posting in northwestern Peru in 1985. That background appears to have figured in the cardinals’ deliberations during the conclave, since missionary outreach was a key element of Francis’ vision.
Leo once told the Italian broadcaster RAI that he had met “my religious family, the Augustinians,” as a teenager, prompting his decision to leave Chicago for an Augustinian junior-seminary boarding school in Michigan. There, he said, he got to learn about “the importance of friendship, the importance of life in community.”
“I believe it is very important to promote communion in the church,” Leo explained in 2023 to Vatican News. “As an Augustinian, for me promoting unity and communion is fundamental.”
On Saturday, Leo made an unannounced visit to Our Lady of Good Counsel in Genazzano, an Augustinian sanctuary outside Rome. On Monday, he invoked St. Augustine in remarks to journalists gathered in Vatican City, saying that the present times were challenging, difficult to navigate and not easy to recount to the public.
“They demand that each one of us, in our different roles and services, never give in to mediocrity,” he said. “St. Augustine reminds of this when he said: ‘Let us live well and the times will be good. We are the times.’”
He cited one of the saint’s sermons that alluded to how people can choose to make the most of tough circumstances, Father Moral Antón said: “We are the ones who have to live a good life to change the times.”
“We need to stop and reflect,” he added. “Because we live well, we eat well, we have pleasures, but are you happy? And people say, ‘I’m not happy.’ Let’s look, then, at where happiness lies — within — and then change.”
Father Moral Antón, who missed his dental appointment on Monday, was sitting in a small room in the Augustinian College of St. Monica, on a hillside across the street from St. Peter’s Basilica, where the new pope has played tennis for years on a court with a view of the iconic dome. Father Moral Antón and Leo, who are the same age, studied together in the college decades ago; the father was Leo’s deputy when he ran the order and succeeded him in the top job.
In the days since Leo became pope, Augustinian friars have shared stories of meeting him during his past travels. One vicar in Kenya sent Father Moral Antón photos of a trip he and Leo took to the African country many years ago.
“Being an Augustinian means being pretty open,” Father Moral Antón said, adding that, compared to other orders, theirs does not have “very rigid norms.”
“It’s about eternal friendship, friends, wanting to walk with friends and find truth with friends,” he said. “Wanting to live in the world, to live life — but with friends, with people who love you, with whom you love.”
“It is not always something you find,” he added, “but, well, that’s the ideal.”
Emma Bubola, Elizabeth Dias and Jason Horowitz contributed reporting.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Blake Horvath to Eli Heidenreich.
That’s the connection that led Navy to such a memorable season — and the two of them came through again on the biggest play of the biggest game.
Horvath threw an 8-yard touchdown pass to Heidenreich with 6:32 remaining — on fourth-and-goal — and No. 22 Navy rallied to beat Army 17-16 on Saturday. Heidenreich, the career and single-season leader in yards receiving for the Midshipmen, caught six of Horvath’s seven completions on the day.
“Who wouldn’t go to him?” Horvath said. “Talk about an all-time Navy legend. You’re going to be talking about Eli Heidenreich for years and years and years.”
Although it was clearly a passing situation, and Heidenreich was Navy’s top target, he was single covered over the middle.
“Tried to bring some pressure on them,” Army coach Jeff Monken said. “Good throw and good catch.”
With President Donald Trump in attendance, Navy (10-2) got its second straight victory over Army (6-6), and the Midshipmen won the Commander-In-Chief’s Trophy for a second straight season. The Black Knights have not beaten a Navy team that was ranked by the AP since 1955.
Horvath was fortunate to have the chance to throw that decisive touchdown pass. On second-and-goal from the 1, he lost the ball while attempting a tush push. Army linebacker Eric Ford had a chance to scoop it up, but Navy running back Alex Tecza lunged over to prevent that, and Heidenreich eventually fell on the ball back at the 8.
“That’s probably the last thing you want to see on the 1-yard line is you turn around and the ball is just bouncing behind you,” Heidenreich said. “I was blocking down. I thought he had pushed in, and kind of out of my peripheral I saw it going behind me.”
On the next play, Horvath was nearly sacked, but he was able to throw the ball toward Tecza as he went down. The ball fell incomplete instead of being caught around the 15, which was just as well for Navy because it made going for it on fourth down a more viable option.
“I kind of felt like we had to,” Navy coach Brian Newberry said. “The nature of what they do offensively, despite how well we played in the second half, you may not get the ball back.”
Even after Heidenreich’s touchdown and an Army punt, Navy still had to escape one more near-turnover. On third-and-3 from the Army 43, the ball popped loose on a run by Horvath, but he was able to catch it out of the air. It came loose again and the Black Knights recovered, but after a review, Horvath was ruled down before the second fumble — a yard short of the line to gain.
Tecza then ran for the first down that enabled Navy to kneel out the clock, and Horvath appeared to wave goodbye at the Army sideline. There was a bit of a ruckus near midfield after the final kneel-down before things eventually calmed down for the traditional singing of the alma maters.
“They want to talk all their crap during the game and act like they’re so tough,” Horvath said. “The excuse last year was that they played a conference championship game before us. This year, we’ll see what it is.”
The Black Knights were trying to turn the tables on Navy after a ranked Army team — which had just won the American Conference title — lost to the Midshipmen last year.
The teams traded touchdown drives to start the game, each lasting 13 plays, 75 yards and over seven minutes. Horvath had a 5-yard scoring run, and Army quarterback Cale Hellums answered with a 2-yarder. Army’s first drive didn’t end until 5 seconds into the second quarter.
Then it was a while before anyone reached the end zone again. With Army up 10-7 late in the second quarter, the ball slipped out of Horvath’s hand while he was looking to pass. Army recovered the fumble at its own 45 with 20 seconds to play and moved into range for a 45-yard field goal by Dawson Jones.
Navy’s defense stiffened in the second half, but the Midshipmen still flirted with disaster. Horvath threw an interception in the third quarter that was initially returned to the end zone — before a replay showed Army’s Justin Weaver had a knee down when he picked off the pass at the Navy 32. The Black Knights had to settle for three — Dawson connected on a career-long 48-yard kick.
Navy’s Wing-T offense has been explosive this season. The Midshipmen entered the day with an FBS-high 10 plays of at least 60 yards. Army mostly kept them contained, but Horvath slipped free for a 37-yard run that set up a third-quarter field goal that made it 16-10.
After Hellums’ underthrown pass was intercepted by Phillip Hamilton, giving Navy the ball at the 50 with 11:19 to play, Tecza’s 24-yard run made it first-and-goal from the 5.
Trump tossed the coin before the game at midfield, then returned at halftime to walk from the Navy sideline to the Army one.
One that got away
Army defensive lineman Jack Bousum, who is from Annapolis, had a big game against his hometown team. He finished with 1 1/2 sacks and a fumble recovery.
The takeaway
Army: The Black Knights were the better team in the first half Saturday but didn’t do much offensively after that.
“They beat blocks,” Monken said. “We didn’t sustain the blocks we needed to.”
Navy: Horvath made some big plays and some bad ones, and the Navy defense was stout in the second half. The Midshipmen finished tied for first in the AAC this year but missed out on the league title game because of tiebreakers. This victory matters more to them anyway.
Up next
Army: Faces UConn in the Fenway Bowl on Dec. 27.
Navy: Faces Cincinnati in the Liberty Bowl on Jan. 2.
___
This story has been corrected to show Army took over at the Navy 32 after Horvath’s interception.
___
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World
2 US Army soldiers, interpreter killed in Syria ambush attack, Trump warns of ‘very serious retaliation’
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President Donald Trump warned Saturday that there will be “very serious retaliation” after a lone Islamic State gunman in Syria killed two U.S. Army soldiers and a U.S. interpreter in an ambush attack.
Chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced earlier that the soldiers and interpreter were targeted in the central Syrian town of Palmyra in an attack that left three others wounded. U.S. Central Command said the deaths and injuries were a “result of an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman in Syria.”
“We mourn the loss of three Great American Patriots in Syria, two soldiers, and one Civilian Interpreter. Likewise, we pray for the three injured soldiers who, it has just been confirmed, are doing well. This was an ISIS attack against the U.S., and Syria, in a very dangerous part of Syria, that is not fully controlled by them,” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
“The President of Syria, Ahmed al-Sharaa, is extremely angry and disturbed by this attack. There will be very serious retaliation,” he added.
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U.S. forces patrol in Syria’s northeastern city of Qamishli in the Hasakeh province, on Jan. 9, 2025. (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)
In comments to reporters outside of the White House on Saturday, Trump also said, “This was an ISIS attack on us and Syria. And again, we mourn the loss and we pray for them and their parents and their loved ones.”
Parnell wrote on X that the attack happened as the soldiers “were conducting a key leader engagement.”
“Their mission was in support of ongoing counter-ISIS/counter-terrorism operations in the region,” he added, noting that “The soldiers’ names, as well as identifying information about their units, are being withheld until 24 hours after the next of kin notification. “
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said that, “The savage who perpetrated this attack was killed by partner forces.”
“Let it be known, if you target Americans — anywhere in the world — you will spend the rest of your brief, anxious life knowing the United States will hunt you, find you, and ruthlessly kill you,” Hegseth also said in a post on X.
Parnell said the attack is currently under investigation. A Pentagon official told Fox News Digital that the attack unfolded in a place where the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa does not have control.
President Donald Trump meets with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa at the White House on Nov. 10, 2025. A Pentagon official told Fox News Digital that the attack on the soldiers on Saturday, Dec. 13, 2025, unfolded in a place where the Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa does not have control. (Syrian Presidency/Anadolu via Getty Images)
“I’m praying for the brave U.S. soldiers and civilian who lost their lives, those who were injured in this attack, and the families who bear this profound loss,” Army Secretary Daniel Driscoll wrote on X. “The men and women who serve our country represent the very best of our nation. We mourn the passing of these heroes and honor their service and sacrifice.”
A senior U.S. official earlier confirmed to Fox News there were multiple injuries after American service members were ambushed in Syria.
“The United States, CIA and military forces are reportedly deeply involved in securing and stabilizing the situation in Syria,” Dan Diker, president of the Jerusalem Center for Security and Foreign Affairs, recently told Fox News Digital.
The injured in Saturday’s attack were taken by helicopters to the al-Tanf garrison, which is near the border with Iraq and Jordan, The Associated Press reported, citing Syrian state media.
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U.S. Army soldiers prepare to go out on patrol from a remote combat outpost on May 25, 2021, in northeastern Syria. (John Moore/Getty Images)
There are currently around 900 U.S. troops in Syria.
The U.S. had eight bases in Syria to keep an eye on ISIS since the U.S. military went in to prevent the terrorist group from setting up a caliphate in 2014, although three of those bases have since been closed down or turned over to the Syrian Democratic Forces.
On Monday, tens of thousands of Syrians flooded the streets of Damascus to mark the first anniversary of the Assad regime’s collapse.
U.S. Army soldiers stand near an armored military vehicle on the outskirts of Rumaylan in Syria’s northeastern Hasakeh province, bordering Turkey, on March 27, 2023. (Delil Souleiman/AFP via Getty Images)
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Those celebrations came a year after former Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad fled the capital as rebel forces swept through the country in a lightning offensive that ended five decades of Assad family rule and opened a new chapter in Syrian history.
Fox News’ Lucas Tomlinson, Ashley Oliver, Jennifer Griffin, Benjamin Weinthal and Ashley Carnahan contributed to this report.
Published on
The European Commission has dismissed as “speculative” and groundless a lawsuit launched by the Russian Central Bank against Euroclear, the Brussels-based central securities depository that holds €185 billion in immobilised assets.
In a short statement published on Friday morning, the Russian Central Bank announced the start of legal proceedings for the “recovery of damages” and blamed Euroclear for preventing the release of the assets, which are subject to EU law.
The lawsuit was submitted to the Arbitration Court in Moscow.
The development comes with the EU still hammering out a plan to channel Russia’s sovereign assets into a zero-interest reparations loan to Ukraine, a process with Euroclear at its centre. EU leaders are meant to make a final decision when they meet on 18 December.
“Our proposal is legally robust and fully in line with EU and international law. The assets are not seized, and the principle of sovereign immunity is respected,” Valdis Dombrovskis, the European Commissioner for the Economy, said on Friday afternoon.
“We kind of expect that Russia will continue to launch speculative legal proceedings to prevent the EU from upholding international law and to pursue the legal obligation for Russia to compensate Ukraine for the damages it has caused.”
According to Dombrovskis, all European institutions that have Russian assets, from Euroclear to private banks, will be “fully protected” against Moscow’s retaliation. The EU has controlled €210 billion in assets of the Russian Central Bank since February 2022.
The sanctions regime already allows Euroclear to “offset” any potential loss, he added.
For example, if a Russian court orders the seizure of the €17 billion that Euroclear has on Russian soil, Euroclear will be allowed offset the loss by tapping into the €30 billion that its Russian counterpart, the National Settlement Depository, has stored within the EU.
Additionally, the reparations loan, if approved, will introduce a new mechanism to deal with state-to-state disputes. If Russia seizes the sovereign assets of Belgium in retaliation, Belgium will be allowed to “offset” the lossagainst the €210 billion, while Russia will not recover the amount it has seized when the assets are freed.
The Belgian factor
The legal safeguards are meant to allay the concerns of Belgium, which remains the chief opponent of the reparations loan. Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever has repeatedly warned of the risk a successful legal challenge could pose.
“We put forward a proposal. We are confident in its legality and its court-proof character,” a Commission spokesperson said.
Euroclear, which declined to comment, has previously criticised the reparations loan as “very fragile”, legally risky and overtly experimental.
The lawsuit comes a day after EU countries agreed to trigger an emergency clause to immobilise the Russian Central Bank assets for the foreseeable future.
Under the new law, the €210 billion will be released only when Russia’s actions “have objectively ceased to pose substantial risks” for the European economy and Moscow has paid reparations to Kyiv “without economic and financial consequences” for the bloc – a high bar that is unlikely to be cleared any time soon, if ever.
The indefinite immobilisation is meant to further placate Belgium and Euroclear in order to facilitate the approval of the reparations loan next week.
In a separate statement, the Russian Central Bank said it “reserves the right, without further notice, to apply all available remedies and protections if the proposed initiatives of the European Union are upheld or implemented”.
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