By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic
MIAMI | The 2025 election of Father Robert Prevost as Pope Leo XIV – and the widespread press attention surrounding the first American-born pontiff — has generated a new interest in vocations.
That’s the assessment of Augustinian Father Robert Hagan, prior provincial of the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova in Villanova, Pennsylvania.
“We are receiving many inquiries regarding our way of life as Augustinians, as well as renewed interest in vocations to priesthood and religious life,” said Augustinian Father Hagan during a July 2, 2025, exchange following his visit to Miami earlier this summer.
As head of the Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, Father Hagan was in Florida recently regarding to the beatification process of an Augustinian missionary, Father John Joseph McKniff.
Father McKniff died in Florida in 1994 following a life of service in Cuba, Peru and the Philippines.
Father Hagan, who said he was in the order’s novitiate when he first met then-Father Prevost and who is some 10 years his senior, said Father McKniff’s beatification process coincides with the recent election of Pope Leo XIV, who knew and served with Father McKniff in Peru.
Photographer: Courtesy Midwest Augustinians
Father John MacKniff
A petition to begin the beatification process of Father McKniff was formally made in 1999, five years after his death at age 88 and his burial in 1994 at Our Lady of Mercy Cemetery in Miami.
Although Father Hagan never met Father McKniff personally, he said he encountered many people who did and that his impact on the people of God, particularly the poorest of the poor in the Philippines, Havana in Cuba, and Peru, has been made abundantly clear.
In 1939, Father McKniff was sent to Cuba and, after two years of teaching there, he was named pastor of Santo Cristo del Buen Viaje parish in the old part of Havana, a post he held from 1941 to 1968.
He is credited with organizing numerous Catholic Action groups, such as Young Catholic Workers and the Legion of Mary, and evangelizing Cubans through Christian service to others.
The priest also promoted prayer gatherings in parishioners’ homes in Cuba, opened medical clinics, free schools for children and adults, and established distribution centers. His preaching, example and leadership called people to a deep spirituality, according to Father Hagan.
Father McKniff also served for many years in rural Peru, where he was recently reinterred following his exhumation in Miami on June 19.
“Pope Leo shares this missionary spirit, having served in Peru for 20 years himself,” Father Hagan said.
“We have in Pope Leo a shepherd who listens to the cry of the poor, is willing to walk with those who struggle and offers hope, healing and strength to all of God’s people.”
“We are blessed to have him as our Holy Father, and we will continue to pray for his wisdom and guidance as he serves as an effective instrument of God’s grace for all people,” Father Hagan added.
Father Hagan said that Pope Leo XIV — who holds a doctorate in canon law from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, known as the Angelicum — was personally helpful in fortifying his own priestly vocation during his seminary years.
He also said there are signs that the new pontiff will be a source of inspiration for a new generation of young people.
Father Hagan said he is anxious to see what new vocations to the Augustinians may result from the first-ever American pope.
“We continue to pray for renewal of hearts and minds for all of God’s people, particularly our youth and those who may be sitting on the sidelines but interested in moving a little closer to God and the community of faith,” Father Hagan said.
“And may the life of Father John McKniff continue to inspire us all to bring God’s light and love to all parts of the world.”
