Tipperary priest recalls his time in Rome with newly elected Pope Leo XIV

A Tipperary priest, who met the man today elected Pope Leo XIV on several previous occasions, has said the new pontiff knows Ireland very well.

Speaking to RTÉ after the new pontiff's election earlier this week, Fr Iggy O'Donovan and Pope Leo XIV met while studying for the priesthood in Rome and are both members of the Order of Saint Augustine.

READ NEXT: Tipperary secondary school announces transition to co-education model for 2026

"The first time I met Bob Prevost, as I knew him, was in 1981 when he came as an undergraduate student to Rome.

"I was studying history there at the time, and we knew each other there. I would have been there a few years while now Leo XIV was a student.

"Canon law was his specialty at that time. And I do recall that in 1982, he was ordained, and I was one of those invited to his ordination in Rome, a sweltering day in '82."

Fr O'Donovan now lives in Dublin and is based at St Augustine and St John's Church - or John's Lane Church as it's known locally - in the Liberties.

He said the new leader of the Catholic Church rose through the ranks quickly.

"He was certainly organised. He was a worker, highly organised, highly intelligent, a polyglot - he speaks several languages - and very determined at whatever it was he did.

"He became Prior General of Augustinian Order, provincial of the American province and then bishop in Peru.

"Pope Francis saw something (in him) and brought him to Rome and put him as the head of the bishops' congregation and now his fellow cardinals have selected him, so it is a proud moment for us Augustinians."

Asked about what sort of papacy he thinks Pope Leo XIV will have based on his previous meetings with him, Fr O'Donovan said it will very much be a case of "steady as she goes".

He said: I noticed this evening in his, if we call it, his victory speech, he invoked Pope Francis a great deal, and kept using that word, peace, peace, peace - pace pace pace in Italian - all the time.

"I think he will be using, like Francis did, the moral authority of the papacy - which is very important given the moral bankruptcy that is politically around the world at the moment - to have a bit of hope on the horizon as Francis gave us. And I think Leo XIV will do the same."

Fr O'Donovan also said that Pope Leo XIV is no stranger to these shores.

"He has been to Ireland several times, certainly at Augustinian gatherings and chapters and so forth.

"I have a distinct memory of him visiting my native Tipperary in Fethard. He certainly was there, and there must be a photographic record of that.

"He's been to Ireland. He would know Ireland very very well, and the Irish Augustinian province very, very well."

As he takes up his new ministry in the Vatican, Fr O'Donovan said he will be praying for the man that he studied there with all those years ago.

"He's facing an awesome task. It's a lonely job, and in great parts of the world, the Church is in grave crisis, like our own part of the world that is true, and he knows that."

"He's realistic enough to face that. The Church is thriving in other parts of the world, but overall, there are many problems that are only too well known that he faces.

"It's a difficult lonely job, and our prayers and good wishes go to him," Fr O'Donovan added.

ALSO READ: REVEALED: Pope Leo's surprising connection to Tipperary