The English edition of “Freedom Under Grace” is set to hit bookshelves in September, bringing together homilies, addresses, messages, and letters written by Fr. Robert Francis Prevost during his years as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine.
Vatican News
A book containing the early public writings by Fr. Robert Francis Prevost—now Pope Leo XIV—will be released on September 15 for the first time in English.
The volume, entitled “Freedom Under Grace: Reflections on the Spiritual Tradition That Formed Me,” will be published by Image Books, an imprint of the Penguin Random House Christian Publishing Group.
Originally published in Italian by the Vatican Publishing House (LEV) under the title Liberi sotto la Grazia, the book gathers homilies, speeches, messages, and letters by Father Robert Francis Prevost, who served as Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine from 2001 to 2013.
The Italian edition was presented in Rome at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum and was given to Pope Leo XIV on the eve of its release. The volume is being translated in several languages.
Edited by Augustinian Fathers Rocco Ronzani, Miguel Ángel Martín Juárez, and Michael Di Gregorio, the book offers a glimpse into the thought and spirituality of the man who would later become Pope.
According to Campbell Wharton, senior vice president and publisher of Penguin Random House Christian, “each chapter is a window into the spiritual depth and vision of the man who would eventually become Pope Leo.”
He described the book as carrying “an urgent message of love and service to address the challenges of the world today.”
Freedom Under Grace, said Mr. Wharton, is intended not only for Catholics, but also for “any Christian or spiritual seeker looking for guidance and hope for living a life that transforms the world.”
During the presentation of the Italian edition in Rome on May 6, 2026, Fr. Joseph Farrell, Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine, recalled that the title comes from the Rule of Saint Augustine, which urges monks to live “not as servants under the law, but as men free under grace.”
At the presentation, Cardinal Secretary of State Pietro Parolin noted that the pages of the book reveal Augustinian themes central to Fr. Prevost’s thought, including the search for God, the primacy of grace, the mission of the Church, the cry of the poor, and the need to communicate the Gospel in a language intelligible to the modern world.
The publication of the English edition now offers a wider readership the opportunity to encounter the spiritual roots, pastoral vision, and missionary concern that marked the ministry of Fr. Robert Francis Prevost before his election as Pope Leo XIV.
