Prevost visited the Diocese of Tucson

By New Outlook 

It was 1999. Catholics on the east side of Tucson had, for years, been praying for a Catholic high school. Diocesan leaders met to discuss the possibility of converting the former Regina Cleri Seminary to a Catholic school that would serve grades 9-12. Among the concerns were funding and how to staff the high school. At the time Bishop Manuel Moreno asked Bob Heslinga, then the Executive Director of the Catholic Foundation, to help host leadership from the Augustinian Order to evaluate if friars would fit the need. The man leading the Augustinian Order was (Very Rev.) Robert Prevost, O.S.A., during the trip he was accompanied by his secretary Brother Ken Mehn, O.S.A. Heslinga was beyond proud to tour the prior provincial, as a teenager he had spent time in the Augustinian Seminary, “I was a simply professed Augustinian, I never made solemn profession. But I am an Augustinian at heart.”  

The partnership between the Augustinian Order and the Diocese of Tucson never came to fruition, several reasons were cited. Archives from the Diocese of Tucson reveal a letter Prevost sent to Bishop Moreno, it’s dated January 20, 2000, “As I expressed to you when we spoke during my visit to Tucson last month, the Augustinians are very enthusiastic about supporting the creation of a new Catholic High School in Tucson. We have given the services of one of our best men, Father David Brecht, as a sign of our desire to see the realization of this project. At the same time, I feel obliged to tell you very frankly that due to the personnel situation in our province, and our aging membership, we can make no commitment for our presence if the opening of this school is delayed beyond the Fall of 2002.” As with many large-scale projects the timing, financing, and leadership simply didn’t align. Heslinga said, “It was my great hope that the Augustinians would be here, but it just didn’t work out.”  

Nonetheless, Heslinga still holds the memory from 26 years ago closely, “I don’t feel proud or puffed up. I just feel humbled. I had an opportunity to spend time with him and one of his close friends.” Heslinga says he recalls having dinner with Prevost and Mehn, “I didn’t drive them. I think they rented a car. And I remember that he sat to my left at the table,” he said with a laugh. The diocesan school eventually opened in 2003, and it was named after Saint Augustine, patron saint of the diocese, and with a nod to the Augustinian Order that had once visited the campus.  
 
Fast forward more than 20 years, as Heslinga sat watching the white smoke emanate from chimney atop the Sistine Chapel, he thought back to the name Prevost, “I had some sense that he was going to be named pope, I mean he was a cardinal, so it was possible.” When Heslinga heard the name, he became emotional, “Knowing that an Augustinian was named pope blew me away.” It’s been three weeks since Cardinal Robert Prevost was named Pope Leo XIV and Heslinga continues to be in amazement, “I thought about how I was at seminary when he was ordained a deacon in Michigan. We had to have interacted then, but I don’t remember it,” he told the New Outlook. He does however think fondly of December 1999 when he met the prior provincial in Tucson, “He’s soft spoken, he listens intently. He’s not a glad hander. You feel a lot of warmth from him. His enthusiasm was not superficial.”  

Heslinga isn’t the only person in Southern Arizona to have shared a moment in time with Prevost. In the late 1970s in Illinois, Pete Neeley, was a Jesuit seminarian. The day Prevost was elected Neeley spoke with the New Outlook and explained that there were two Catholic theology schools in Chicago, the Jesuit school and the Catholic Theological Union, “They were different, but we all shared the same teachers, and took the same classes.” On May 8 when Prevost stepped out onto the balcony of Saint Peter’s Basilica Neeley thought back to studying theology in the seminary, “I remember at the dinner table he was always talking about missions.” As a Jesuit, Neeley spent longer time in formation, so their interaction was some 40 years ago but he hasn’t forgotten Prevost, “He was a nice guy, very quiet.” Today Neeley, S.J. serves the diocese at the Kino Border Initiative in Nogales.

Neeley said he and Prevost have mutual friends in common, “I’m still in shock. Obviously, the theology he got was the same theology I had, and we were all trained at the end of the 70s which was really, in the United States church, was a time of great flux. There was a lot of excitement for the future because John Paul II had just been elected.” Neeley said he’s been reconnecting with old classmates reminiscing about their days in the seminary, “I was not expecting him to be named pope, but the Holy Spirit is definitely alive and well.”  

The connection between Prevost and the diocese doesn’t end there though. When Bishop Gerald Kicanas, currently serving as the Apostolic Administrator, of the Diocese of Tucson heard the name “Roberto” he immediately thought of his friend “Bob,” both are from Chicago and had most recently spoken in February 2025. At the time Cardinal Prevost was leading the Bishop’s Dicastery, responsible for managing bishops throughout the world. Kicanas said when they met Prevost asked the 83-year-old to step out of retirement to temporarily to fill the vacancy left by Archbishop Weisenburger who was being transferred to the Archdiocese of Detroit, “I told him I would do it but hopefully not for too long,” Kicanas said laughing.” At the time Kicanas was told the time for a new ordinariate to be named would be anywhere from six months to a year. Kicanas formally became the Apostolic Administrator on March 18, 2025. Kicanas also told the New Outlook that ten years ago the diocese was in desperate need to Spanish speaking priests. Kicanas reached out to his friend Bishop Prevost, who was leading the Diocese of Chiclayo, Peru, and asked if he could send support to Immaculate Conception Church in Yuma. Kicanas said, “Without hesitation he told me he would try and sure enough he quickly responded to my plea and sent a priest to serve among us. When that priest returned to his diocese, then Bishop Prevost sent another priest to replace him. What a great help that was for our Diocese. Those priests were Fr. Rolando Monteza Calderón, who at the time was appointed as Parochial Vicar of Immaculate Conception from October 1, 2015, to February 25, 2019. After Fr. Rolando, Fr. José Martín Uriarte Guevara came from March 25th of 2019 to December 31st, 2023.

Following the announcement of the new Holy Father Kicanas sent a text message to his friend “Bob.” Kicanas said he sent him the message not expecting a reply, “I shared with him the prayer that our diocese would offer for him. I didn’t think he’d write back but he did. Then I asked, ‘Is this the best way to reach you? And he said, ‘For now, I think it is.” In the message Pope Leo XIV said, “Many thanks+Jerry, many blessings to the people of Tucson! Thanks for your prayers!” Kicanas regrets that he and Prevost aren’t pictured together but said should they meet again they most certainly will document the visit with a photograph.