How Villanova Feels About Having New Pope Leo XIV as an Alum

FAther Peter Donohue, president of the University of Villanova, lunch with some of the school alumni in a restaurant in Chicago Thursday when Word came out white smoke was in the process of escaping from the Sistine Chapel, signaling the election of a new Pope. Donohue asked the restaurant staff to present the television sound.

He knew his former colleague of Villanova, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost – a native of Chicago who graduated from the school in the Philadelphia region in 1977, two years after Donohue – was part of the Papal Conclave. But Donohue, like most other Catholics in the world, did not expect to see Cardinal Prevost walking on the Vatican balcony and presenting himself to the world as successor to Pope Francis. After all, the other church officials had more experience than Prevost, who had only been cardinal since 2023. And no American had even been elected Pope before.

So when prevost was actually announced as the next pope, Donohue was just as amazed as anyone. “I practically fell from the chair,” he said on time. “It was so long.”

And in the minutes and hours that followed, he aligned a parade of goods, because Donohue was suddenly the first person in history to direct an American university which has a pope among his pool of former students.

“You might think that I became the pope,” said Donohue, “I received so much congratulations.”

Villanova, a medium -sized Catholic institution managed by the same Saint-Augustine T prescriptionThe hat produces Pope Leo XIV newly installed, benefits from a sacred instant. A solid university institution with a base of old -fashioned faithful, Villanova was probably the best known in the popular imagination – before the ascent of one of its former mathematical majors in Papacy – for its success in university basketball. The Wildcats, under the temple of fame, Jay Wright, won a pair of recent championships in 2016 and 2018.

“We already had God: we had Jay Wright,” explains Paul Diseno, a former villanova who lives in the New York region. “Now we have the Pope too. It's pretty good.”

In addition, three of these championship players –Jalen BrunsonJosh Hart and Mikal Bridges – are currently in the departure training for the New York Knicks, who won a second superb return against the title champions of the NBA, the Boston Celtics, on the road in their second round series last night. The Knicks lead the 2-0 series, and with two home games at Madison Square Garden to come on Saturday and Monday, “Villanova Knicks” in New York has a strong chance of leading the franchise to the conference final for the first time in a quarter of a century.

Forgive Knicks fans for believing that the surprise selection of Pope Leo XIV is a sign of divine intervention: even Father Donohue appreciated some of the Knicks papal memes Run railings on the internet. “Oh, I have already seen this one!” He says that when I mention that the image floating around the pope eating cake with the three Knicks Villanova and Donte Divincenzo, the former Villanova and Knicks player who was exchanged at the Minnesota Timberwolves before this season.

And forgive Rosanne Breen to have radiated from Villanova Love. On a 1-10 scale, she says: “My pride of Villanova has always been a 10. And today, it's like 210.” Because today, during his 62nd anniversary, Breen, who graduated from the school in 1985 – the year Wildcats have turned upside down Georgetown In a basketball match in the epic national championship to win his first title – a colleague in mathematics was elected Pope. The nephew of Breen, a former engineering, sent him a text: Aunt Rosanne, can you believe that the pope walked in the corridors of Mendel Hall and had the same teachers as you?

Breen won the school mathematics medal as a high -level student in 1985: Breen's children all wonder if the Pope also won this honor. If he didn't do it, it would certainly not be my mind to a single pope on something.

“If he did it,” said Donohue, “he would probably not have told anyone. This is how he is. A very humble guy. ”

In September 2022, Breen lost the house of his family of his family – and too many precious goods, including the mathematics medal – in a fire. She told a couple in the neighborhood to lose their darling price. Unbeknownst to Breen, his friends – who happened to be Jewish and had no connection with Villanova – called the school to inform those responsible for what happened to Breen. About a year ago, Breen discovered a surprise package by post. Villanova has redone his mathematical medal. He stands proudly in his rebuilt house.

She was known as Rosanne Puntolillo at the time: for 35 years, Rosanne has been married Mike Breen, The NBA game is in the lead by Annaule for ESPN and – here the divine sign – The Knicks of New York. “I hope he is a basketball fan,” explains Rosanne Breen of the Pope.

“I'm a bit speechless,” she said. “Among the millions of different things that someone could be, a major math of Villanova is really a grain of sand.”

Ryan Mahoney, a graduate of Villanova in 2011 who worked as an intern to the Vatican, making virtual web design visits and planning his first year, hopes that the election of Pope Leo XIV allows the church to spread the fundamental values ​​of the school – Veritas (Truth), the Unitas (Unit) and the Caritas (Love), exalted the Breen medal and all Campus. “It's exciting for me as Alumus, but also as a Catholic,” explains Mahoney. “An American pope. Who has these Augustinian values ​​will be really nice for the world Catholic Church. ”

Villanova is in unexplored waters: no data exists to predict whether a papal election increases the incoming interest – in the form of more applications and donations, for example – in an American higher education institution. If the success of the sport is an indicator, however, Villanova could see a papal boon. Donohue says that candidates increased after the titles of the hoops, as they did for many schools. “Admittedly, the name is there,” he says. “When we won the basketball championships, people suddenly said:” Let me watch Villanova. Let me investigate what this place looks like. And then maybe people look at us and say: “Oh, the Pope is from Villanova.

Although Donohue knew Pope Leo XIV during their first cycle days, he will not speak of the school. “I can't tell stories about it now,” he said with a warm corffine. “People would think it's terrible.” Prevost was brilliant, analytical and friendly, but it was not as Donohue thought, in the mid -1970s, he was going to be the Pope one day. “No one says that about anyone.”