V for Vatican: The Pope Went to My Alma Mater!

The view of the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel was in the background on either my phone or laptop since the conclave began on Wednesday night. Like millions of others around the world, I had been eagerly watching and waiting for the announcement of our new Pope. I was only 11 years old when Pope Francis was elected, so this was my first conclave experiencing and understanding the significance of this event.

I could not be more excited at this outcome. I was in shock and disbelief when watching the livestream of the historic event unfold. After learning more about Pope Leo XIV’s life, I am looking forward to his Papacy for a number of reasons: his mission work in Peru, choice of a name reflecting a direction of social justice, perspective from being in a religious order, fluency in five languages and choosing not to speak English during his first Papal address. These are some of the reasons to be excited for our new Pope that Fr. Gary also mentioned during his homily yesterday (you can find a recording of that on the NDNC YouTube channel). I want to share some more thoughts about our new Pope and to explain why I proudly wore my “Villanova Alumni” sweatshirt around the church the past few days.

Pope Leo XIV in Villanova’s 1977 yearbook.

An American, an Augustinian, and a Villanovan…I know who Cardinal Robert Prevost is! I also studied math at Villanova! I remember when he was elected cardinal in 2023 and campus was buzzing with excitement. Pope Leo XIV was the first Augustinian Cardinal and now the first Augustinian Pope. There are a total of about 2,800 Augustinian friars in the world. This is a significantly smaller number than the 15,000 Jesuits worldwide, the same order that Pope Francis was. Needless to say, the Augustinians are a tight-knit community with only three regional provinces in the United States. The Province of St. Thomas of Villanova was the first to be established in 1796 when Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore invited Augustinians to come over from Ireland. In 1842, Villanova University was founded by that same group of Irish Augustinians as a school for Irish Catholic immigrants in the United States. As part of House of Brigid’s mission stems from a spirit of gratitude to the missionaries of Ireland who brought the Catholic faith to America, I love to share Villanova’s Irish connection.

My friend Sadia, Fr. Peter, and I at an end of the year reception.

Fr. Peter on the Today Show.

Since the announcement of our new Pope, I have been keeping up with the media and interviews with Fr. Peter Donohue the president of Villanova University, Fr. Rob Hagan the Prior Provincial at The Augustinian Province of St. Thomas of Villanova, and other Augustinians talking about Pope Leo. It has been thrilling and surreal to see the priests who I would listen to preach every Sunday night for four years on national and international television! I can now say that I am only two degrees away from His Holiness! In this year of transition to postgraduate life while continuing to grow in my faith, I found myself missing being surrounded by a community that was united in mind and heart like I did with the Augustinians at Villanova and praying that I could experience it in the “outside world”. I miss the emphasis on the Augustinian values: truth, unity, and love where I was encouraged to think critically, act compassionately, and succeed while serving others. Now, I feel like my prayers have been answered; we have a Pope that is an Augustinian Villanovan!

Saint Augustine writes in the Confessions, “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in You.” Restlessness ignites our common search for God through our prayer and ministry. My hope with this Papacy is that the world and the greater church can experience this perspective with an active search for love, community, and call to service. During his first public address after being named to the papacy on Thursday, Leo already brought about the ethos of unity by saying, “I am a son of Saint Augustine, an Augustinian. He (Saint Augustine) said, ‘With you I am a Christian, for you a bishop.’ So may we all walk together toward that homeland that God has prepared for us.”