With the emergence of white smoke and ringing church bells, the election of Pope Leo XIV took the Villanova campus and community by storm. Since that special day, shock and awe has turned more into a curiosity. Everyone wants to know: who is Pope Leo XIV? The bi-weekly event “Sundays in St. Rita’s,” organized by the Office of Mission and Ministry, has taken this opportunity to host a special Pope Leo series to explore our new Pope and how he will shape the Catholic community and world.
The first and largest of the four events was hosted by Father Kevin DePrinzio, O.S.A., and Father Arthur Purcaro, O.S.A., titled Pope Leo, My Friend: Stories from Peru and Beyond. While the Dougherty West Lounge was full, it retained a comfortable sense of community and eagerness to learn. Father Art shared stories of his experiences both in Peru with Pope Leo XIV, as well as in Rome before and after the conclave. Interspersed between tidbits, like Pope Leo XIV’s favorite gelato being pistachio, was a meaningful understanding of him. Even after being elevated to more senior roles in the Church, Pope Leo XIV still felt a connection to the people of Peru and treasured his time there greatly. Father Art reiterated how even in his new and much more public role, Pope Leo XIV is still Bob Prevost, the same quiet, kind and genuine individual.
“I appreciate that I can find a community there of people willing to learn more about their faith and speak about it with others,” junior Abby Danner said. “As I have learned more about Pope Leo and his life as an Augustinian, I have been able to have a role model with whom I feel a personal connection.”
The relaxed but also reverent nature gave students a sense of comfort to ask deep questions and learn more about the faith. As an Augustinian institution, this new papacy has given many students on this campus a renewed interest in learning about the traditions and faith which founded this school.
“Our Catholic identity is vitally important to us as a University and we know that there were and are a variety of ways to approach Catholicism,” Villanova Director of Liturgy Matthew Verghese said. “We hoped that Sundays in St Rita’s could be a ‘big tent’ that brought together the wide range of expertise and passion around Catholic identity in a way that could be formative and open to the entire student population.”
This participation is a core part of synodality in the Church, which senior and Synodal Fellow Hannah Kalamarides discussed when she co-led the third event in the series.
“I love how ‘Sundays in St Rita’s’ incorporates Catholic formation in a way that is approachable and personable,” Kalamarides said. “It invites each person to a deeper reflection on their personal relationship with God.”
This fellowship in the faith was discussed in the final event of the Pope Leo series, led by Anna Moreland Ph.D. from the Humanities Department. During it, students were given slips of paper with questions that children around the world had asked Pope Leo XIV. A saddening theme was that of a loneliness that has stricken our generation. They expressed a paralyzing uncertainty in both social and vocational life in our culture.
Pope Leo XIV’s responses to those questions were then shown with one of them reading: “We learn to choose by remembering that we have been chosen … We received life as a gift, without choosing it! Our existence did not originate from our decision, but from a love that wanted us.”
Love in communion with God and others is central to the Catholic faith and is demonstrated wholeheartedly at “Sundays in St. Rita’s.”
“There are days where it still feels surreal that the pope is an Augustinian friar and Villanova alum,” Verghese said. “So on the one hand, as Father Kevin has said on more than one occasion, we’re still figuring out what it means. On the other hand, there are things that we know, based on our faith and based on the friendship and shared mission that exists among the friars. … In ‘Sunday’s in St Rita’s’ and beyond, we hope to continue to be inspired by Pope Leo’s example to undertake that work more lovingly and faithfully each day.”
