Father Peter Donohue, the president of Villanova University, was having lunch with a few of the school’s alums in a Chicago restaurant on Thursday when word got out that white smoke was billowing from the Sistine Chapel, signaling the election of a new Pope. Donohue asked the restaurant staff to turn up the TV sound.
He knew his fellow Villanova alum, Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost—a Chicago native who graduated from the Philadelphia-area school in 1977, two years after Donohue—took part in the Papal conclave. But Donohue, like most other Catholics around the world, was not expecting to see Cardinal Prevost step onto the Vatican balcony, and introduce himself to the world as Pope Francis’ successor. After all, other church officials had more experience than Prevost, who had only been a Cardinal since 2023. And no American had even been elected Pope before.
So when Prevost was in fact announced as the next pope, Donohue was just as stunned as anyone. “I practically fell off the chair,” he tells TIME. “It was such a long shot.”
And in the minutes and hours that followed, he fielded a parade of well-wishes, as Donohue was suddenly the first person in history to lead an American university that counts a Pope among its alumni pool.
“You would think I became the Pope,” says Donohue, “I was getting so many congratulations.”
Villanova, a mid-size Catholic institution run by the same Order of St. Augustine that produced the newly-installed Pope Leo XIV, is enjoying one heck of a moment. A strong academic institution with a loyal alumni base, Villanova was probably best-known in the popular imagination—before the ascension of one of its former math majors to the papacy—for its success in college basketball. The Wildcats, under Hall of Fame coach Jay Wright, won a pair of recent championships, in 2016 and 2018.
“We already had God: we had Jay Wright,” says Paul DiSenso, a 2000 Villanova alum who lives in the New York City area. “Now we have the Pope too. That’s pretty good.”
What’s more, three of those championship players—Jalen Brunson, Josh Hart, and Mikal Bridges—are currently in the starting lineup for the New York Knicks, who just last night completed a second stunning comeback victory against the defending NBA champions, the Boston Celtics, on the road in their second-round playoff series. The Knicks lead the series 2-0, and with two home games at Madison Square Garden coming up on Saturday and Monday, New York’s “Villanova Knicks” have a strong chance to lead the franchise to the conference finals for the first time in a quarter century.
Forgive Knicks fans for believing that the surprise selection of Pope Leo XIV is some sign of divine intervention: even Father Donohue has been enjoying some of the Knicks papal memes running rampant around the internet. “Oh, I’ve already seen that one!” he says when I mention that the image floating around of the Pope eating cake with the three Villanova Knicks and Donte DiVincenzo, the former Villanova and Knicks player who was traded to the Minnesota Timberwolves before this season.
And forgive Rosanne Breen for beaming with Villanova love. On a 1-10 scale, she says, “my Villanova pride has always been a 10. And today it’s like 210.” Because today, on her 62nd birthday, Breen, who graduated from the school in 1985—the year the Wildcats upset Georgetown in an epic national championship basketball game to win its first title—found out a fellow math major was elected pope. Breen’s nephew, an engineering alum, texted her: Aunt Rosanne, can you believe the Pope walked the halls of Mendel Hall and had the same teachers you had?
Breen won the school’s math medal as the top student in 1985: Breen’s kids are all wondering if the Pope also nabbed that honor too. If he didn’t, they surely wouldn’t mind mom one-upping the Pope on something.
“If he did,” says Donohue, “he probably wouldn’t have told anybody. That’s the way he is. A very humble guy.”
In September of 2022, Breen lost her family’s Long Island home—and too many valuable possessions, including the math medal—in a fire. She told a couple in the neighborhood about losing her cherished award. Unbeknownst to Breen, her friends— who happen to be Jewish and had no connection to Villanova—called the school to inform officials about what happened to Breen. About a year ago, Breen discovered a surprise package in the mail. Villanova remade her math medal. It proudly stands in her rebuilt home.
She was known as Rosanne Puntolillo back then: for the last 35 years, Rosanne has been married to Mike Breen, the NBA lead play-by-announcer for ESPN and—here’s that divine sign—the New York Knicks. “I hope he’s a basketball fan,” says Rosanne Breen of the Pope.
“I’m a little bit speechless,” she says. “Of the million different things somebody could be, a Villanova math major is very much a grain of sand.”
Ryan Mahoney, a 2011 Villanova graduate who worked as an intern at the Vatican, doing web design and planning virtual tours his junior year, hopes Pope Leo XIV’s election allows the church to spread the school’s core values—veritas (truth), unitas (unity), and caritas (love), emblazoned on Breen’s medal and all over campus. “It’s exciting for me as an alum, but as a Catholic as well,” Mahoney says. “An American Pope. who has these Augustinian values will be really nice for the global Catholic church.”
Villanova is in uncharted waters: no data exists to forecast whether a papal election increases inbound interest—in the form of more applications and donations, for example—in an American institution of higher education. If sports success is any indicator, however, Villanova could see a Papal boon. Donohue says applications increased after the hoops titles, like they have for many schools. “Certainly the name is out there,” he says. “When we won the basketball championships, people suddenly said, ‘let me look at Villanova. Let me investigate what this place is like.’ And so maybe people look at us and say, ‘Oh, the Pope is from Villanova. Maybe I should look at that.’”
Though Donohue knew Pope Leo XIV during their undergrad days, he won’t speak out of school. “I can’t tell stories about him now,” he says with a hearty guffaw. “People would think that’s terrible.” Prevost was bright, analytical and friendly, but it’s not like Donohue thought, back in the mid-1970s, he was going to be Pope one day. “Nobody says that about anybody.”
Right before speaking with TIME on Thursday, Donohue sent Pope Leo XIV an email, at his personal address. “It started out, ‘Bob,’” Donohue says. “Then I said, ‘I guess I should say Your Holiness.’” He told Pope Leo that Villanova, and the Pope’s Augustinian brothers in the United States, were praying for him, and wished him the best. “I’m going to try to see if I can get him as the commencement speaker,” says Donohue. Not for this spring though. Villanova already booked someone. Plus, Prevost needs to settle in at the Vatican.
“We’ll give him a year.”
The post How Villanova Feels About Having the New Pope as an Alum appeared first on TIME.
