Ahead of Rome tipoff, basketball powerhouse Villanova embraces 'Pope Leo effect'

VILLANOVA, Pa. (AP) — At Villanova University, all roads — or at least many of them — seem to lead to Rome, thanks to famed alumnus Pope Leo XIV and the school's growing ties to the Vatican. Even its vaunted basketball program is getting in on the act.

“We certainly have a bigger footprint there now than we used to,” said the Rev. Peter Donohue, Villanova’s president. “People do know who we are, just because it’s the pope’s school.”

The pope graduated from Villanova with a degree in mathematics in 1977. He belongs to the Augustinians, the religious order that founded the university near Philadelphia in 1842. Now his alma mater is finding new and inventive connections to his papacy.

On Sunday, the men's and women's basketball teams from Villanova will open the season in Rome with a Catholic university matchup, playing Notre Dame 6 miles (9.6 kilometers) from the Vatican in what organizers are calling the Eternal City Tip-Off. The doubleheader comes only weeks after Villanova hosted a sustainability conference in Rome and awarded a cardinal with the inaugural Pope Leo XIV Sustainability Medal.

“It’s crazy,” Donohue said. “We’re taking over Rome.”

Villanova saw applications jump more than 10% during the first admissions cycle after the pope’s 2025 election.

“We claimed it was ‘the Pope Leo effect,’” Donohue said.

Villanova is the only American university that can claim a pope as a graduate — a distinction that has elevated its profile alongside a run of athletic success.

The school won the NCAA men's basketball championship in 1985, 2016 and 2018. Three alums dubbed the 'Nova Knicks were instrumental in the New York Knicks winning the NBA title this year.

Over Halloween weekend, the power of Catholic school basketball will be in full effect as 6,000 Villanova fans and 1,000 Notre Dame fans travel to watch their teams compete.

“The voice of the people of God will be very strong on the Villanova side,” Leo said in September.

The festivities were planned long before Leo’s recent cancer diagnosis and surgery. The sports-loving pope is scheduled — health permitting — to hold a private audience inside the Vatican on Saturday for the teams and their traveling fans. Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez will also celebrate a private Mass for them in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Ed Hastings, who played on Villanova’s 1971 basketball team that lost the national championship to UCLA and now teaches at Villanova, will appear on a sold-out panel in Rome. He will be discussing sports and spirituality, bringing together “the passions of my life,” he said.

St. Augustine, who inspired the Augustinian religious order, wrote about self-knowledge. “And I learned a lot about myself through sports,” Hastings said.

The Rev. Bernie Scianna, Villanova's vice president for mission and ministry, is a friend of the pope, having met him almost three decades ago through their Augustinian order.

Scianna has seen an uptick in interest in Catholicism at the school, which has around 10,000 students and a large Catholic population. Last year, 24 people joined the Catholic Church on campus, most of them students, though fewer than 10 typically do each year. There are 56 people in the current class of potential new members.

“It’s really a great feeling for us to be in this moment,” he said.

Villanova has long sent students to Italy and the Vatican for internships and study abroad programs, but those opportunities are growing.

Senior Mike Whaley just returned from a fall break trip there with his humanities class. He had visited the Vatican on a previous student trip, where he was an altar server at a private Mass for Villanova students celebrated by then-Cardinal Robert Prevost.

“So, my fun fact at parties is that I served Mass for the now Pope Leo XIV,” Whaley said.

Megan Zuzarth, another senior, also was in Rome recently with her business school class.

The pope's connection to Villanova makes him even more relatable once you realize “he probably sat right here or he walked these halls,” Zuzarth said. “He’s one of us.”

Church bells rang at Villanova for hours after Leo’s election.

Cathleen Kershner, now a junior, was wrapping up her final exams. “I get a text from my grandma and she was like, ‘Your pope! He’s your pope!’”

Donohue was at a Chicago restaurant when he heard the Vatican conclave had chosen a new pope.

“It’s Bob!” he screamed. A manager brought out Champagne to celebrate the new pope, who was born and raised in Chicago.

Donohue, a fellow Augustinian, was two years ahead of Pope Leo at Villanova. Before assuming the presidency, he chaired the school’s theater department.

As a child, while “other people were playing basketball and football, I was taking tap dancing classes,” he said.

His background in musical theater has been surprisingly useful as he navigates fundraising and donor relations. “I tell everybody it’s the biggest acting job I’ve ever had,” he said, “and the longest run I’ve ever had.”

Villanova has not been immune to the financial pressures many universities face, but it’s faring better than most. The school has undertaken renovations and expansion projects and recently opened a new campus at a nearby shuttered Catholic college.

The Pope Leo effect certainly has not hurt.

“We’re very proud of him, and very proud that he’s an Augustinian, and very proud that he is leading the church,” Donohue said. “Whatever we can do to help him, we’re trying to do that.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Students walk on the campus of Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Former Villanova University basketball player and Associate Teaching Professor Ed Hastings speaks during an interview on campus in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

The interior of Finneran Pavilion is seen at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Finneran Pavilion is seen at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Student Cathleen Kershner poses for a portrait at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Student Mike Whaley poses for a portrait at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Student Megan Zuzarth poses for a portrait at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Villanova University President Rev. Peter M. Donohue poses for a portrait in his office Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Villanova, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

St. Thomas of Villanova Church is seen at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Villanova University President Rev. Peter M. Donohue speaks during an interview in his office Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Villanova, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Villanova University President Rev. Peter M. Donohue holds a book during an interview in his office Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Villanova, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Villanova University President Rev. Peter M. Donohue poses for a portrait in his office Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026, in Villanova, Pa. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Villanova University is seen in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

Students walk past an image of Pope Leo XIV at Villanova University in Villanova, Pa., Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

President Donald Trump takes his midterm campaign blitz to Texas, where Senate candidate Ken Paxton is locked in a tight race against Democrat James Talarico. And Secretary of State Marco Rubio will join Trump to show off a newly arrived oil tanker filled with Venezuelan crude to be processed in Texas refineries, according to a congressional aide and two U.S. officials.

Meanwhile, the Iran war, which Trump often describes as a “little detour,” has emerged as an unforced liability for a president who promised to keep the U.S. out of foreign wars. Republican strategists privately acknowledge it’s severely damaging party efforts to retain control of Congress as gasoline price hikes drive up costs across the economy and new hostilities emerge.

And two former FBI officials charged with lying to Congress about investigations involving Hunter Biden have a preliminary hearing Tuesday. Lawyers for Nikki Floris and Bradley Benavides call the charges baseless and politically motivated, the latest in a series of splashy investigative actions by the Justice Department as Americans go to vote.

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Ahead of the UN’s annual vote condemning the U.S. embargo on Cuba, representatives from Washington and Havana exchanged barbs on the floor of the General Assembly.

In a stunning break from diplomatic decorum, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez walked up to the podium while U.S. ambassador Mike Waltz was speaking about what he called the communist government’s corruption.

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Waltz responded, “You understand who you’re dealing with? This is America. Back up.”

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The billionaire Democrat, who is on the cusp of reelection and considering a 2028 presidential bid, is directing some last-minute campaign spending on Senate Democratic nominees in traditionally Republican states.

Pritzker’s Ready for the Fight PAC is making a $1 million ad buy for Scott Colom against Republican Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith in Mississippi and spending $500,000 for Adam Hamilton against GOP incumbent Roger Marshall in Kansas.

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A week out from Election Day, total spending and reservations has topped the $11.20 billion spent in 2023-2024 period, which included the presidential contest.

The latest figure has not been adjusted for inflation.

The president says he’ll appeal a federal judge’s order putting a temporary hold on his plans to renovate a Washington golf course.

“The Development of this World Championship Public Facility must begin, immediately, if it is to be completed in a timely and seasonal manner,” he posted on social media.

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A truck drives past a fuel price board for gasoline and diesel at a gas station on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in San Francisco. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

FILE - Clouds form over pumpjacks and power transmission towers on Lake Maracaibo in Cabimas, Venezuela, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Ariana Cubillos, File)

FILE - At left, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks in McKinney, Texas, May 19, 2026, and at right, Texas state Rep. James Talarico, after voting, in Austin, Texas, Feb. 17, 2026. (AP Photo/LM Otero and Eric Gay,File)

President Donald Trump yells after speaking at a campaign rally at Crossroads Arena, in Corinth, Miss., Monday, Oct. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)