In the middle of the week, the chaplain of the villanova University basketball team celebrated when one of his former players led the New York Knicks in the National Basketball Association (NBA) playoff victory in the US Basketball Association (NBA).
The next day, Father Robert Hagan was celebrating another Graduate of Villanova whom he knows: Pope Leo 14.
“We are just cheering for one of our teammates, you know?” Said Hagan on Friday, while the students prepared for the semester.
Leo 14 was known as when he was a math student at Catholic University in the 1970s, walking through the green and studying and praying in his gray stone gothic buildings.
Hagan, former Senior Associate Director of the University, is also a provincial prior, leader of the Agostinian friars in Villanova. Leo 14, who has already led the Augustinians of the world as a prior general, is the first Pope of that order.
Hagan said the Pope, which he has known for 27 years, has the spirit of St. Augustine of Hippona, a north-African bishop of the 4th and 5th centuries.
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“And what I mean by this is that Veritas, Unitas, Caritas would be the fundamental values,” he said, referring to the Latin motto of the Augustinian University, which translates as “truth, unity and love.”
Intelligence, compassion, the ability to speak in different languages and to dive into different cultures would help you in your mission, Hagan added. “He has a certain ability to relate and connect with the people that I think the world will really appreciate,” he said.
Students and teachers are savoring the moment.
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Class colleagues at a wakefulness party at the Santa Rita Motor Show, a building in the heart of the campus that bears the name of a 15th century Augustinian nun, observed the white smoke rising from the sistine chapel. Other students were taking a final engineering test when their teacher announced the news on Thursday. The night mass in the iconic church of Sao Thomas de Vilanova, on the campus, became a celebration.
Patty Rutter, 63, went to the library of Pousada Inn at Villanova, near the campus on Thursday after hearing the news. He found the 1977 edition of the yearbook and leafed until he found a serious appearance portrait.
“There is no halo,” joked Rutter, who works at the hostel and is a student of Villanova.
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The yearbook was soon taken from the library and stored in a safe, said Kay Shockley, receptionist, this Friday. Suddenly it became more valuable.
Aleko Zeppos, 21, the newly elected student body president, said it was an amazing week for the residents of Villanova.
“Now, our most remarkable former student is not an NBA player,” he said.
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The Catholic University, with 183 years of existence, has 10,000 undergraduate, postgraduate and law students. His academic reputation is solid, but is more recognized outside the basketball’s philadelphia suburb.
