New pope gives Villanova University another reason to cheer | ABS-CBN News

Описание: At midweek, the chaplain of Villanova University's basketball team cheered as one of his former star players led the New York Knicks to a come-from-behind NBA playoff win.
The next day, Father Robert Hagan was celebrating another Villanova graduate he knows - the pope.
Hagan, a former senior associate athletic director at the university, also is prior provincial, the leader of Augustinian friars at Villanova. Leo, who once led the world's Augustinians as prior general, is the first pope from that order.
“To the Augustinians, he's always been Bob, our brother,” Hagan said on Friday (May 09). “And now he is Pope Leo.”
Leo XIV was known as Robert Prevost when he was a math major at the Catholic university in the 1970s, walking its bright green lawns and studying and praying in its gray stone Gothic buildings.
The pope's intelligence, compassion, capacity for language, and ability to immerse himself in different cultures would help him in his mission, Hagan added.
“And we're just so excited for the world to get to know the man that we know - faith-filled, extremely bright, with a heart that is full of love that will connect with all people, the poorest of the poor, to recognize and really remind people that we all need each other,” he said.
Students and faculty alike are savoring the moment.
Finals are underway at the university and Maxine Schaffner said she had just come out of an exam when she heard the news.
“I was a little bit confused at first why my mom was texting me,” she said. “But it's definitely a very unique experience and I'm from California so no one really knows where I go to school but now once I start saying Villanova I think they'll now.”
Kathy Byrnes, the Vice President for Student Life, said she was watching the announcement at the Vatican in her office with several other people when they realized who the new Pope was.
“We start to hear it was an American and we just were like, ‘Oh my God, it’s going to be Bob Prevost’, and we couldn't believe it,” she said. “And then, when he came out, it was just like unbelievable, unbelievable.”
The 183-year-old Catholic university has 10,000 undergraduate, graduate and law students. Its academic reputation is strong, but it is most recognized outside its Philadelphia suburb for basketball.
"We've been known for being the NCAA champs at three different times," said Father Kevin DePrinzio, Villanova's vice president for mission and ministry. "And we also have a pope now. That's a whole different level of wow."
DePrinzio had emailed the future pope on Tuesday, telling him he was praying for him as cardinals worked to choose a successor to Francis, who had led the Church since 2013.
DePrinzio, who started that email with "Dear Bob," said he got an immediate and friendly response.
On Friday, he was planning an email offering "prayerful support."
"I will lead with 'Your holiness,' and wait for him to say, 'You can call me Bob.'"
"If that happens," he said, "I might just pass out."
(Production: Ashraf Fahim; Brad Ulery; Karen Freifeld)

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