Pope Leo XIV is set to hold a private audience on Saturday with basketball teams from his alma mater, Villanova, and fellow Catholic university Notre Dame, plus thousands of traveling American fans in town for the season opener.
A total of about 7,000 people are expected Saturday in the Paul VI audience hall inside the Vatican.
The audience precedes the U.S. college basketball season opener in Rome on Sunday.
The Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams will play a doubleheader at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport — which is located about a half-hour drive from the Vatican.
The event has been dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off and was created to honor the first American pope.
Leo graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Villanova, the Augustinian school near Philadelphia. He was born in Chicago — not all that far from Notre Dame, which is located in South Bend, Indiana.
Like popes before him, Leo has praised the value of sport for both physical and spiritual development. He has also warned about how the win-at-all-cost mentality of sport has contributed to episodes of doping, match-fixing and other forms of corruption.
Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez was to celebrate a private Mass for traveling fans in St. Peter’s Basilica shortly before the private audience with Leo.
Asked about the upcoming games on the papal plane during a recent trip to France, Leo said, “They tell me that the people coming to the match, 90% are Villanova and 10% Notre Dame, so the voice of the people of God will be very strong on the Villanova side.”
Leo is an avid tennis player, a Chicago White Sox fan, and has been known to follow basketball, too.
“He will know who they (the players) are. He’s a true, blue Villanovan,” said the Rev. Rob Hagan, Villanova’s longtime team chaplain. He said Leo used to attend Villanova games at the Palestra, the Philadelphia arena known as “The Cathedral of College Basketball.”
Sunday's games coincide with All Saints' Day, a major Catholic holiday.
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