Pope Leo meets with Villanova and Notre Dame basketball teams at the Vatican

Pope Leo XIV met on Saturday with the basketball teams from Villanova and Notre Dame, along with thousands of U.S. fans in Italy, ahead of the two Catholic universities’ season opener later this weekend.

About 7,000 people entered the Paul VI audience hall inside the Vatican on Saturday after a special private Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

Leo, who is an avid tennis player and sports fan, said sports bring people together and can promote values such as fraternity, solidarity and peace.

“By acting as a concrete means of bringing people together, athletics can teach the values of cooperation and mutual sharing.  This is increasingly necessary in an age marked by the distance that can be created by technology,” he said, according to Vatican News.

The teams are in Rome for the U.S. college basketball season opener on Sunday — an event dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off and created to honor the U.S.-born pope. The universities’ men’s and women’s teams will play a doubleheader at the Palazzo Dello Sport, an 11,000-seat arena about a half-hour drive from the Vatican.

Leo, who is currently recovering from lung cancer surgery, graduated from Villanova in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics.

“Growing up on the south side of Chicago, we oftentimes heard, ‘Go Irish.’ But as you all know, Prevost graduated from Villanova! So, the Pope doesn’t take sides. Prevost has another opinion, but we won’t do that now,” Leo joked during the audience, according to Vatican News.

The Rev. Robert Dowd, president of Notre Dame, acknowledged Villanova had something of an edge considering it counts the pope as an alumnus. But in an interview Saturday, he said the occasion to bring both teams together with all their fans in Rome for a papal audience and season opener was “amazing.”

“That could be a little challenging, but I know that the pope is a pope for all of us, and so I’m grateful,” he said. “I know in a particular way the pope talks about the importance of bridge building, and I’m sure he’ll be a bridge builder when we play each other.”

Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez celebrated a private Mass for traveling fans in St. Peter’s Basilica on Saturday morning, and asked the thousands of people in the pews to give a round of applause to the players. The English-language liturgy was unusual in that it had all the trappings of a papal Mass celebrated at the main altar and televised live by Vatican Media.

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 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.