Pope Leo XIV Meets Villanova and Notre Dame Basketball Teams in Rome Before Season Opener

Pope Leo XIV met the Villanova and Notre Dame basketball teams on Saturday at the Vatican, along with thousands of U.S. fans in Italy, a day before the two Catholic universities open their college basketball seasons against each other in Rome. About 7,000 people entered the Paul VI audience hall after a private Mass in St. Peter's Basilica, according to CBS News.

Leo, who graduated from Villanova in 1977 with a mathematics degree, said sports bring people together and can promote fraternity, solidarity and peace, according to Vatican News. He joked that he grew up on Chicago's south side hearing "Go Irish," but that Prevost graduated from Villanova, so the pope does not take sides. The men's and women's teams will play a doubleheader on Sunday at the 11,000-seat Palazzo Dello Sport, about a half-hour from the Vatican, in an event called the Eternal City Tip-Off, created to honor the U.S.-born pope. Leo is recovering from lung cancer surgery, CBS reported.

Left-leaning outlets CBS News and NPR frame the story around the event. CBS gives the most detail: the 7,000 attendees, the Mass, the arena, the event's name, Leo's recovery from surgery, and his remarks on athletics and technology. NPR's headline and excerpt stress that Villanova is the pope's alma mater and that this is a first for these schools' season openers abroad. Right-leaning Newsmax and independent NewsNation run the same headline, centered on the pope's claim of neutrality and the line that Prevost "has other ideas." Their excerpts show a lighter, personality-driven angle and, in what is available, do not include CBS's details on the crowd, his health or his comments about technology. All four agree on the date, the two schools and the Rome game. The difference is emphasis: the left-leaning pieces give the occasion and Leo's message, while the right-leaning and alternative pieces foreground the joke.