Pope meets 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. Pope Leo XIV receives a basketball as a gift during an audience with delegations from Villanova University and the University of Notre Dame at the Paul VI Audience Hall in the Vatican on October 31, 2026. Tiziana Fabi /AFP via Getty Images 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 p...