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

Updated on: October 31, 2026 / 9:00 AM EDT / CBS/AP

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…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/world/