Villanova University president Peter Donohue was eating lunch with a few friends at a restaurant in Chicago on May 8 when he looked up to see of the Sistine Chapel on the TV.
"I asked the manager to turn up the sound because we couldn't hear it," Donohue said on TODAY on May 9.
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WATCH HEREAnd when of St. Peter’s Basilica, Donohue said he was not expecting for the new pope to be Villanova graduate and his friend Robert Francis Prevost, who took the name of Leo XIV.
"When he walked out and said, 'Roberto Francesco ... Cardinale,' I screamed in this restaurant," Donohue said. "Nobody really expected it. We talked about it, but nobody really was like, 'Oh yeah, he's gonna get it, he's the front runner.'"
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SIGN UP Pope Leo was born in Chicago and graduated from Villanova, an Augustinian Catholic university in Pennsylvania, in 1977 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics. He also received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree from the school in 2014.
Donohue said Leo has stayed involved with the school since he moved abroad when he became the Prior General of the Order of Saint Augustine in 2001.
"For 12 years as Prior General of the Augustinians, he traveled the world, and was involved in a lot of different cultures and really engaged in those cultures, you know, uniquely as to what they are," Donohue said. "So I think he’ll be a person that’s very global in how he looks at the world."
Donohue said that when Leo would return to the U.S., he would usually stop by the university.
"We gave him an honorary degree a couple years ago, which he was present for, but he's been very involved. He was on the board of trustees for a very short amount of time when he was the provincial of the Midwest province," Donohue said. "He's very simple, he's very gentle. He's not boastful at all. He's a very intelligent man, and he loves engaging with people. I think people will be very impressed with him."
Donohue also explained how Leo's Augustinian beliefs could influence his papacy, noting it is unusual for a pope to come from a specific religious order.
"As an Augustinian, our emphasis, our charism, is building community," Donohue said. "So I think it will be really important to him to bring that charism to what he does. He's been very engaged in the charism, building community, and so it will be an interesting ride."
Excitement for the first American pope spread far across the U.S. on May 8, but it reached a fever pitch at Villanova, where to many in the community, he was known as Bob.
"We are just over the moon, enthusiastic, filled with gratitude and joy," Rev. Rob Hagan, a department chaplain at the school, said on TODAY. "We’re so proud of our brother, you know, to us, he was Bob."
Students, faculty, alums and more celebrated the conclave's selection of Leo, and Brian Kerwin, Leo's former classmate, sent out a personal invitation to the new pope on TODAY.
"Bobby, you have to come to the class reunion," Kerwin said on the show. "We will have the biggest attendance of all time or we will go to Rome!"
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