In the summer of 1973, the war was still raging in Vietnam, the Watergate scandal was unfolding in Washington, and protests roiled college campuses nationwide. But at leafy Villanova University just outside Philadelphia,

The Augustinian-affiliated university has pulsed with nonstop celebration, including ‘pope punch’ and ringing bells, since an alumnus was selected to lead the Catholic Church.

The new pope is a Wildcat through and through. Even while ministering in faraway Peru, Robert Francis Prevost kept up with his alma mater, Villanova University, a Catholic college of approximately 10,