The purpose of the gathering was deeply serious: Pope Leo XIV met with Jesuit educators from North America to discuss the challenges facing humanity and higher education.
When the pontiff was finished speaking, Rev. Joseph G. Marina took his turn in line to meet the leader of the Catholic Church.
"We were simply to introduce ourselves," Marina recalled.
"So I just said to him, 'Holy Father, my name is Joe Marina. I'm the president of the University of Scranton.' And then I added, 'We're not too far from Villanova.'"
The first American-born pope earned his bachelor's degree from Villanova University in suburban Philadelphia.
Marina's reference hit the mark.
"He laughed and he said, 'Oh, I know Scranton,' which I thought was terrific," Marina said. "I thought that was just great."
"And so the actual personal encounter was that brief," Marina said.
But it also was, as Marina described the June meeting, "so personal and so meaningful."
WVIA News was not able to share images of the encounter due to Vatican copyright. A link appears in a box at the bottom of this story.
Who are the Jesuits?
Located in the city of Scranton, the university is a Catholic and Jesuit institution which serves over 4,600 students, including undergraduate, adult, part-time and graduate students.
The Jesuits, formally known as the Society of Jesus, are an order of priests and brothers — and with 16,000 members worldwide, the largest male religious order in the Catholic Church.
Marina, who has served as the university's 29th president since 2021, entered the Society of Jesus in 2004 and was ordained to the priesthood in 2012.
He met Pope Leo this summer while participating in this year's Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities (AJCU) Presidents’ Pilgrimage to Rome.
What did Pope Leo say to the presidents?
The themes raised by Pope Leo with the AJCU delegation echoed some of the points he raised earlier in June to visiting educators from the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities — among them Marywood University President Lisa Lori — including concerns about artificial intelligence.
But his primary focus was addressing issues specific to the Society of Jesus and its four Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAP) — "Showing the way to God," "Walking with the Excluded," "Journeying with Youth" and "Caring for our Common Home."
The UAP is a 10-year framework, or "pillars of mission," as Marina described it, for Jesuit ministries. The UAP was launched in 2019 by Very Rev. Arturo Sosa, superior general of the Society of Jesus, whom Marina's delegation also met in Rome.
Pope Leo addressed each, advising his guests to provide ways for members of their academic communities to come to know God, help young people develop a sense of purpose, care for the disadvantaged — including immigrants and refugees — and serve as examples of ecological sustainability.
“Oftentimes young people are left without hope in a world that seems to lack the promise of a better future, and the natural environment continues to be degraded by those who would use the planet’s resources for their own interests instead of for the common good,” Pope Leo said. “Our world is also increasingly aware of the growing impact of artificial intelligence and the wider-ranging effects it can have on humanity.”
Marina was touched by the references.
"This wasn't a template speech. This was something that was true to the heart of Jesuit higher education in the contemporary world, and what we're trying to deal with right now," he said.
"He reinvigorated us according to our mission of Jesuit higher education, to you know, really stay the course — and for lack of a more eloquent way of putting it, to keep up the great work," Marina said.
'I'll never forget it'
The meeting was Marina's first face-to-face encounter with a pope.
"I had come into close proximity with Pope John Paul II when I was a young man — this is back in the late '70s," Marina said. "It was my first time in Rome. I was not with the Jesuits at that time. I was not a priest. I was freshly out of college, and I got to be near him in a general audience as he moved through the crowd."
READ AND SEE MORE
● University of Scranton Royal News (including photos)
● Pope Leo's address to AJCU
● AJCU presidents share reflections
His audience with Pope Leo was something entirely different.
"This was the first time that I could actually look into the eyes of a pope, tell him my name, shake his hand, and get a warm response," Marina said.
"I'll never forget it. You know, I guess the word is surreal, but I'm not even sure that captures it," he said.
"It's not like meeting a king or a prime minister or the president of the United States. It's like meeting someone who you feel you've known all along, and just the warmth and the compassion that emanated from him is something that I won't forget."
It was an encounter that resonated deeply on a personal level.
"Every time I look at one of the photographs, I can't help thinking if my mother were still alive and she saw one of those, she'd probably get into her car and drive across the country showing it to everybody," Marina said.
He was, however, left with a memento to share with a loved one back in the U.S.
"At the very end of the meeting, after the Pope blessed us at the conclusion of our gathering, his assistants handed all of us a rosary that he had personally blessed," Marina said.
"Most of my relatives have passed, but I have one aunt living in New Jersey who's 87 years old," he said during a recent interview.
"I'm going to see my aunt next week in New Jersey, and I'll give that to her as a gift."
