Overview
- Saint Vincent College leaders met Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on May 13 and presented a Saint Vincent Training Camp edition Terrible Towel that the pope immediately recognized and smiled at.
- The delegation also offered The Cloud of Unknowing, an algorithmic painting by alumnus Roman Verostko, for inclusion in the Vatican Museum’s Collection of Modern and Contemporary Art.
- During the brief meeting the visitors discussed the future of Benedictine education in the United States and extended an open invitation for the pope to visit Saint Vincent College in Pennsylvania.
- The Terrible Towel carries local weight because Saint Vincent has hosted the Pittsburgh Steelers’ summer training camp since 1966 and the gift was framed as a gesture to Steeler Nation and the Rooney family.
- Reporting of the May 13 visit and the gifts is based on a Saint Vincent College press release and local news coverage; the articles do not cite an independent Vatican statement confirming the presentation.