PHILADELPHIA — What’s it like to vacation with Pope Leo XIV?

Just ask the Rev. Arthur Purcaro, assistant vice president for mission and ministry at Villanova University. He has done it twice at the pope’s summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, a scenic hilltop town southeast of Rome.

“Boring,” he kidded.

The day started with a private Mass by Pope Leo with only Purcaro, one other Augustinian priest, and the pope’s personal secretary in attendance. Then breakfast, and a brief golf cart ride to the tennis courts — the pope played tennis, while Purcaro sat by the pool.

“After he played tennis, he’d come to the pool,” Purcaro recalled.

There were snacks, chats about family and world news, afternoon rests typical in Italy, and, for three days, they put together a 1,000-piece puzzle of St. Peter’s Basilica that Purcaro had brought with him.

“Then about 5-ish we’d take a walk to the end of the property and have snacks as we overlooked Lake Albano,” he said. Dinner followed, he added, punctuated by time for relaxation.

Purcaro, who spent a week there with the pope in July, is one of several Augustinian priests who work at Villanova and are close friends of the pope. These relationships stem back decades before the papal conclave chose Cardinal Robert Prevost to be the first American-born pope — and have endured. These priests regularly walk the picturesque 260-acre main Villanova campus with collegiate Gothic-style buildings and green spaces and teach students. They email regularly with the Holy Father and visit him.

And they were among the pope’s closest friends grappling with the lung cancer diagnosis Leo received on Tuesday, which was announced publicly by The Vatican after his surgery.

“He’s in my prayers and the prayers of many, many people,” Purcaro said Wednesday. “I know he will say ‘it’s all in the hands of God.’”

The Rev. John Lydon

The inaugural director of Villanova’s Mother Cabrini Institute on Immigration, Lydon graduated from Villanova the same year as Prevost. Lydon was not yet studying to become a priest, but they knew each other through the Villanovans for Life group, Lydon said.

He described Prevost as studious, bright, and very friendly, but “more introverted than extroverted.”

They really got to know each other years later when both were stationed in Peru as priests. Lydon got there in 1983 and Prevost in 1985. They lived together from 1990 to 1999, Lydon said.

They were tense years in the South American country, marked by terrorism, and military curfews enforced by an authoritarian government. It was “a time of great human rights violations,” Lydon said. Three priests were assassinated in the diocese south of them in 1991.

“We had to navigate that together,” Lydon said.

Prevost’s fierce support for human rights can be traced to his time in Peru, Lydon said. Lydon was especially struck by a speech the pope gave to his Italian security service early in his papacy, emphasizing the importance of keeping human rights in mind while doing their job, he said.

A math major in college, Prevost used to do math problems “as a form of relaxation,” Lydon recalled.

Driving was his other form of relaxation, Lydon said, and he liked to go fast. Lydon did not accompany him.

“I wasn’t that brave,” Lydon said with a smile.

Lydon attended a Villanova University immigration conference in Rome about a year ago and spent time with his friend, who had become pope earlier that year. He invited Lydon to his apartment, which Lydon described as “pretty simple” with a picture of Pope Leo XIII and a cross made in Peru on the wall. They spoke for about an hour, and then the following Sunday, Lydon accompanied the pope for Mass and later rode with him in the popemobile.

“It was surreal,” said Lydon, who started at Villanova earlier this year.

Lydon on Wednesday was concerned but was hopeful that and praying that Pope Leo’s doctors are correct - that his lung cancer was caught early and his friend will have a quick recovery.

“When it’s a friend of yours or family member, you’re naturally more concerned than if it was somebody you didn’t know,” Lydon said.

The Rev. Bernie Scianna

Many people know that Pope Leo was gifted a 2026 Ford Explorer Platinum hybrid, but not the role Scianna — vice president for mission and ministry at Villanova — played.

Ford had reached out to Scianna, 61, before making the offer.

“‘We think you, Father Bernie, are the one to figure out whether the pope wants it or not,’” Scianna said he was told.

When Scianna relayed the offer, the pope asked which model of Ford.

“And I said, ‘Well, I think you’re the pope,’” Scianna said. “‘You say what you want and you’re going to get it.’ And indeed he did.”

Scianna, who has been at Villanova for eight years, got to know Prevost in 1999 when he was based in Tulsa, Okla., and Prevost was his boss. Later, he became Prevost’s boss for a year. Their relationship has grown over the last 25-plus years. They communicate about every other week, Scianna said.

He has already been to Rome five times since the pope was elected, is back for this week’s sustainability conference, and plans to return in a couple of weeks for the Villanova-Notre Dame basketball doubleheader. In May, he took a group of the pope’s high school classmates from Chicago to visit.

“He’s a world leader now and he’s the head of the church and he’s the vicar of Christ, successor of Peter, all these things, but in my mind he’s still Bob,” Scianna said.

The pope usually answers Scianna’s emails around 6 p.m. Eastern time, which is about midnight in Rome.

“He’ll say it himself that he doesn’t need much sleep,” Scianna said.

Scianna described Prevost as “mild-mannered” and “even-keeled.”

“I’ve seen him get upset, but I’ve never seen him fly off the handle,” Scianna said.

“If he were sitting here, he would have a coffee, or if it’s later in the evening, have a scotch, talk about the White Sox,” Scianna said.

Both men were born in Chicago; Scianna is a Cubs fan.

“We do disagree on that,” he said.

Their Chicago ties have figured in. Prevost at one time wanted to set up a bank account in Chicago for donations instead of having people send money to Peru. Scianna became the cosigner.

When Prevost became pope, he changed his phone number and called the bank with the update. The bank offered to send a code, and he said that would not work because he has a different number.

The bank employee told him he would have to come to the bank in person then, which the pope said was not possible, Scianna said.

The employee asked why.

“‘Because I’m Pope Leo,’” the pope responded, according to Scianna.

The employee hung up.

The pope’s friend came to the rescue. He reached out to Scianna for assistance since he was the cosigner. And soon the problem was resolved.

On Wednesday morning, Scianna went to St. Peter’s for a Mass that was supposed to be delivered by Pope Leo.

“Instead of being with Leo, we’re going to pray for him,” Scianna said from a platform next to the altar. “The fact that he is a fit 71-year-old very strong in his health will help him in his treatment whatever it may be.”

The Rev. Arthur Purcaro

Purcaro, 76, met Prevost in 1985 when Prevost visited the Andes village where Purcaro was stationed, and they continued to see each other periodically for years while they worked in Peru.

But he got to know him even better when they lived together for six years in Rome, from 2001 to 2007.

“He always has been somebody who asks questions and actually listens to the response,” Purcaro said, calling him “a team player.”

Like Purcaro, Prevost never liked crowds. Purcaro asked him how he was able to handle it now as pope.

His friend, he said, told him it comes “from inside.”

The pope invited Purcaro for summer vacation in July 2025 and he went for a few days. Then he spent a whole week there this summer.

“He’s not somebody to be waited on,” Purcaro said. “He’s very, very happy to wait upon people. He is entirely ordinary, extremely ordinary.”

Asked what the pope likes to eat, Purcaro said: “I can’t think of anything he doesn’t like to eat.” Drinks? “Normal wine.”

He doesn’t really think of his friend as an American pope because he also spent about a third of his life in Italy and a third in Peru.

“If you can only use one word to identify him … he’s Augustinian,” Purcaro said.

The pope wrote the foreword for Purcaro’s recent book, Building a Better World.

“I said, ‘Would you mind?’” Purcaro recalled.

Like any good friend, he said, the pope responded: “‘No problem at all.’”

Purcaro on Wednesday said he texted his friend after learning of the cancer diagnosis.

“I care very much for him as a person,” he said. “He’s in my prayers and the prayers of many, many people.”

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