I’m Jewish, from New York, and did not even attend a religious school past elementary. I should have no input on any of this. But even I was struck by how down bad Saint Joseph’s University must be right now.
For some background and a little history lesson:
There are hundreds of Judeo-Christian schools in America, all from different denominations. Some schools are evangelical, some schools are Lutheran, some schools are Baptist, some non-denominational. Most of those schools are in the south.
Those schools are all different branches of Protestantism, which is the form of Christianity that broke off from the Catholic church in the 16th century after Martin Luther’s (born on Nov. 10, shoutout birthday twin but 521 years earlier, shoutout Ted Williams, 521 career home runs) 95 Theses and when King Henry VIII established the Church of England and broke away from the Catholic Church so that he could divorce his wife.
However, in the northeast U.S. (among other places), Catholicism is still a pretty big deal. Of the six states with the highest percentages of Catholics in the country, five of them are in the northeast. Because of this, the northeast is LITTERED with small Catholic schools.
The conference that I cover — the MAAC — is full of them. But similar to Protestantism having major denominations, Roman Catholicism has orders.
The major orders of Catholicism are Dominicans (not the people from the D.R., this is what Providence is), Franciscans (think St. Bonaventure or Siena), Jesuits (this is what Saint Joseph’s is, along with schools such as Boston College, Fairfield, Fordham, Gonzaga, etc…), Benedictines (somehow, nobody in Division I), and there are a few others.
So … what is Pope Leo XIV? He’s an Augustinian.
There are only two institutions of higher learning that fall under the Augustinian order in the United States. Merrimack College (MAAC MENTIONED) and Villanova, the alma mater of the new holy father.
Saint Joseph’s has won its last two basketball games against Villanova. It has won the Big 5 Championship two years in a row. It has the best mascot in mid-major basketball.
Most importantly, it is actually a Philadelphia school (slightly debatable, the Hawk Hill campus is on the very border of Philadelphia city limits). Villanova’s campus? Not so much.
But at the end of the day, the rivalry between these two school is called the “Holy War,” and what is more holy than having an alumnus be the leader of the world’s…
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