VILLANOVA UNIVERSITY NEWS

Reuters
Will Italy Get the Papacy Back After Half a Century of Foreigners?

May 1, 2025 - Massimo Faggioli, an Italian academic at Villanova University in the U.S. who follows the Vatican, said many of the Italian cardinals seen as possible papal contenders are notable because they have served much of their careers outside Italy ... "The most visible of the cardinals from Italy are more international than known as pastors of a local diocese in Italy," said Faggioli.

Philadelphia Inquirer
Bernie Sanders Joins May Day Protesters in Philly to Rally for Workers and Immigrants, and Against Trump

May 1, 2025 - The mass demonstrations are unlikely to make any immediate impression on Trump, said Billie Murray, a Villanova associate professor who specializes in the “rhetoric of protest.” But that may well come later, she said, for reasons implicit in Sanders’ comments directed at the state’s legislators.

CNN
Supreme Court Fight Over Catholic Charter School Could Clear the Way For Taxpayer-Funded Religious Schools

April 29, 2025 - Michael Moreland, a law professor at Villanova University who specializes in religion, predicted that Barrett’s recusal probably won’t make a big difference. There were five other conservative votes siding with the religious position in the other recent decisions involving education funding ... “A lot of this will depend on the particularities of each state’s charter school mechanism,” he said.

NBC
How Accurate Is the Movie "Conclave" to the Real Pope Election?

April 27, 2025 - The death of Pope Francis has brought a rise in viewership of last month's best picture nominee "Conclave"... "Some of the political maneuvering—especially the process of figuring out who's a good candidate, who's not a good candidate—that all seems somewhat real," said Villanova University's Michael Moreland.

Al Jazeera
Trump Backs Off Threat to Fire Fed Chair Powell as Stock Market Surges

April 23, 2025 - Any move to remove Powell before the end of his term would likely send shockwaves through financial markets... "I would expect to see a dramatic fall in the stock and bond markets," Erasmus Kersting, an economics professor at Villanova University in Villanova, Pennsylvania, told Al Jazeera.

ABC News Digital
Could the Next Pope Be From Africa or Asia? Experts Weigh In

April 22, 2025 - The election of a pope from the Global South would be a "move in that direction of how to be a global church," Jaisy A. Joseph, an assistant professor of theology and religious studies at Villanova University, told ABC News.