Knowing Pope Leo XIV, a native of Chicago, is a passionate baseball fan, St. Jerome’s University president and vice-chancellor Peter Meehan took the opportunity during an Oct. 31 papal audience to mention the then ongoing World Series battle between the Toronto Blue Jays and Los Angeles Dodgers.

“The minute he heard (me say) I’m from just outside Toronto, he grabbed my arm and said, ‘tell the people of Canada I'm rooting for the Blue Jays,' ” said Meehan. “That was a remarkable experience.”

But it wasn't baseball that brought Meehan to Rome. The leader of the Roman Catholic institution federated with the University of Waterloo was on hand to attend the World Conference of University Rectors Oct. 31 to Nov. 1 at Roma Tre University. Both Catholic and public university presidents participated in this two-day forum.

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How centres of higher learning could contribute to the cause of peace around the world was the main topic on the agenda.

Meehan conveyed to attendees the mission and identity that drives St. Jerome’s University.

“In a world losing sight of a university’s role, which sees it in strictly utilitarian terms as being about jobs and advancing economic imperatives, I spoke about the Catholic higher educational vision of focusing on the needs of the whole person with mind, body and spirit,” said Meehan.

The former president and vice-chancellor at St. Mark’s College-Corpus Christi College at the University of British Columbia also saluted the convictions of Cardinal John Henry Newman, the English theologian, academic, philosopher, writer and poet who was proclaimed a Doctor of the Church on Nov. 1.

“He was someone who talked about the role that universities play in forming people of the world for the world,” said Meehan. “At this critical moment in their lives, we can (engross) them in the teachings of the Church and the Catholic intellectual tradition. Their engagement and their empathy with the plights of people in different conditions are a great starting point to advance peace and understanding.”

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Meehan said he “found it validating in one sense” that belief in universities’ role in advancing peace was championed by both representatives from relatively peaceful countries and emissaries who hail from war-torn countries like Israel, Gaza and the former Yugoslavia.

“One thing I can tell you is how remarkably hopeful the interventions were from the different delegates at this conference,” said Meehan. “Many of them are living under very trying circumstances or have recent memories of difficulty.

“They're clinging to it in many respects because their situations are so challenging.”

Synodality can also play a key role in promoting peaceful relations, said Meehan, as the animating themes of this cause advanced by Pope Francis are “engagement, encounter and dialogue. Also, the conversations in the spirit that drive synodal gatherings empower the Holy Spirit with the opportunity to work with problems and conditions for which we don't have ready-made answers.”

St. Jerome’s University has taken a principal role in promoting synodality in Canada by hosting a conference this past June that featured lay and clerical leaders who are dedicated to spreading this movement.

Among the speakers at Journey of Encounter: Pilgrims of Hope Embracing Synodality were Catholic educators Catherine Clifford and Michael Higgins, Fr. Raymond Fontaine from the Archdiocese of Montreal and Bishop Alain Faubert of Valleyfield, Que., who were present at the 16th Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops.

The talk with Pope Leo XIV was not long, but Meehan “got a very strong sense from him that he understands that the continuum of Catholic education, starting in the elementary years going right through university, is very important to the Church and to the world.”

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A fan of Pope Francis, Meehan has a sense that his successor exudes “the same pastoral sensitivity and calm and insight.”

World Rectors Conference attendees also passed through the Holy Door and participated in a eucharistic celebration at St. Peter’s Basilica with Pope Leo XIV, and they enjoyed dinner and a concert for peace at St. Cecilia Basilica.