University of Portland President Robert Kelly experienced the honor of a face-to-face meeting with Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican on June 3.
Kelly was one of 22 leaders in U.S. Catholic higher education who attended the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities (ACCU) Rome Seminar, a five-day pilgrimage and conference highlighted by a private audience with Pope Leo, the first American-born leader of the Catholic Church.
“Meeting the Pope was one of the most profound moments of my life,” Kelly wrote from Rome. “Standing there, I didn’t just feel peace for myself — I felt an overwhelming sense of hope.
“The Pope reminded us, as university presidents, that young adults carry a special gift of hope that the world desperately needs. Even when the world feels confusing or uncertain, your dreams and actions can be a beacon for light, truth, and what is good,” Kellly said.
The ACCU delegation visited the Vatican one week after Pope Leo XIV published his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas: On Safeguarding the Human Person in the Time of Artificial Intelligence. Speaking to the ACCU delegation, Pope Leo pointed out “the decisive importance of Catholic education in today’s world.”
Referencing themes from Magnifica Humanitas, Pope Leo told higher ed leaders, “We must be willing to invest generously in the education of future generations. It is crucial that young men and women learn to engage positively with new technologies, while at the same time truly developing their God-given skills and capacities to reason, to think critically and commit knowledge to memory, thus preparing them to shape responsibly the world to come.”