“RUN!”
Our colleagues had just made it through security in St. Peter’s Square, tickets in hand, and that one word was all they had time to say. The papal audience was minutes from starting, our seats were on the platform just feet from Pope Leo and we were nowhere near them. So we ran.
I’ve been a runner for most of my adult life. I’ve also been fortunate to have a career that has taken me to many places around the world, and wherever I go, I try to explore on foot. I’ve run in Lutherstadt Wittenberg, San Francisco, Hanoi and Chichicastenango, as well as many other beautiful parts of the world. For me, running is one of the best ways to get to know a place. But I never imagined that my most memorable run would happen in Rome, in heels, on my way to meet the Pope.
Let me back up.
This summer, we learned the Fitz Center for Leadership in Community had been named the first prize winner of the 2026 Uniservitate Global Service Program Award for the North American Hub, presented by the Association of Catholic Colleges and Universities and Uniservitate. It is the first time this award has been given, and I would travel to Rome on behalf of the center to accept it at Castel Gandolfo, the papal residence. I was thrilled and honored. I was proud of the Fitz Center team and their impactful work in Dayton, and grateful to lead a center with a 25-year legacy of honoring Brother Ray Fitz’s vision of being in and with community in transformative ways.
Along with news of the award came word that we would have an audience with Pope Leo on the last day of the global symposium. As I packed, I made sure to include the gifts we had assembled for him: Curiosity for the Common Good, which is an edited volume of essays reflecting upon the Pope’s Magnifica Humanitas written by UD faculty and staff; a gift from Haitian children in Springfield, Ohio; and a pair of our infamous Fitz Center “Find What Fitz” socks. I also packed the items people had asked me to have blessed, including my 95-year-old mother’s rosaries. By the time I was nearly done, there was no room left for my running shoes. I resigned myself to not running in Rome and to the real possibility that we wouldn’t meet the Pope at all, given his recent hospitalization and surgery. Still, I was incredibly excited as I closed my bags and headed to Rome.
The Uniservitate Symposium was a beautiful gathering of educators and students from across the globe, reflecting both our diversity and all that we share. Students from Peru presented award-winning creative design projects they developed with rural artisan communities. Students from Ukraine shared their work preserving the historical and cultural memory of communities harmed by war. Students from Palestine brought tears to my eyes as they described their work supporting orphaned and abandoned children in Gaza. Our colleagues from San Diego taught us about their restorative justice work, which uses health and fitness to engage young people who are in juvenile detention, and students from Malawi shared how they provide psychological support to people who are incarcerated. These are just a few of the remarkable projects that educators and students brought to Rome.
If the symposium had ended there, with all that learning and the community I built with students and colleagues, it would have been an unforgettable experience. But late Tuesday night, I found out that our colleague at Villanova University had secured tickets for our small North American Hub contingent to sit on the platform, just feet from Pope Leo, and that we would have our picture taken with him. We were thrilled that he was well enough for the Wednesday papal audience to go forward, and overjoyed that we would get a photo with the Pope.
I was so excited that I arrived just outside of St. Peter’s Square more than an hour early. I was the first one there, wondering where everyone else was and nervous that I had missed some key piece of information. So I did what one does in Rome: I ordered an espresso, soaked in the beauty and the people around me, and waited for something to happen. Before long, my colleagues arrived, and we made our way through security into St. Peter’s Square. But as so often happens in crowds like these, our group got separated. Several of us made it inside, while the two colleagues holding the tickets for our special seating and photo were stuck outside in a very long line. The ceremony was minutes from starting, we needed to be in our seats and we were getting nervous.
That’s when our ticket-bearing colleagues finally made it through security, rushed over to us and shouted, “RUN!” And we did. After all those runs in cities around the world, this is the one I will never forget. We ran through the crowds and over the Roman cobblestones (a real trick in heels!), stopping breathlessly at each Swiss Guard, who had to check our tickets and count our group. We raced up the stairs to the platform and reached our seats just as the music began.
The diversity and connection of the human spirit were palpable. As Pope Leo made his way through the crowd and up to the platform, the square felt like a festival, full of music, love and elation at a moment we all shared, at a time when the world so needs moments like it.
Then came the photo and it was memorable in its own right. One advantage of being short is that I always end up in the front row of a group picture and this time it really paid off. Knowing I had only a minute of his time, I offered Pope Leo greetings and love from the University of Dayton and from the Catholic Haitian community in Springfield, whose children’s gifts were among those I shared with him. It was a brief moment, but I carried a whole community’s love into it.
Afterward, I kept thinking about how we had gotten to those seats. None of us could have made it alone. Our colleagues carried the tickets, the Swiss Guards counted us as one group and we ran together. That is what Brother Ray taught us about being in and with community: we get where we’re going together. I came to Rome to accept an award for 25 years of that work and in one breathless dash across the cobblestones, I got to live it.
I never did find room for my running shoes. It turns out I didn’t need them.
Photo: Nancy McHugh (center) receives the 2026 Uniservitate Global Service Learning Award with members of Uniservitate, a global program for the promotion of solidarity service-learning in Catholic higher education institutions, at Castel Gandolfo, the papal residence.