Meet the Villanova student and Vatican intern who had a hunch Robert Prevost would become the next pope

Villanova University junior Caroline Pirtle knew Cardinal Robert F. Prevost could be the next pope, and she was pulling for him.

In fact, she says, she had a hunch it would be him.

As one of a handful of Villanova interns at the Vatican this semester, she had a front-row seat for the funeral of Pope Francis and the start of the conclave — she watched as black smoke billowed from the roof of the Sistine Chapel during the first, unsuccessful vote — and she had just taken a class titled “Popes of Rome.”

“I’ve always been a day-one believer in the Villanova pope,” the 21-year-old computer science major said, even though many friends told her the next pontiff would never be an American.

» READ MORE: The newly elected pope sets a first for the United States — and Villanova

She knew Prevost had been close to Pope Francis and thought the church may want to stay in a similar direction.

Then on Wednesday, Pirtle, of Minneapolis, met a self-described cardinal expert in St. Peter’s Square who had an Excel spreadsheet on the potential candidates, and he, too, thought the Villanova alumnus had “a decent shot.”

She was thrilled to find someone who agreed with her, and even more thrilled when she was watching the livestream on a flight home next to “a random Dutch guy” and saw she was right. Her friends have caught on, too.

“A lot of my friends are calling it the Villanova Vatican,” she said.

Around the Villanova community, her enthusiasm was matched. The Rev. Peter M. Donohue, president of the nearly 10,000-student Catholic school on the Main Line, screamed in a Chicago restaurant where he was having lunch when he heard the news.

“It’s really hard to explain how close I feel right now to the church,” said junior James Haupt, a communications major from Long Island, N.Y., who also interned at the Vatican and just arrived home Thursday. “We were just there studying, and then we come home, and then we have the first American pope, and … he’s from Villanova. It all seems like so surreal.”

His only regret? He could have been there for it. He was supposed to stay in Rome until Friday, but went to the airport Thursday to fly home with his classmates instead.

For Villanova, an already highly selective and successful Catholic university that had record applications this year, having an alumnus as pope could provide the kind of marketing tool that most colleges can only dream about. When the university won the national basketball championship in 2016, applications soared 22% the following year.

“Definitely more people will be applying,” said George Small, a junior computer science major from River Edge, N.J., who was also a Vatican intern.

Pirtle, who applied to Villanova in part because of its exclusive Vatican internship program, said having a pope as an alumnus “would definitely be something that would make me want to apply to Villanova, especially if you were already considering it.”

All three said they are so proud of their university.

“It really just kind of reinforces that, at least to me, just how good of an institution Villanova is,” Pirtle said. “If we’re able to produce students that can eventually become the pope, it kind of makes me feel like I could do anything with my Villanova degree.”

The interns did not cross paths with Prevost, who has taken the name Pope Leo XIV, while they were at the Vatican. Pirtle saw Easter Mass celebrated by Pope Francis.

“I was actually at the front of the barricade when he drove past, and I’m in the AP news photo,” she said. “You can see me right behind him.”

All three went to visitation to view the pope’s body, two of them at 2 a.m. on a school night so they could avoid lines.

“There were a ton of people, and you could hear a pin drop,” Small said.

Pirtle also went to the funeral.

The students said it was amazing to feel part of the bigger Catholic community and learn about the impact Pope Francis had. All three, however, had been interested in the Vatican before the most recent confluence of events, and Villanova’s internship program quickly got on their radar.

The program at the Vatican started in 2003 after the Internet Office of the Holy See told some Villanova alumni it needed computer programming help. The school sent computer science majors to assist. In 2005, the program was opened to communications majors, and the relationship with the Pontifical Council for Social Communications — the Vatican’s social media arm — began in 2008.

» READ MORE: The Villanova hands behind the pope's social presence

Interns in 2009 filmed a virtual tour of the Sistine Chapel, even moving inside the small area where the ballots are counted in the election of a new pope — an area normally roped off to the public. They have also done virtual tours of the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Basilica of St. Peter, and the Redemptoris Mater Chapel, used exclusively by the pope for prayer and special Masses for small groups.

Over the years, Villanova interns helped start the pope’s official Twitter presence and have ferreted out impostor accounts. When the Vatican launched its pope channel on YouTube, it was a Villanova intern who proposed advertising it on Facebook.

For her internship, Pirtle worked on a virtual reality tour of St. Peter’s Basilica. Small also worked on that as part of his internship with the Vatican Museum. Haupt worked with Rome Reports, a news agency that covers Vatican news.

Pirtle, Haupt, and Small will all be seniors next year. Would they like to see the new pope as their commencement speaker?

“100% yes!” Small said.

It wouldn’t be the first time the new pope, who graduated from Villanova in 1977, has returned to his alma mater. He received an honorary degree from Villanova at commencement in 2014.

“That would be unreal,” Pirtle said.

“I was just texting someone about it,” Haupt said.

But he pointed out that 2027 will be the 50th anniversary of the pope’s graduation from Villanova.

“So realistically the way I see it, we’re going to get passed by a year,” he said, “but I would love it.”

As it turns out, Villanova’s president did dash off an email to Pope Leo just after the announcement of his election Thursday. Donohue said the pope sent a good-natured reply:

“Very funny. I don’t think I’m going to be able to do that.”