“A Way of Living Excellence” ft. Villanova University’s Rev. Peter M. Donohue, O.S.A. I Saturdays at Seven – Season Two, Episode Five Post
In the fifth episode of the second season of the “Saturdays at Seven” conversation series, Todd Ream talks with Rev. Peter M. Donohue, O.S.A., Professor of Theater and President of Villanova University. Donohue begins by discussing how academic excellence and Catholicity find a home in the Augustinian charisms that animate Villanova. He details how Augustine’s understanding of what it means to be human proves fundamental to how whole-person education not only fosters efforts focused on the heart and the mind but on the intersection of the two. Donohue then speaks about the influence of the Adrian Augustinians had on him as a young boy and how the sisters cultivated within him a calling for theater and the ministry. He addresses how those callings were cultivated during his undergraduate and graduate education and how they are woven together in terms of how he expresses his service to the Villanova community as its president. Ream and Donohue then explore the Augustinian dimensions of Villanova’s current strategic plan, “Rooted. Restless.” and how that plan fuels Villanova’s ongoing rise as a distinctively Augustinian and Catholic university. They close by discussing how the academic vocation has developed at Villanova over the course of its history, how it developed during Donohue’s tenure as Villanova’s president (now the longest of any president in Villanova’s history), and the ways the university continues to explore formative practices for educators that integrate teaching, service, and research in ways that benefit students, the Church, and society.
