Looking to the Future with Villanova's Strategic Plan

Priest-Plus
The Year for Priests calls attention to the spiritual,
academic and community service of Augustinian friars
By Su z a n n e We n t z e l
The clue to their identity is
not always how they dress,
where they work or even
where they live. Rather, a
commitment to community
life, a passion for knowledge
and truth, a spirit of hospitality
and a self-emptying
through service are the
traits that mark the members of the
Augustinian Order.
In June 2009, Pope Benedict XVI proclaimed
a Year for Priests to deepen, the
pontiff said, “the commitment of all priests
to interior renewal for the sake of a more
forceful and incisive witness to the Gospel.”
It is a fitting occasion for the Villanova
community to recognize not only the friars
profiled here but every Augustinian who
preserves, embodies and transmits the
ideals and mission of the order.
From law to order
At a daily Mass in Corr Chapel, the
Rev. Robert Hagan, O.S.A., J.D., ’87
A&S starts his homily with a story about a
baseball player tagged out after crossing
home plate because he failed to step on
first base. The moral: if you put first things
first, everything else will fall into place.
It’s not surprising that Father Rob can
draw a faith lesson out of a sports blooper
and succinctly drive home his point. In
addition to being Villanova’s associate
athletics director, chaplain for the football
and men’s basketball teams, and an avid
runner, he is a seasoned lawyer, one accustomed
to summing up his case.
As an undergraduate at Villanova,
Father Rob, an alumnus of Cardinal
O’Hara High School in Springfield, Pa.,
met priests passionate about their ministries.
“I resolved then that, whatever I did,
my heart would be engaged in it.” The
thought that he might be called to the
Augustinians crossed his mind, but since it
was not a “burning-bush experience, I
managed to deny it for 10 years.”
In 1990, with a degree from Widener
University School of Law, Father Rob
landed a job with a general practice firm.
He loved the people and the pace, but
after seven years, the evidence was more
than sufficient: “God was leading me to
the priesthood.” He entered the Augustinians
and was ordained in 2003.
In some ways, being a priest hasn’t
been that different from being a lawyer.
“People entrust parts of their life to me
that they would not entrust to anyone
else. I have an opportunity to help
and, in my work now, to invite God into
the situation.”
As associate athletics director, Father
Rob parlays his legal and pastoral skills to
handle personnel matters, oversee National
Collegiate Athletic Association drug testing
and liaise between athletes and faculty.
In his role as chaplain, he is on the sidelines
of every game. Dressed in his “uniform,” he
helps promote the University’s mission. “I
hope that my presence reminds people that
our Augustinian values and the love of
Christ should permeate everything we do.”
Being a witness, many might say, is
what this lawyer-turned-priest does best.
On the court, in the classroom and at the
altar, Father Rob tries to lead people to an
encounter with God. “My fellow priests
and I take seriously our call to participate
with others in such graced moments as
Reconciliation, Baptism, Eucharist and
the others ways in which the Spirit enkindles
the world.”
He may have a locker room for a pulpit and ’Cats for a congregation, but
Father Robert Hagan, O.S.A., Villanova’s associate athletics director, resists
the temptation to pray for a win in his pregame prayer services with athletes.
“If you open yourself up to the Spirit, good things happen, win or lose.”
Summer 2010 13