St. Vincent group gifts a Terrible Towel to Pope Leo

Renatta Signorini TribLive Wed, May 27, 2026 • 07:19 AM

Pope Leo XIV smiles as he looks at the Saint Vincent College Training Camp edition of the Terrible Towel, presented during a May 13 visit to the Vatican by seminary rector the Very Rev. Edward Mazich and college president the Rev. Paul Taylor. (Courtesy Vatican Media)

A contingent from St. Vincent College in Unity recently left behind some black and gold in Rome.

During a meeting with Pope Leo, college president the Rev. Paul R. Taylor and seminary rector the Very Rev. Edward Mazich gave the head of the Catholic church a gift — a St. Vincent College training camp version of the Terrible Towel.

“Pope Leo recognized the Terrible Towel immediately, and while his NFL loyalties may be elsewhere, he sure did smile broadly at the gift,” Taylor said in a news release.

St. Vincent College has been the home of Steelers annual training camp for decades.

Pope Leo, a Chicago native, is a Bears fan.

The pair met with the pope on May 13 at the Vatican to talk about Benedictine education in the United States. They also gifted to the Vatican Museum’s Modern and Contemporary Art Collection a work from artist Roman Verostko.

A Tarrs native, Verostko spent 18 years at St. Vincent, first as a monk and priest, and later faculty member, before leaving the monastery in 1968. He has since become a world-renowned pioneer in what he calls algorithmic art, or code-generated imagery, that uses computer codes and machinery to create the works.