Hands-On for the Holy Father

Sister Stirs Student Engagement with Mock Papal Conclave

You’ve likely heard of mock drafts, mock elections and mock trials, but how about a mock papal conclave? That’s just what our own Sister Carol Ann Papp and her colleagues at Northside Catholic Assumption Academy in Pittsburgh organized during early May 2025. Just as worldwide anticipation around the real papal conclave in Rome reached a crescendo, the students were enthusiastically engaged as they learned about the sacred process of selecting a new pope.

It all began when profiles of 16 Catholic Cardinals who were considered leading papal candidates were posted in the school’s main hallway so that students could study where they were from, their ages, and a short background for each. The students also said a special prayer each morning for the Cardinals. This built excitement for the youngsters, including one student of Filipino descent who shared with her family the possibility of a Filipino pope.

Each student then received a special ballot to cast their vote. Once all the votes were collected and tallied by the eighth-grade class, the students of NCAA had elected Luis Antonio Tagle to become the first Asian pope. Then, just as the Cardinals do in their conclave, the teachers and students convened outside on Wednesday to burn their papal ballots.

Even though, in the end, the real Cardinals’ votes did not align with their own, the students watched with excitement and pride on Thursday as Pope Leo XIV was introduced as the very first American Pope!

“This was a wonderful experience for all of us,” says Sister Carol Ann. “Not only was it an opportunity to evangelize with young people, but it served as a true community builder for our students.”