The papal conclave brings together cardinals from across the globe, making it a great opportunity to teach children about world geography.
This huge historic event offers families and schools a rare chance to explore countries and cultures with the personal connection of shared faith.
Here are a few ways to learn about the geography of the conclave and the universal reach of our Catholic faith.
Map activities
Tell the children: “The conclave that begins May 7 will be the largest in history, with 135 cardinals traveling from 72 different countries and six continents. Isn’t it incredible how far and wide Jesus’ Church spreads around the world? Anywhere you go, you can find the same Catholic faith.”
Use a world map or globe to find Rome, then the home countries of any cardinals you’ve heard of, and perhaps any you’ve “adopted” for prayer.
Trace their journeys and see how far they traveled. Here is a helpful map showing how many cardinals come from each country.
Not sure where to start? Check out the far-traveling cardinals from these countries:
- Madagascar: Désiré Cardinal Tsarahazana traveled from Madagascar, home to unique wildlife found nowhere else on Earth.
- Mongolia: Giorgio Cardinal Marengo is Italian by birth but now serves in Mongolia, where Catholics are a tiny minority (less than 1% of the population).
- Papua New Guinea: John Cardinal Ribat serves this country where over 800 different languages are spoken.
- Japan: Tarcisio Isao Cardinal Kikuchi and Thomas Aquino Manyo Cardinal Maeda came all the way from the beautiful island nation that’s home to more than 100 active volcanoes.
- Australia: Mykola Cardinal Bychok is the youngest cardinal at 45 and hails from the land Down Under, home to kangaroos, koalas, and the world's largest coral reef.
For younger children, focus on continents first. You might count how many cardinals come from each continent and share basic geography facts: “Cardinals travel from Africa, where it's very warm, to Italy, a peninsula that’s kind of shaped like a boot. Can you find it on the map?”
If you’d like to take it a step farther, you can make a “Cardinal Passport” to write down basic facts. You can make your own, or at the end of this article is a printable version with space to add drawings.
If you’ve got a big group of kids, perhaps in a classroom or homeschool co-op, you might assign them each a visa page. They can share their research on a cardinal’s home country with the group.
Connecting faith and geography
An important part of this geography lesson is helping children understand how the same Catholic faith is practiced in different cultures and places around the world. You might look up pictures of churches from other countries and point out similarities and differences.
You might say, “The conclave shows how the Holy Spirit works through people of many different places and languages. The Church truly is universal — bringing together so many kinds of people under one faith.”
You can also explain how the Mass prayers (at least for the Latin or Roman rite) are the same all over the world, so even if you were to go to Mass in a different language, you could easily follow along.
Through these simple activities, the conclave becomes more than a distant Church event. It can strengthen children's connection to their global Catholic family and help them feel personally interested in this historic process.
