Habemus Papam! ConQuest Conclave 2013

At our most recent meeting, we held our own "mock" Conclave to elect the next Pope! The boys (and some of the dads) donned red mitres and learned about the history of Papal Conclaves and the process by which the Pope is chosen. They each assumed the identity of actual Cardinals of the Church, some of whom are considered among the papabile, literally "pope-able", candidates. 

Unlike a real Conclave, cell phones with cameras were obviously permitted!

One-by-one the Cardinals cast their secret ballots. There was a run-off between the top two vote-getters: Peter Cardinal Turkson of Ghana and Angelo Cardinal Bagnasco of Italy. When the final votes were verified, these words were announced to all present:

"Annuntio vobis gaudium magnum: Habemus Papam! Eminentissimum ac Reverendissimum Dominum, Dominum Angelo, Sanctae Romanae Ecclesiae Cardinalem Bagnasco, qui sibi nomen imposuit Connor I."

("I announce to you a great joy: We have a Pope! The Most Eminent and Most Reverend Lord, Lord Angelo, Cardinal of the Holy Roman Church Bagnasco, who takes to himself the name Connor I.")

We had a lot of fun with this. But the boys were reminded that we cannot predict the outcome of the actual Papal Conclave. Only God knows who the Cardinals will choose under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

May God grant His Holiness Benedict XVI many years of prayer and rest! May He bless us with a Holy Father who will continue the work of his esteemed predecessor for the good of the Church!

Father/Son Pancake Breakfast & Talk by Fr. Mark Rutherford

The club boys (ages 12-16) are organizing an event that will be held on Saturday March 23. It is a pancake breakfast for fathers and sons in our area. It will be preceded by Holy Mass and include a special Lenten Spiritual talk by our dear friend, Fr. Mark Rutherford. His theme will be "staying close to Jesus in these times".

The boys want to offer something to our community and at the same time, spread the word about Conquest to their peers. So please, help them get the message out!

Rome Pics

In our first meeting back after the Christmas holiday, Mr. Borek shared photos from his recent journey to Rome with Mr. Burke and the boys in the Catholic Central marching band. Here are just a few of them for your enjoyment.

His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
Ad multos annos!

Mr. Borek in front of St. Peter's Basilica

Go, Joe!

I miss him already!

Mr. Burke and Mr. Borek at the tomb of Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta,
"Little Daughter of the Divine Will", whose cause for anonization is under review





Mass near the tomb of a former Pope



CatholicQuiz.com Advent Challenge Results

Well, the results of the Conquest CatholicQuiz.com Advent Challenge are in! From the Conquest Leaders Newsletter from January:

There were a total of 19 Programs signed up for the Contest. Everybody who played learned key things about their Catholic faith and everyone had fun.

Congratulations to the winners of the Conquest Advent Contest 2012 at CatholicQuiz.com! This year's competition was a very close race between Marvin Duarte's Junior Program at Holy Rosary in Milton, Ontario and David Wilson's Junior Program at Holy Rosary in Pickering, Ontario. In fact, only 13 points separated the two Programs! Marvin Duarte's Juniors achieved a grand total of 10,307 CQ-IQ points at 85% accuracy rate.

David Wilson's Juniors made 10,295 CQ-IQ points at a 78.6% accuracy rate! Wow! What a competition that went right down to the wire on Christmas Eve! There was some strategy employed by both the Duarte and Wilson Programs, but they both get credit for playing themes across the board. Accuracy really helps in the total scoring as can be seen by the fact that Holy Rosary outscored Holy Redeemer even though the one played fewer games - 622 to the other at 1,016. Andrew Serafini's Father/Son Program from St. James in Calgary gets honorable mention because of achieving the highest percent correct score even though the Program played significantly fewer games. Congratulations to everyone that participated in this year's Advent Contest.

Our program achieved a grand total of.....607 points. Needless to say, we will need to seriously step up our game if we hope to take on our brothers North of the border! 

Good news: the next Contest kicks off on Ash Wednesday, February 13. Let's be prepared this time.