Catholics, Cardinals, Conclave all this Week!

In case you missed my post on Feb. 28 during Pope Benedict's XVI last day of his papacy, you can read it HERE where I link up resources and videos.  

Tomorrow is an historic and exciting week for the Catholic Church around the world! The world gets to witness the process of electing a new Pope and with the advancements in technology and social media, it is like each of us get to not only learn more about the process, but also witness it and feel a part of it all!

This post will be a collection of resources I have found on the Internet/Facebook that I found interesting and wanted to share with my own children and you too. 

First up, this insightful and interesting video titled "Conclave: The making of a Pope"  It shows what's expected to take place in the Sistine Chapel March 12, 2013 as 115 cardinals choose the next pope.  

 

And here's a graphic showing Cardinal electors by region: 

(CNS graphic)

And I've never been inside the Conclave, have you?  Well, check out this cool graphic showing the inside!  Click HERE to see a larger version of the graphic from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops site.

Many people around the world are praying for the Cardinals who will be electing our new Pope.  Our family has adopted a Cardinal to pray for, have you?  I love how our universal Church is praying together for these men who have no easy task ahead of them.  Go HERE to adopt a Cardinal if you haven't already done so! 

And the same college students from  FOCUS ( Fellowship of Catholic University Students) that created the Adopt a Cardinal site also started Pope Alarm. PopeAlarm.com is a simple service that will send you a text or email message when the smoke coming out of the Sistine Chapel chimney turns white so you will know when a new Pope has been elected.  

I was wondering how my children and I would know the white smoke has signaled  "Habemus Papam!"  (We have a new Pope!) and it's awesome college students created Pope Alarm to know "when the smoke goes up, you'll know what's going down!"

I love these great ideas to keep us connected, informed, and in prayer for our Cardinals and new Pope!

And when a new Pope is finally elected, I hope to have a Pope Party using Jennifer's great resources and printables HERE from Catholic Inspired!  

I'll sign off this post and include this Handy Dandy Guide To Get You Through the Conclave which covers what you can expect.  Fascinating facts and times for sure!

I'm looking forward to sharing this historic time in our Church history with my cupcakes and the rest of the world! 

God bless!