The students and the Cardinal for whom they prayed during the conclave

Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School sixth grader Caleb Ybarra’s religion class was assigned a Cardinal to pray for during the Conclave last March. Despite the odds, Ybarra was convinced their randomly chosen Cardinal, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, would become pope. Rebecca Esparza for South Texas Catholic

Diana Sanchez never imagined a simple project to celebrate the history-making event of selecting a new pope would inspire an entire school.

Sanchez and her fellow religion instructors at Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School decided to integrate an interesting project on the website www.AdoptACardinal.org into their prayerful instruction at school. The site allowed the faithful to “spiritually adopt” a cardinal before, during and for three days after the historic papal conclave, held in March.

“All we did was register with the website and each class was automatically assigned a cardinal to pray for during the conclave,” Sanchez said. “Anybody who signed up was randomly sent biographical information on which cardinal they would pray for.”

Sanchez beamed when she recalled which cardinal her class was randomly assigned Jorge Mario Bergoglio, future Pope Francis, Bishop of Rome.

Ultimately, more than 552,000 individuals from around the world signed up to “Adopt-a-Cardinal” on the website. Today the site operated by Jugend 2000, a German Catholic youth group, asks the faithful to continue to pray for “your local parishes, your priests, your bishops, the seminarians in your diocese.”

“The children were given information about their assigned cardinal and prayers were said twice daily at school. Praying at home was optional. We wanted the children to feel close to the process of selecting a pope. We were also praying a worthy successor to Pope Benedict XVI would be selected,” Sanchez said.

		Mario Vasquez, principal at Bishop Garriga Middle Preparatory School, and Caleb Ibarra hold a framed letter from Pope Francis, alongside religion instructor, Diana Sanchez. Rebecca Esparza for South Texas Catholic

One student in particular voiced his unique opinion at the very beginning; he adamantly believed Cardinal Bergoglio would be chosen as the next pope.

Caleb Ybarra, 12, is your typical sixth grader. He loves football and basketball. But after two nights of praying at home about the conclave, he began to feel the Holy Spirit’s presence when praying specifically for Cardinal Bergoglio.

“I believe the Holy Spirit was in me. I had a warm feeling in my heart. I just knew Cardinal Bergoglio was going to be our next pope,” Caleb said gleefully.

But his conviction for who would become the next pope did not end there. He came back to school and professed his belief to his teachers and fellow students.

“When he first told us he believed Cardinal Bergoglio would be pope, we kind of chuckled,” Sanchez said. “There were other cardinals that were frontrunners and little was known about him (Cardinal Bergoglio). But Caleb was so convincing. He really truly believed this with all of his heart.”

It did not take long for Caleb’s class, as well as other children in the school, to start believing with the same fervor. Soon, the students were making posters, praying incessantly and waiting in anxious anticipation of the big announcement.

Caleb and his class learned together that Cardinal Bergoglio had become Pope Francis on March 13.

“We were all screaming and hugging each other in wild excitement,” Sanchez recalled. “It was amazing to feel so much a part of the process. We were thrilled and decided the children needed to write the pope and congratulate him.”

The school sent 56 individual letters from the students to Pope Francis, not expecting a reply. So when a reply from the pontiff appeared in less than a month, both the children and staff were equally ecstatic.

“We were very blessed. This whole experience says a lot about the spirituality of our students,” school principal Mario Vasquez said. “Hearing back from the pope so quickly speaks to the fact he truly is the people’s pope. He listens.”

The pope sent a short letter, accompanied with a small picture of himself and a picture of Christ. The school decided to have the letter and photos framed, along with a group picture of the students who originally wrote to the pope.

“We plan to hang (the pope’s letter) in the main hallway of the entrance to the school. We want the children to be proud of their role in the selection of our pope and have a reminder they can revere everyday,” Vasquez said.

Meanwhile, Caleb said the whole experience has strengthened his overall faith.

“All of this makes me feel he will be a good pope and make the right choices for our church. I would love to meet the pope one day, but I think I would be really nervous,” he said with a shy smile.