Archbishop William E. Lori will participate in a web chat with eight grade students from 17 Catholic elementary schools on Monday, March 11 at 12 p.m. to discuss the upcoming papal conclave and the election of a new pope.
The Archbishop will give a short overview of the conclave and answer questions from the students, who are learning about Catholic Church history this year. Archbishop Lori has visited several of the 70 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore during his first year as the 16th archbishop of the Nation’s oldest Catholic diocese.
With some 27,000 students, the Catholic school system in the Archdiocese is the 8th largest school system in the State of Maryland. Ninety-nine percent of high school seniors graduated from Catholic schools in the Archdiocese last year, with 98 percent going on to college. Its schools saved Maryland taxpayers over $381 million in per pupil expenses in 2012.
The date of the start of the conclave is expected soon. Edwin Cardinal O’Brien, Archbishop Emeritus of Baltimore, is among the 115 Cardinal-electors who will elect the next Pope. Cardinal William H. Keeler, 14th Archbishop of Baltimore, was the last sitting Cardinal-Archbishop of Baltimore to participate in a Papal Conclave when he helped to elect Pope Benedict XVI to the papacy in 2005.