Catholic Citizenship Essay 2025

OVERVIEW

This contest encourages today’s youth to be more connected to their community and their faith. The goal of this program is to involve young Catholics in grades 8 to 12 (public, private, parochial or home schools during the current school year) in civic discourse and instill in them religious and life-affirming values. The essay should be 500-750 words on a specific topic, changing every other year. Entrants will be judged on grammar, style, and how clearly they present the theme in a way that showcases creativity, imagination and overall development of the topic. This contest encourages today’s youth to be more connected to their community and their faith

Student essays must be original compositions of 500-750 words that address the following topic:

The office of the papacy was established by Jesus Christ nearly 2,000 years ago when He chose St. Peter to lead His Church on earth.

In an essay of 500-750 words, out of the 267 popes that have led the Catholic Church, who are your three favorite popes and why?