Questions to Ask the Pope
These are questions for a Catholic school class writing to the Vatican, a religious education group preparing for an audience, or anyone of any faith who has wondered what they would say with two minutes of the pope's attention. The 55 questions begin with the man himself, his calling and his day, move to his faith and prayer and how he leads, then take up the hard questions and the world beyond the Church, and end with what he hopes for young people. Most work as well in a letter as out loud, and the lightest ones in the first group were written with younger children in mind.
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The questions
Each question, and why to ask it
His life
What did you want to be when you were my age?
Why ask it
A good first question from a child, because the honest answer is almost never 'pope'. Follow with what changed the plan, and you have the story of his calling without having to use the word.
How did you know God was calling you to be a priest, and did you ever try to say no?
Why ask it
The second half is the one that gets a story. A calling that was resisted for a while is easier for a student to recognize than one that arrived all at once, so ask how long the arguing lasted.
What went through your mind in the conclave when you saw the votes were going to you?
Why ask it
The cardinals vote behind the locked doors of the Sistine Chapel under an oath of secrecy, and the man they choose is asked on the spot whether he accepts. He is still free to say how it felt, so the thing to find out is whether fear or peace came first.
How did you choose your papal name?
Why ask it
The new name is picked within minutes of saying yes, and it usually points at a saint or an earlier pope he means to follow. The useful follow-up is what he wants to borrow from that namesake and what he would leave behind.
What is the hardest part of being pope, and what is the best part?
Why ask it
Asked as a pair so that neither half can be skipped: an answer with only the burden or only the joy is half an answer. Set the two side by side afterward. When they turn out to be the same thing, say meeting people in trouble, you have learned what he thinks the job is.
What time do you get up, and what is the first thing you do?
Why ask it
Small, concrete and easy to answer, which is why it works in a letter from a seven-year-old. If the first thing turns out to be prayer, you have your bridge to the Faith and prayer group further down.
What do you miss most about the life you had before you were elected?
Why ask it
Listen for something ordinary: walking to a shop unrecognized, cooking, driving a car. It shows what the office costs the man in it, and it is kinder than asking outright whether he is lonely.
Do you ever get to do something just for fun?
Why ask it
Younger children put this one better than adults do. A sport, an instrument or a film counts as an answer, and so does 'not since the election', which tells you something about the last few years.
Who do you talk to when you need a friend and not an adviser?
Why ask it
Nearly everyone around a pope works for him or hopes for something from him, which is the reason to ask. If he names an old friend or a brother, find out what they still tease him about.
Do you get to see your family, and what do they call you now?
Why ask it
Brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews tend to keep the name he grew up with, and hearing it makes him a person to a class that only knows the white cassock. Leave it out if you know he has lost someone close recently.
What is the strangest thing about living at the Vatican?
Why ask it
Keep this for a light moment or a young audience. It invites a story about the guards, the bells or a front door he cannot answer himself, and a laugh early on makes the serious questions easier to ask.
Faith and prayer
How do you pray when nobody is watching?
Why ask it
Public prayer is part of his job; this is about the private kind. Words, silence and a particular chair in a particular room are three different answers, and whichever he gives is the one to try yourself for a week.
What do you do on the days when prayer feels like talking to an empty room?
Why ask it
Students assume a pope never has those days, so the answer matters more than most on this page. Whatever he does about it, whether he kept the hour, changed the prayer or went for a walk, is something the asker can copy.
Have you ever doubted that God is there, and what did you do with the doubt?
Why ask it
Ask it gently and with no second question stacked on top. An answer that names a year, a place or a death is worth more than a general one, and it gives a doubting teenager permission to stay in the room.
Who hears your confession?
Why ask it
Popes go to confession like every other Catholic, to a priest who is not the pope, and most children are astonished to learn it. The part worth hearing is what it is like to be the one doing the confessing.
Is there a prayer you learned as a child that you still say?
Why ask it
Expect a short one, taught by a parent or a grandmother. Ask who taught it and you will hear about the person who handed him his faith, which is a better story than the prayer.
Who is your favorite saint, and what do the two of you have in common?
Why ask it
Easy for a young child to put, and the second half keeps the answer from ending at a name. Look the saint up afterward: where they lived and what they gave up says a good deal about the kind of pope he is trying to be.
Which story about Jesus do you go back to when you are tired or afraid?
Why ask it
The choice says more than a paragraph of theology would: the storm on the lake is a different answer from the garden on the night before the cross. Read the passage afterwards and look for what he hears in it.
What do you think heaven is like?
Why ask it
Children tend to ask this after a grandparent has died, and it helps to say who you are thinking of. He cannot describe it from experience and a good answer will admit as much, so pay attention to the picture he reaches for: a meal, a homecoming, a face.
People all over the world ask you to pray for them. What do you do with all those names?
Why ask it
A practical question about an impossible task. Whether he keeps a list, a box of letters or a single sentence that gathers them up, the answer tells a letter writer what becomes of their own request.
How should someone start praying if nobody at home does it?
Why ask it
Meant for the student who is curious about faith and has no one to copy. Hold out for something small enough to try tonight, and say so if the first answer is a program when you wanted a first step.
Leading
How do you make a decision that touches more than a billion Catholics?
Why ask it
This asks for the method and not the result: who he consults, how long he waits, where prayer comes in. A class can compare it with how a president or a principal decides, which is half the lesson.
Who around you is free to say 'Holy Father, I think that is a mistake'?
Why ask it
Every leader says disagreement is welcome, so ask for the most recent time it happened. A name and a subject mean it does happen; a general remark about listening means you should ask again.
What have you changed your mind about since you were a young priest?
Why ask it
Decades lie between the newly ordained priest and the pope, and the office is associated with certainty, which makes a plain answer here worth having. Hope for a change he can trace to one parish or one person, and find out whether that person ever knew.
When Catholics in two countries want opposite things from you, how do you choose?
Why ask it
The Church he leads includes people who disagree sharply by continent and by generation. Listen for whether he talks about deciding, delaying or keeping both sides at the table, since those are three different ideas of the job.
People say the pope can never be wrong. What is true about that and what is not?
Why ask it
The teaching called infallibility was defined in 1870 and covers only rare, solemn statements on faith and morals; his opinions, interviews and everyday decisions fall outside it. Letting him draw that line himself clears up the most common mix-up about the office.
If you could change one thing about how the Church is run by tomorrow morning, what would it be?
Why ask it
Then ask why he can't, or hasn't. The gap between what a pope wants and what a pope can do is where a civics class and a religion class meet.
What do you look for in a priest before you make him a bishop?
Why ask it
In most of the Church bishops are appointed by the pope, usually from names sent up to Rome, so this is one of the most direct ways he shapes a diocese like yours. The qualities he lists first tell you what he thinks the Church is short of.
Could you ever see yourself resigning, as Benedict XVI did?
Why ask it
Benedict stepped down in 2013, the first pope to do so in nearly six hundred years, so the question is no longer unthinkable. Put it as a question about what would tell him it was time, and keep his health out of it.
How do you decide which countries to visit, and what do you hope is different after you leave?
Why ask it
A papal trip takes a long time to arrange and he can make only a handful a year, so the choice of country says something before he has spoken a word. Have each student name where they would send him and why, and pin the answers beside a map.
Hard questions
Why does God let innocent people suffer, especially children?
Why ask it
The oldest hard question there is, and children have put it to popes in public before. Do not expect it to be solved; notice whether he reaches for an explanation or admits that none satisfies, and what he says a person should do in the meantime.
What do you say to someone who prayed for a person to get well and watched them die anyway?
Why ask it
Put this to him only if the loss is yours or you have permission from the person it belongs to. An answer that begins with the grieving person and not with doctrine is the one to write down.
What does the Church still owe the people who were harmed by priests they trusted?
Why ask it
A fair and necessary question for older students, asked plainly and without detail. Weigh the reply by what it promises to do and by when, and note whether survivors are spoken of as people to be heard or as a problem being handled.
Why can't women be ordained priests, and is that something a pope could change?
Why ask it
Two questions, and the second is the sharper: it asks where he believes his own authority stops. Go on to ask which decisions in the Church women can and should be making now.
What would you say to a gay teenager who is not sure the Church wants them?
Why ask it
Asked on behalf of a person and not as a debate topic, it calls for a pastor's answer first. Notice whether he speaks to the teenager or about the teaching, and ask for whichever half was left out.
Which teaching do you find hardest to explain?
Why ask it
He gets to pick, so you learn which objection he hears most and takes most seriously. A reply of 'none' is a dodge, so have a second try ready: which one do people in his own family push back on?
What should a Catholic do when their conscience and a Church teaching pull in different directions?
Why ask it
Catholic teaching gives conscience real weight and also asks that it be well formed, and a great many adult Catholics live in the tension between the two. An example from his years as a priest or a bishop will teach more than a definition, so request one.
What would you say to people who left the Church because of how they were treated in it?
Why ask it
Leaving over treatment is different from leaving over belief, and worth keeping separate. See whether the answer includes an apology, an invitation or both, and whether anything is asked of the parish that drove them out.
Is there something in the Church's history that you are sorry for?
Why ask it
Popes have made public apologies for past wrongs, so the question is not rude. The follow-up that matters is what an apology from Rome is supposed to change for the people it is addressed to.
Why does the Church own so much when so many people are poor?
Why ask it
Nearly every class gets to this one, often after seeing a photo of St. Peter's. Follow with where the money given to the pope's charities goes and who checks the accounts, which moves the talk from buildings to budgets.
The world
Do you believe people of other religions, or of none, can reach heaven?
Why ask it
The asker is often thinking of a particular grandparent or friend, and it helps to say so. Have him explain in his own words and do not settle for a yes or no, because the reasoning is the part people remember.
What have you learned from a friend who is Jewish, Muslim or from another faith?
Why ask it
'Learned from' is the phrase doing the work: it asks for a debt, not a statement about tolerance. A named friend and a specific habit, such as a fast, a way of praying or a way of arguing, means the friendship is real.
What would you say to someone who does not believe in God but tries hard to be good?
Why ask it
A strong one for a curious non-believer to send, because it is about the writer. See whether he argues, blesses or asks a question back.
Do you think Christians will ever be one church again, and what is in the way?
Why ask it
Useful for a class that includes Protestant or Orthodox students. The test of how serious the hope is lies in what Catholics would have to give up, not only what the others would.
When you speak to leaders who are at war, what do you actually ask them for?
Why ask it
A pope has no army and a good deal of access, so the interesting part is the specific request: a ceasefire, prisoners exchanged, a road opened for food. Ask what he does when the answer is no.
What worries you most about the way we are treating the earth?
Why ask it
Recent popes have written at length about creation and about the poor, who suffer first when it is damaged. Push past the worry to one habit he would ask a school to change this year.
What frightens you and what gives you hope about artificial intelligence?
Why ask it
Leo XIV, who was pope when this page was written, brought the subject up within days of his election, so a student who raises it is asking about something a pope is still working through. The follow-up to have ready: what should a machine never be allowed to decide?
Young people
What do you hope people my age will do that your generation failed to do?
Why ask it
It invites him to admit a failure before he gives advice, which makes the advice easier to hear. Write down the verb he uses, because that is the assignment.
What would you tell a teenager who finds Mass boring?
Why ask it
Honest, common, and rarely said to anyone in a collar. A defensive answer tells you one thing; an answer that begins 'so did I' tells you another, and deserves the follow-up of what changed.
How does a person work out what they are meant to do with their life?
Why ask it
The religious word is vocation, and the Church uses it for marriage and ordinary work as well as for priesthood. Ask what the first sign was in his own case, and how he told a real calling from a passing wish.
What should I do when friends make fun of me for believing?
Why ask it
Bring a real example if you have one, since advice for a joke in the lunchroom differs from advice for being left out. It is fair to wonder aloud whether he was ever teased for it himself.
What do children understand about God that adults forget?
Why ask it
It flatters the asker a little, which is fine in a letter from a second-grade class. It invites a story about one child he has met, and that story is the part to read aloud if a reply comes.
What is one thing I could do this week that would really help someone?
Why ask it
Insist on this week. Big answers about changing the world are easy to give and easy to forget, and a task small enough to finish by Friday is what a class can report back on.
If you could put one sentence on the wall of every classroom in the world, what would it be?
Why ask it
Built for a letter: it asks for something short enough to be answered, and it gives the class something to pin up. Have each student write down their own guess before any reply arrives.
How can we pray for you?
Why ask it
The natural last question, in a letter or in person, and one a non-Catholic can ask sincerely as a kindness. Then do it, and say in your next letter that you did.
Getting a question to the pope, and asking it well
Practical guidance for the conversation itself
Getting a question in front of him
By letter
Anyone may write. Put his name after 'His Holiness' on the first line, then Apostolic Palace, 00120 Vatican City, and confirm the current address on the Vatican's own website before you post it. Open with 'Your Holiness' or 'Most Holy Father', say in two sentences who you are and where your school or parish is, and ask one question, or two at most. Postage for a letter abroad depends on where you live, so check at your own post office.
What to expect back
The pope's mail arrives by the sackful, so a personal reply is rare and no child should be promised one. When an answer comes it is often a short letter sent on his behalf by a Vatican office, sometimes with a card. Tell a class this before the envelopes are sealed, and treat the writing itself as the point.
At an audience or a youth event
The pope holds a general audience most weeks when he is in Rome. Tickets are free, and the Vatican's website and your own diocese can tell you how to request them for your dates. Questions at youth gatherings are nearly always collected and chosen beforehand, so ask the organizers how and by when they want yours.
What to call him
'Your Holiness' or 'Holy Father' in speech; either is right for a Catholic and polite from anyone else. 'Mr.', 'Sir' and his first name on its own are not used. Children are forgiven everything, and a child who simply says 'Pope' followed by his name has done fine.
Know who you are asking
The office
The pope is the Bishop of Rome and the head of the Catholic Church, elected by the cardinals. He is at once a pastor, a teacher, the head of a very small state and a boss with a large staff, and a good set of questions touches more than one of those. The groups on this page are split that way: His life and Faith and prayer are addressed to the man, Leading and Hard questions to the office.
The man
When this page was written the pope was Leo XIV, elected in May 2025, born in Chicago and for many years a missionary and bishop in Peru. Check who holds the office before you write, because the page will outlast any one pope. Then read a little about where he grew up and what he did before, and turn 'the life you had before you were elected' into something only he could be asked.
What he has already said
Popes give homilies, interviews and weekly talks, and nearly all of it is published. Search before you ask: a question he answered last month wastes your one chance, and a question that begins 'You said in your Easter homily' is far harder to answer with a stock line. A book of Pope Francis's replies to children's letters came out in 2016, and a few pages of it show what kind of question gets a warm, direct response.
Running it with a class, a youth group or a dinner table
The class letter
Give each student the list and have them mark three, cut to one, and write a sentence on why they chose it. Send the letters together with a cover note from the teacher. The sentence of explanation is often better reading than the question, and it is what makes thirty letters differ from each other.
The press conference
One student, or the teacher, plays the pope after a week of reading what the real one has said, and the class asks from the page. The rule that keeps it honest is that the stand-in must say 'I am guessing here' whenever they are. Stay with His life, Leading and Young people, and keep the Hard questions group for written work.
The dinner-table version
Everyone picks the one question they would ask with a single minute of his time and says why. Nobody answers for the pope. The choices do the talking: the person who picks suffering and the person who picks what he does for fun have each told the table something about themselves.
Mixed and non-Catholic groups
The world group and most of His life need no belief to ask. Say at the start that the exercise is about putting a good question to a leader, not about agreeing with him, and let students from other traditions write the question their own community would most want put.
Putting the hard ones well
One question, no speech
A hard question loses its force when it arrives after three paragraphs of the asker's own view. State it in one sentence, add one line on why it matters to you, and stop.
Ask to learn, not to trap
'Why does the Church hate women' closes the conversation. 'Why can't women be ordained, and could that change' opens it, and is the harder of the two to wave away. Every entry under Hard questions is worded so that a straight answer is possible.
Other people's pain
The questions about harm done by clergy, a death after prayer and a gay teenager each stand for real people. Leave out names and details, ask only what you have the standing to ask, and with younger classes hand these to the teacher to adapt or omit.
What he cannot answer
Do not ask him to rule on a family's divorce, say whether a named person is in heaven or settle an argument with your pastor. Those belong with someone who knows you, starting with a priest or teacher nearby. Ask the pope what only a pope can tell you.