Jon M. Sweeney - Before Margaret Met the Pope: A Conclave Story

The Popes CAT series!

The story of a stray that was born on the Via della Conciliazione in Rome, adopted by the Pope, and how she then runs the Vatican from museum to floorboard.
For ages six and up.

This volume was preceded by

The Popes Cat

Margarets Night in St. Peters (A Christmas Story)

Margarets First Holy Week

Margaret and the Pope Go to Assisi

JON M. SWEENEY

Illustrated by ROY DELEOM

2021 First Printing

Before Margaret Met the Pope:

A Conclave Story

Text copyright 2021 by Jon M. Sweeney

Illustrations copyright 2021

by Roy DeLeon

ISBN 978-1-64060-502-2

This is a work of fiction. The author has used the real titles of Pope and Holy Father in the sense in which they are normally understood: for the leader of the Roman Catholic Church who resides in Vatican City; but no historical Pope or Holy Father, past or present, is intended.

The Paraclete Press name and logo (dove on cross) are trademarks of Paraclete Press, Inc.

Names: Sweeney, Jon M., 1967- author. | DeLeon, Roy, illustrator.

Title: Before Margaret met the Pope : a conclave story / Jon M. Sweeney ; illustrated by Roy DeLeon. | Description: Brewster, Massachusetts : Paraclete Press, 2021. | Series: The Popes cat ; 5

Audience: Ages 7-12. | Audience: Grades 2-3. | Summary: A stray cat sneaks into the Sistine Chapel and watches as her friend is elected Supreme Pontiff.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020044730 (print) | LCCN 2020044731 (ebook) | ISBN 9781640605022 | ISBN 9781640605039 (epub) | ISBN 9781640605046 (pdf)

Subjects: CYAC: Cats--Fiction. | Popes--Fiction. | Catholics--Fiction. | Christian life--Fiction. | Vatican City--Fiction.

Classification: LCC PZ7.1.S9269 Be 2021 (print) | LCC PZ7.1.S9269 (ebook) | DDC [E]--dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044730

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020044731.

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All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in an electronic retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for brief quotations in printed reviews, without the prior permission of the publisher.

Published by Paraclete Press, Brewster, Massachusetts www.paracletepress.com

Manufactured by PRINPIA Co., Ltd. 54,

Gasanro 9-Gil, Geumcheon-gu,

Seoul 08513, Korea

Printed in September 2021, Seoul, South Korea

For Pope Francis,
Viva il Papa

B efore Margaret met the Pope, she lived on the streets of Rome. She was a small cat in one of the busiest, most crowded cities in all Europe.

Rome is the capital of Italy. More than 4 million people live there.

Rome surrounds Vatican City, the worlds tiniest country, and home to the Pope, the Curia, and the Swiss Guard.

Margaret had lots of friends on the Via della Conciliazione. There were the restaurant owners who set out plates of leftovers by the back doors of their restaurants. Margaret loved their dishes of fish and clams, lasagna and alfredo, or just about anything they had to give her that day.

There were other cats in the neighborhood, too, with whom Margaret often played. They usually got along well.

There were even dogs that were friendly to her, and then there were some that were not so friendly.

One time, Margaret was chased by a really big dog that she was convinced wanted to eat her.

He would have caught her, too, had she not crossed under a wooden fence and slipped under the feet of people in line, waiting to enter the Vatican Museums.

She had many adventures, not all of them scary, like that one. Most of the time, her life in Rome was exciting.

The Via della Conciliazione connects Rome to the tiny world that is found inside Vatican City; it is a short street that links St. Peters Square to the banks of the Tiber River, and beyond.

Along the Conciliazione are shops selling postcards and rosary beads and figurines of Popes and Saints, and gelato shops where children leave with delicious cones of gelato that drip onto the sidewalk on hot summer afternoons. There was Margaret, following those kids, licking up those drips!

Cats like people. They dont usually come when you call them by name, as dogs do, but cats like to be noticed, to be patted on the head, or scratched gently under the chin.

Margaret would often meet children on the streets of Rome.

On Wednesdays, she would sometimes walk down the Conciliazione to St. Peters Square, where children and their families would gather, with others, to see the Pope at his regular weekly address.

The Square would be full of people from all over the world. Everyone wanted to see the Pope. On summer days, many people would wear hats because its hot in Rome in June, July, and August. But despite the heat, they would sit or stand for hours, happy to see and cheer, and listen to what the Pope had to say.

Back then, Margaret didnt know the Pope. She only knew that he was the person everyone seemed to be talking about.

Then, one day, the Pope died.

N ewspapers all over the world, in every country, ran big headlines:

The Pope is dead.

Television crews covered St. Peters Square and the Via della Conciliazione with their trucks, cameras, and equipment. Reporters with microphones were everywhere, interviewing priests in white collars, friars in white, black, or brown habits or robes, cardinals with red caps, and religious sisters, asking each to reflect on the life and papacy of the Holy Father who had died, and to speculate on what might happen next.