Gorgeous Lesson Activity for The Vatican Apostolic Palace — Perfect for Art History, Humanities, and English Language Arts (Grades 10-12)

Explore the Vatican Apostolic Palace After Pope Leo XIV’s Election

Bring the renewed buzz surrounding the Vatican Apostolic Palace straight into your classroom! Our print-and-digital lesson lets students in grades 10-12 investigate how papal power, art, and architecture intersect, using maps, primary sources, and CCSS-aligned analysis tasks.

Why You’ll Love This Resource

• Interdisciplinary power: Perfect for Art History, Social Studies, and ELA crossover units.
• Primary-source rich: Includes Mary W. Arms’s 1909 account of an audience with Pope Pius X, plus two lavishly illustrated cards on the Sala Regia and Sala Ducal.
• Two vintage maps: A 1929 Vatican City plan and a 1914 floor map of the palace help students visualize the popes’ world.
• Ready-to-teach supports: Teacher notes, Cornell and illustrated notetakers, Frayer vocabulary model, 23-question bank, exit tickets, and a two-point rubric keep planning time low.

Inside the Download

Formats: PDF • Google Slides

Student-facing materials — anchor charts of key figures and places, guided overview text, map activities, primary-source reading card, supplemental art cards, notecatchers, vocabulary practice, and exit tickets.
Teacher-facing materials — answer keys, rubric, and extension ideas that invite students to research figures like Bernini, Bramante, and Pope Sixtus V.

Classroom Ideas

1. Map Race: Assign small groups a list of palace rooms—first team to locate them on the 1914 plan wins candy.
2. Socratic Seminar: Use the question bank to debate whether modern popes should still live in the Apostolic Palace.
3. Art + Lit Connection: Pair Vasari’s frescoes of papal triumphs with passages from Dante or Petrarch for a thematic collage.

Ready to Dive In?

Download the free resource and add it to your teacher toolkit, and let your students traverse centuries of Vatican history without leaving their seats.

© 2025 Stones of Erasmus. Public-domain images courtesy of Google Books and The New York Public Library.

A response to a new pope

The following is a brief response to 

Cokie Roberts's editorial on Ratzinger, 

newly elected to the papal throne.

Ratzinger squashes individuality; Roberts questions his rash stamp-out.

Papal Conclave, photo credit: reuters

It is true; the church is not immune to the laws of human nature, but according to the church, strict individualism that is separated from objective truth, that attempts to construct its own truth denies human nature.  Roberts champions individuality, the freedom to express one's point of view, to be an individual; Ratzinger sees individuality as a threat, liable to "dissent," tantamount, for him, to infidelity.  
Is individualism to be respected, or is it a suspicious slight to Christianity? Has modern individuality silenced human communication with the gods?
 
We are individuals, unique beings created in the image and likeness of God.  God gave us a mind and a heart, so we should use it to stumble upon goodness and truth.  I disagree with  Cokie and Steven's use of the word "condemn." It is not true that this pontiff condemns individuality, but he and his predecessor worry that unbridled individuality separated from truth will cause more damage than good in this world. I can see unbridled individuality divorced from reason as a poison, like an inexperienced student who thinks they know more than the teacher, but really they know nothing, or the kid who spouts out ideology his parents taught him rather than speak for himself.

But, I disagree with Ratzinger more; It is not true that individuality serves only "ego and desires".  The Church needs to realize that individuality is not going away, and maybe honor individuality a little more (just like the Copernican Revolution never went away) and the rest of the world needs to realize that objective truth and goodness should never be separated from individual conscience.

PDF Copy for Printing