Welcome to the Catholic Kingdom's 5th Annual Tournament! Because of the positive response throughout the Catholic Kingdom, the King and Queen have decided to hold another tournament. It is open to all the members of the Kingdom. The Royal invitation is also extended to all who visit, so anyone can enter. There will be winners selected for each age group within each category. Winners will be notified so that their prizes can be sent to them.

Creativity is a gift from God. All citizens are encouraged to use it to His greater honor and glory. For this tournament, we desire that everyone express their creativity in ways that glorify God, while having fun as well.

The tournament began on June 1st, 2011 and has been extended to the Feast of the Immaculate Conception - December 8th, 2011. This will give everyone ample opportunity to complete at least one entry.

The tournament consists of three categories: Art, Writing, and answering Questions. We have intentionally designed the contest so that anyone can enter, no matter what type or level of creative skills that God has blessed them with.

Remember, it is not the gifts that we have which make us pleasing to God, but how we use the gifts He has given us.

Prizes:

The Catholic Kingdom is pleased to be able to offer some very special rewards for those who enter, as well as those who win, our current Tournament. Some of our friends (a family, in fact, who has been with the Catholic Kingdom from the very beginning) have had the opportunity of traveling to France and to Italy, visiting many holy places that are sacred to Jesus Christ's One True Church - the Roman Catholic Church. When this family traveled, they brought a number of sacramentals (rosaries, medals, holy cards, etc.) with them and they touched these items to holy places, sacred objects and even relics of the Saints. Below you will find a list of what these items were touched to. Most of these items were touched to everything during both trips, but some items were purchased in France or in Italy and so they would only have been touched to items in those countries. For example, during the pilgrimage to Italy, there were items obtained in Bologna from the shrine dedicated to Saint Clelia Barbieri. These items were touched to everything in the list from Bologna to the end of the trip. When you are sent one of these special 3rd class relics we will inform you of your relic was touched to.

The Catholic Kingdom reserves the right to decide who gets what. Our money is very limited and shipping can be expensive, but it is our hope to give something to everyone who enters, together with a paper copy of the lists which follow. Those who win the contests will likely get ‘nicer’ items, but we hope to be able to send everyone something from this collection of holy 3rd class relics. As these items were touched to holy places, Saint’s relics, etc. they were infused with graces by God and therefore they are sources of great graces. In fact, any item that has been touched to a first class relic becomes a third class relic itself. Any one who enters and would like to receive one of these special items will need to give us their mailing address. All items will ship from the United States.

1. All submissions must be Catholic in theme and your own work. Parents may advise and help when necessary, but each person must do the actual work themselves.
   
   Please do not use copyrighted material (ex. - a picture) or directly create an identical copy of someone else's protected work (aka plagiarism). Do not use someone else’s words, for example, in your poem.
   
   There are exceptions. You can certainly quote from the Holy Bible or a Saint. You could quote your father or mother. But you cannot copy a short story that has been published, like a short story from a collection of Lives of the Saints. If you want to tell the story of a Saint’s life then you must put it in your own words.
   You may use images as a model. For instance, you could certainly draw a copy of a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, but you could not reproduce the picture itself by scanning it or photocopying it.
   
   
2. All entries become the property of the Catholic Kingdom. The Catholic Kingdom will not be held responsible for returning any submissions.
3. All entries include permission for the Catholic Kingdom to use them, in whole or in part, as we wish, on the website. All entries that are used in the Kingdom will be accompanied by the name of the person who submitted it, unless they choose to remain anonymous.
4. Enter in the age group that is appropriate to you.
5. You cannot submit entries in more than one age group (no matter what the category is).
6. You can enter as many of the categories (Art, Writing, or Questions) as you like, within your age group.
7. There is no limit to the number of times you can submit a Tournament entry per category.
   Ex. - Feel free to write a poem and a story and submit them as two different Writing entries
8. EVERY TIME YOU SUBMIT AN ENTRY YOU MUST INCLUDE THE INFORMATION ON THE ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM. IF YOU ENTER THE WRITING CATEGORY TWICE AND THE ART CATEGORY THREE TIMES YOU MUST FILL-OUT AND SUBMIT AN ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM FIVE TIMES (SEND IN ONE WITH EACH OF THE FIVE ENTRIES).
   
   

Winners will be selected within each age group for each contest category. All entries will be judged (appropriate to the age group) according to three characteristics:

E-mail -

Mail - The Catholic Kingdom, PO Box 2284, Front Royal, VA 22630

REMEMBER THAT EACH ENTRY REQUIRES ITS OWN ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM. IF YOU ARE SUBMITTING YOUR TOURNAMENT ENTRY BE E-MAIL, YOU WILL SUBMIT YOUR ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM SEPARATELY. IF YOU ARE MAILING YOUR ENTRY, YOU SHOULD INCLUDE YOUR ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM WITH IT. FOR MORE INFORMATION ON HOW TO FILL-IN YOUR ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM, SEE REGISTRATION.

Methods for submitting your Tournament entries

If submitting your Tournament entries online:

1. Please submit all e-mail entries to the Tournament Master's e-mail address:
   
   
2. For Art and Writing entries, you can paste them into the text area of an e-mail or you can attach it to the e-mail instead. REMEMBER TO INCLUDE YOUR FULL NAME, AGE GROUP, AND THE TITLE OF YOUR WORK.
   
   
3. For entries to the Questions category, you may use the online answer form provided. You may also write your answers for the questions that you choose to answer and paste them into the text area of an e-mail or you can attach it to the e-mail instead.
   
   
4. If you are entering the Questions category, and are using the online answer form, you need to know that if you leave the page of the answer form for any reason, all the information you have entered will be lost. Only when the "SUBMIT" button has been clicked is your information saved and sent to us via e-mail. If you do not wish to fill out the answer form all at once you can print out the questions and fill them out on paper first. When you have answered all the questions necessary for your age group, you can go online to the Tournament and fill in the answer form we have provided.
   
   

- OR -

If submitting your Tournament entries by normal mail:

1. Send in any of your entries by mail to the mailing address given above. You may include as many entries from any or all categories in the same envelope or package.
   
   
2. BE SURE TO INCLUDE ALL REQUIRED ENTRY REGISTRATION INFORMATION (SEE REGISTRATION) AND A LIST OF ALL OF THE TITLES OF THE ENTRIES YOU ARE SUBMITTING. ONE ENTRY REGISTRATION FORM IS SUFFICIENT FOR ALL OF THE ENTRIES INCLUDED IN THE SAME ENVELOPE OR PACKAGE.
   
   
3. We will send a confirmation e-mail when we receive your entry in the mail. If you do not receive this confirmation, you should contact us far enough in advance to be able to resubmit your entry.

Material

You can send in:

1. The original work (not recommended since no entries will be returned)
2. A physical copy (eg. - a print, photocopy, photograph, etc.) via normal mail
3. A digital copy via e-mail

Ideas for making copies

To send a digital copy via e-mail you can:

1. Scan it (or a picture of it)
2. Photograph it with a digital camera and upload it to your computer
3. Type it (if the category is Writing) in a word processing application like Microsoft Word. If you use Microsoft Word, please save it as a ‘Rich Text Format’ type file or a ‘Word 7.0 for MS-DOS’ type file or as a ‘PDF’ type file. If we have trouble reading your entry because we do not have the proper application, we will contact you with other options. If you do not use Microsoft Word, we recommend saving your work in a RTF (rich text format) or ‘PDF’ type file to send to us.

You can also print out a copy from any of the steps above and send it through normal mail