This year, around 3,000 university students will gather in Rome to take part in UNIV 2025, an international meeting of students who wish to spend Holy Week and Easter in the Eternal City, close to the Pope, during this Jubilee year. The students will take part in the liturgical celebrations for Holy Week and attend various gatherings with the Prelate of Opus Dei, Msgr. Fernando Ocáriz. They will also have the opportunity to join cultural activities (such as the UNIV Forum and UNIV Lab, taking place on 15 and 16 April respectively) designed for deeper reflection and discussion on this year’s theme: “Citizens of Our World.”
Read the Pope’s letter to participants of UNIV 2025
This edition’s reflections centre on the idea of citizenship. “Although in our globalised world, we seem more interconnected than ever,” the organisers explain, “we seem to have lost sight of what citizenship really means. What does that mean about our identity as citizens? What virtues or examples do we need in order to foster the common good in today’s world? How can we grow?”
Víctor Torre de Silva, one of the organisers of the UNIV Forum, notes: “The common good is built through personal relationships. The classics, like Aristotle and Cicero, also look at solidarity, a fundamental principle of Christian social thought that we hope will have pride of place in UNIV 2025’s exploration of citizenship, following Pope Francis’ lead in Laudato Si’.”
Therese Boles, from the UNIV Lab organising team, reflects: “Being a citizen of the world means that I belong to it. But it also means I am responsible for it. The world is ‘mine.’ Therefore, it is my duty to study it, enjoy it, care for it, and help shape it — and I’m able to do all of that. In a word: I’m called to love it.” She adds: “In today’s polarised world, there might not seem to be much room for true dialogue about the common good. But going back to our roots reveals an opportunity: if the common good is built on the foundations of family and friendship, then authentic solidarity is found in genuine relationships.”
UNIV 2025 will feature cultural events across various venues in Rome: conferences, panel discussions, art exhibits, and roundtables with speakers including Luis G. Franceschi, Deputy Secretary General of the Commonwealth; Karen Bohlin, Director of the Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute and Research Fellow at the Harvard Human Flourishing Program; Guido Stein, Professor at IESE Business School (Spain); Michelle Scobie, Professor of International Relations and Global Environmental Governance at The University of the West Indies (UWI); and Ndidi Edeoghon, international lawyer and founder of the Youth Development and Conflict Resolution Ambassadors Initiative (Nigeria), among others.
Support and Donations to the Dicastery for the Service of Charity
The UNIV gatherings began in 1968 under the inspiration and encouragement of Saint Josemaría Escrivá, founder of Opus Dei. Over the past 57 years, more than 100,000 university students have taken part in this gathering. Each year, students attend a papal audience. On this occasion, participants will be thinking of the Pope’s urgent appeal for peace and the dramatic circumstances affecting many of their peers in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza, South Sudan, and other regions marked by war, persecution, or natural disasters, such as Myanmar. Participants in UNIV 2025 will promote financial, material, and other forms of support, to be directed to the Dicastery for the Service of Charity (www.elemosineria.va).
More information
The text of previous meetings, themes from past years, and other information, can be found at univforum.org and univinspire.org.
The Prelature of Opus Dei organises Christian formational activities that accompany the UNIV programme. It is an opportunity to live Holy Week with more intense prayer, get to know the city of Rome, participate in guided visits to museums and art exhibitions, and follow the footsteps of the early Church through visits to historical Christian sites.