Pray with Pope Francis during Holy Week, discuss the composition of happiness with university students from across the globe, explore the Eternal City, and give economic support to people struggling to rebuild their lives after a devastating earthquake: that's what hundreds of students are in Rome to do this 2-9 April.
Over the course of the week, inspired by the Holy Father's closeness, a catechetical gathering with the Prelate of Opus Dei, and conversations with other students in the Roman streets, they will participate in Holy Week ceremonies and ponder their own faith and lives.
The students will attend the audience with Pope Francis on 5 April, the Pontiff's health permitting. To concretize their desire to help, they will choose an amount to donate to Caritas Turkey and Syria, which is working with families affected by the 6 February earthquake. The UNIV participants do not want to forget this humanitarian crisis; the image below shows a poster with a QR code to channel donations.
The academic events will revolve around the pursuit of happiness, and the discussion will be led by experts like Arthur Brooks, Professor of the Practice of Public Leadership at the Kennedy School of Harvard University (United States); Florencia Aguilar, Executive Director of Austral World Building Lab (Argentina); and Pietro Cum, CEO and General Manager of ELIS (Italy).
The spokesperson for UNIV Forum 2023, Robert Marsland (USA), explains: "In the last half-century, we've probed the depths of space and sequenced the human genome, but we are still struggling to answer two simple questions: what is happiness, and how can I increase it? From Socrates to Sartre, no philosopher has been indifferent to the question of human flourishing; it is the hidden premise of all advertising and the reason behind every trip to the doctor's office."
The UNIV meetings were born in 1968 with inspiration and encouragement from St. Josemaría Escrivá, the founder of Opus Dei. Over the last 55 years, more than 100,000 university students have participated in them.
The text of those meetings, themes from past years, and other information, can be found at www.univforum.org and www.univinspire.org and univ.fasefundacion.org/