Pope Francis has addressed a letter to the young people participating in the UNIV 2025 International Congress, which will be held in Rome from April 12 to 20, 2025. In his message, the Holy Father encourages them to live their faith with enthusiasm and to be bearers of the Gospel in a world in need of hope. Below is the full text of the letter:

Letter from Pope Francis to the young people of UNIV 2025

To the young people participating in the UNIV 2025 International Congress Rome, April 12-20, 2025

Dear young people,

The UNIV International Congress you are holding in Rome brings you together these days in the celebration of a double jubilee event: the Holy Year 2025 and the centenary of the priestly ordination of Saint Josemaría Escrivá. How many reasons to give thanks to God and continue walking enthusiastically in faith, diligent in charity, and persevering in hope (cf. 1 Thess 1:31)!

I join in your joy and accompany you with my prayer, asking the Lord that this time of pilgrimage and fraternal encounter may inspire you to bring to all the Gospel of Jesus Christ, dead and risen, as a proclamation of the hope that fulfills the promises, leads to glory, and, grounded in love, does not disappoint (cf. Bull Spes non confundit, 2).

May Jesus bless you and the Holy Virgin watch over you. And I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me.

Fraternally,

Francis

Rome, St. John Lateran, April 8, 2025

The UNIV 2025 Congress, which brings together some 3,000 students from around the world, focuses this year on the theme “Citizens of Our World,” exploring the concept of citizenship and the common good from a Christian perspective. The young people will participate in academic, cultural, and spiritual activities, including meetings with the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Fernando Ocáriz, and moments of reflection on how to live their faith in a globalized world.

As in other years during Holy Week in Rome, some 3,000 students will gather in Rome for UNIV 2025, an international gathering of university students who wish to spend Holy Week and Easter with the Pope and in Rome this Jubilee Year. The students will participate in the liturgical ceremonies of Holy Week and in several meetings with the Prelate of Opus Dei, Bishop Fernando Ocáriz.

Participants will have the opportunity to attend academic gatherings—such as the UNIV Forum and UNIV Lab, which will take place on April 15 and 16, respectively—for in-depth study and debate on this year’s theme: “Citizens of Our World.”

In this edition, the reflection explores the concept of “citizenship”: “Although we seem to be increasingly interconnected in our globalized age,” the organizers explain, “it seems that we have lost the true meaning of the term. What does that mean for the way we live our citizenship? What kinds of virtues and examples are needed to promote the common good in our world? How can we grow?”

In this regard, Víctor Torre de Silva, one of the organizers of UNIV, explains: “The common good is achieved through personal relationships. The classics—such as Aristotle and Cicero—also show us the foundations of solidarity, one of the fundamental principles of Christian social thought and a key aspect of how we hope UNIV 2025 can address the topic of citizenship, taking into account what Pope Francis wrote in Laudato Si’.”

Therese Boles, from the UNIV Lab organizing team, believes that “Being a citizen of the world means that I belong to it. But it also means that I am responsible for it. The world is ‘mine.’ Therefore, it is my duty and ability to study it, enjoy it, care for it, and shape it. In a word: to love it. Today, it may seem that our polarized world leaves no room for real dialogue about the common good. But going back to the roots reveals the opportunity: if the common good is built on the foundations of family and friendship, true solidarity is found in authentic relationships.”

UNIV 2025 includes cultural events in various locations around Rome: conferences, colloquia, art exhibits, and roundtable discussions with speakers such as Luis G. Franceschi, Deputy Secretary-General of the Commonwealth of Nations; Karen Bohlin, director of the Practical Wisdom Project at the Abigail Adams Institute and researcher at the Harvard Human Flourishing Program; Guido Stein, professor at IESE (Spain); Michelle Scobie, professor of International Relations and Global Environmental Governance at The University of the West Indies (UWI); Ndidi Edeoghon, international lawyer and founder of the Ambassadors Initiative for Youth Development and Conflict Resolution (Nigeria), among others.

The UNIV meetings were born in 1968 under the inspiration and impulse of Saint Josemaría, founder of Opus Dei. In these 57 years, more than 100,000 university students have participated in the meeting. Each year, students participate in the audience with the Pope. On this occasion, participants will be especially mindful of Pope Francis’s urgent call for peace and the tragic situation of so many of their contemporaries in Ukraine, Russia, Israel, Gaza, South Sudan, and other areas experiencing war, persecution, or natural disasters, such as Myanmar. In particular, participants in UNIV 2025 will promote various types of aid (financial, welfare, etc.) to be donated to the Pope’s Dicastery for the Service of Charity (www.elemosineria.va).

The texts of those meetings and the list of topics from previous UNIV meetings, along with other information, can be found on the websites www.univforum.org and www.univinspire.org.

The Prelature of Opus Dei organizes Christian formation activities that accompany the meeting program. This is an opportunity to explore Holy Week with a life of more intense prayer, explore the city of Rome, participate in guided tours of museums, art exhibitions, and visit places where you can follow the traces of the Church’s history from the earliest centuries.