“Building bridges; the art of dialogue.” This is the theme of the so-called UnivForum 2026, an annual gathering that brings together thousands of university students in Rome during Holy Week. Participants from 25 countries attended this year.
Therese Boles
UNIV 2026
UNIV is a week-long event for university students and it has a lot of layers. One of the layers is being in Rome, seeing the Pope, seeing the universality of the Church. And then another layer is seeing the culture of Rome. But the layer that I’m most involved in is the conference.
This conference was promoted decades ago by the founder of Opus Dei, St. Josemaría Escrivá, who sought to foster a spiritual and professional experience for students from all over the world.
Therese Boles
Saint Josemaría had a dream, since 1968, to bring university students here to Rome, to get them to think critically, to engage with the world and come up with constructive responses to the problems that they see in the world. And so we're hosting this conference, and we had a thousand girls come from all over the world.
This year's theme of 'bridge-building' alludes directly to some of the first words Pope Leo XIV shared after his election to the papacy.
“Help us to build bridges through dialogue and encounter, so that we may all be one people, always at peace.”
This year's group of UNIV participants was also able to attend the weekly audience with the Pope during Holy Week. They even got a shout out:
I cordially greet the Spanish-speaking pilgrims, in particular the young people who have come from different parts of the world to take part in the international UNIV 2026 meeting. Let us ask the Lord Jesus that the Paschal mystery, which we are preparing to celebrate in these holy days, may renew our baptismal commitment, inspiring us to be joyful witnesses of His Resurrection. May God bless you. Thank you very much.
After these papal words of welcome, a group of participants in the meeting had the opportunity to meet the Pope. They presented him with a paper design of the Queen of Peace, a sculpture found in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major. The choice of this image is not random but carries deep symbolism.
Kateryna Tsikhomska
UNIV 2026
It is an image of the Virgin who stops war, located in Saint Mary Major. Near Pope Francis—Pope Francis also prayed a lot for peace. And I think peace is a gift, and we need grace to achieve it. So we have to pray.
The university gathering ends on the best possible date: Easter Sunday. At Easter, all those present at UnivForum 2026 return home, where they will put into practice—and bring to many more homes—the way of dialogue that they learned during this Holy Week in Rome.
