Pope to dialogue with students in "Building Bridges Across Asia Pacific"

By Vatican News

On Thursday 20 June Pope Francis will dialogue with students in the "Building Bridges Across Asia Pacific" initiative hosted by Loyola University Chicago together with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Holy See. Also assisting in the encounter are a number of Vatican offices, including the General Secretariat of the Synod, the Dicastery for Communication, the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life, the Dicastery for Education and Culture and the Dicastery for Evangelism, Section for the first evangelization and new particular churches.

Synodal encouter

The synodal encouter between Pope Francis and university students will bring together representatives from the Ateneo de Manila University (Manila, Philippines); Australian Catholic University (Brisbane, Australia); Fu Jen Catholic University (Taipei, Taiwan); Sogang University (Seoul, South Korea); Sophia University (Tokyo, Japan); Universitas Sanata Dharma (Yogyakarta, Indonesia), with participating students also from Singapore, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea.

The students are specializing in a wide range of fields including theology, psychology, business, physics, law, computer science, chemistry, philosophy, and more.

The encounter will take place on Zoom and livestreams will be accessible through the Building Bridges Initiative website: www.luc.edu/buildingbridges/acrossasiapacific

The Encounter will be interpreted and captioned live in English and Spanish. 

Building bridges

Inspired by the call of Pope Francis to synodality, Loyola University Chicago launched the Building Bridges Initiative (BBI), a student-centered and university-organized series of events. The first such encounter took place in February 2022, entitled "Building Bridges North-South." The second encounter, Building Bridges Across Africa, involved students from across Sub-Saharan Africa in November 2022.

The encounter offers a unique opportunity for students to engage in listening, dialogue, and discernment around shared social concerns, followed by student representatives of those groups engaging in a live streamed dialogue with Pope Francis where they can share with him their group’s experiences and hopes.