Building Bridges Across Asia Pacific
“As young people, you are indeed the joyful hope of the Church… I would like to take you by the hand and walk with you on the path of hope. I would like to speak with you about our joys and hopes, but also of our sorrows and concerns, and those of all our brothers and sisters in the human family.” (Pope Francis, World Youth Day, November 26, 2023)
June 20, 2:00 P.M. Rome, 7:00 P.M. Jakarta, 10:00 P.M. Brisbane
Building Bridges Across Asia Pacific
Students and Universities from across the Asia-Pacific region are participating in Building Bridges Across Asia Pacific. This is a geographically broad and religiously diverse region where approximately 9% of the world’s Christians live. Christians are a distinct minority in most countries (1% in Thailand and Japan) and a significant majority in a few others (85% in Philippines and 97% in Papua New Guinea). This uneven distribution of Christians and the status of the Christian religion itself across the region contributes to remarkably varied experiences among young people of faith.
To form and facilitate student groups for the Building Bridges Initiative, several universities are working together.
University Partners in the Asia Pacific Region:
- 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)
Working with those university partners across the Asia-Pacific region, professors are convening and accompanying students in 12 Working Groups. The students comprising those groups come from Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and more. This map displays the locations of the university partners and the home cities of some participating students. We will continue to update this map as more information becomes available. Participating students are studying diverse fields, including Theology, Psychology, Business, Physics, Law, Computer Science, Chemistry, Philosophy, and more.
To learn more about this upcoming event, you can download the Info Sheet.