THE BUILDING BRIDGES INITIATIVEBUILDING BRIDGES ACROSS ASIA PACIFIC:A SYNODAL ENCOUNTER BETWEENPOPE FRANCIS AND UNIVERSITY STUDENTS
Building Bridges Across Asia Pacific brings together students from across the Asia Pacificregion for small group dialogues, reflections, and discernment around their shared social
concerns. Student representatives from these groups will dialogue with Pope Francis via Zoom
on June 20, 2024 at 2:00 p.m. (Rome). The livestream of the encounter hosted on YouTube will
be accessible in two languages: English and Spanish (a third language may be added, this is tobe determined).
When:

June 20, 2024
2:00 p.m. (Rome)

Website: www.luc.edu/buildingbridges/acrossasiapacificOrganized/Hosted By: Loyola University Chicago- Institute of Pastoral Studies- Hank Center for the Catholic Intellectual Heritage- The Department of Theology- Office of Global and Community Engagement
Co-Organized By: The Pontifical Commission for Latin America at the Holy See
Collaborators:
Ignatian Encounter Ministry (with Dr. Robert Choiniere)
The General Secretariat of the Synod
Dicastery for Communication
Dicastery for Evangelism, Section for the First Evangelization and New Particular Churches
Dicastery for Education and Culture
Invited to Collaborate: Dicastery for the Laity, the Family, and Life
Organizers:
Dr. Peter Jones (Loyola University Chicago)
Dr. Emilce Cuda (Pontifical Commission for Latin America)
Media Inquiries: Matthew McDermott -- mbedugnis@luc.edu
University Partners in the Asia-Pacific Region:
Ateneo de Manila University, Manila, Philippines
Australian Catholic University, Brisbane, Australia
Universitas Sanata Dharma, Yogyakarta, Indonesia

Fu Jen Catholic University, Taipei, TaiwanSogang University, Seoul, South Korea
Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan2
With Students Participating from Indonesia, Timor-Leste, Papua New Guinea, Singapore,Malaysia, Philippines, Australia, Japan, South Korea, and more. For up-to-date information, see
the map on the BBI Asia Pacific webpage: www.luc.edu/buildingbridges/acrossasiapacific.
Structure
Working with university partners across Asia
Pacific, professors are convening andaccompanying university and college students
from across the region in 12 Working Groups.
The students comprising those groups comefrom many countries in this area. This map
displays the locations of the university partners.
The interactive map on the BBI Asia Pacificwebpage also displays the home regions ofparticipating students. Those students arestudying diverse fields, including Theology,Psychology, Business, Education, Nutrition,Accounting, Physics, Law, Computer Science,Chemistry, Philosophy, Environmental Science,Music, History, and more.
The Encounter
One student representative from each groupwill join a meeting with Pope Francis via Zoom.
The encounter will be interpreted and captioned live in English and Spanish. With this region’slinguistic diversity, a third language may be added, depending on the languages spoken by thestudent representatives. The livestreams will be accessible through the Building Bridges Initiative
website: www.luc.edu/buildingbridges/acrossasiapacific.
ABOUT THE BUILDING BRIDGES INITIATIVE
Inspired by the call of Pope Francis to synodality, Loyola University Chicago launched theBuilding Bridges Initiative (BBI), a student-centered and university-organized series of events.
The initial event in February 2022, Building Bridges North-South, emerged organically from acollaboration between Loyola and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America and thatcollaboration continues in support of successive events.
Through the initiative, we facilitate the creation of student groups across large geographicregions, accompany those students as they engage in listening, dialogue, and discernment
around shared social concerns, and then invite student representatives of those groups to a livestreamed dialogue with Pope Francis where they can share with him their group’s experiences
and hopes.
Following the first historic encounter between the Pope and university students, the secondencounter, Building Bridges Across Africa, involved students from across Sub-Saharan Africa inNovember 2022. The initiative in Africa was organized through special additional collaborations
with the Pan-African Catholic Theology and Pastoral Network and DePaul University’s Center for
World Catholicism & Intercultural Theology.
The most recent BBI Encounter was Building Bridges Across South Asia, which took place on
September 26, 2023 and included students from across India, Nepal, and Pakistan.

3Values and Priorities:
1) The title of the event, “Building Bridges,” refers to the gaps between peoples and cultures inin the Asia Pacific Region. To close these gaps we need bridges: sites of authenticencounter, mutual concern and discernment, and shared leadership and work. The goal ofthis event and the initiative in which takes shape is to:a. Facilitate authentic encounters and constructive dialogue between university students
across the region.
b. Empower these students and support their agency to build durable bridges andrelationships that lead to mutual understanding, compassion, and shared wisdom.
c. Use these bridges and relationships to discern and work together now and in thefuture on concrete solutions and projects for environmental sustainability, economic
justice, and integral human development.
2) We proceed in a synodal manner: “Encounter, listen, discern.” As Pope Francis has
cautioned and exhorted, lest we “descend into useless and unproductive discussions,” wediscern to act.
a. Note: This event is adjacent to (not an official part of) Synod 2021-2024. The Building
Bridges Initiative is an expression of synodality and an intentional embodiment on thepart of Roman Catholic institutions of higher education to respond to the call of PopeFrancis to be a synodal Church.
3) We make a Preferential Option with students, centering the experiences, perspectives,
wisdom, and voices of diverse participants. We also make a Preferential Option for those at
the peripheries and margins, those in liminal and interstitial spaces and moments, those withexperiences of unemployment, poverty, violence, and environmental contamination, andthose who are immersed in, study, and work for justice in these areas. This initiative seeks tolift up those who occupy the margins of society and rarely experience the freedom andaccess to the platform needed to offer their insights, vision, and hope.
4) We desire to hear everyone, though only some will talk directly to Pope Francis. The goal,
however, is for all students to be represented. Those students who do speak to the Holy
Father will share the wisdom of their group and convey the spirit of their group’s work,commentary, questions, and hopes.
5) The primary synodal encounter is not between students and the Pope, it is among thestudents themselves. This encounter is the foundation for the building of bridges. The
meeting and dialogue with Pope Francis can strengthen, affirm, and guide but is notfoundational in the same manner.