“We should have the courage to reach out to one another, the courage to come together.
This is not simply a motto for the United World Week, but a choice we all make every day. And if we do so, it becomes a path to peace.”
Margaret Karram and Roberto Almada, President and Co-President of the Focolare Movement, through a brief chat, encourage us to approach dialogue with determination and to choose it in a practical way in our daily lives.
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Actions, initiatives, activities and world events to generate a network capable of living and testifying that universal brotherhood is really possible. This is the driving force behind United World Week (UWW). Supported by the United World Project together with the Focolare Movement and Youth for a United World (Y4UW), this global action takes place every year from 1st -7th May, crossing continents, oceans and becomes a concrete opportunity to transform values such as unity and peace into shared experiences.
People of different cultures, ages and backgrounds, each in their own city and community, embrace this invitation with the aim of creating authentic meeting spaces, networking energies, ideas and testimonies capable of generating real change.
This year’s edition proposes a strong and timely theme: #ChooseToDialogue. In a world marked by conflicts and growing divisions, it becomes even more urgent and meaningful to rediscover the value of encounter, listening and mutual understanding. Choosing “Dialogue” with courage today means opposing the logic of conflict and opening paths of peace; overcoming distances and transforming differences into opportunities for unity. The proposal for this UWW? A daily journey that invites you to experience this choice in various areas:
• May 1st – Interculturality & Dialogue
• May 2 – Art & Social Engagement
• 3 May – Health, Sport and Ecology
• May 4 – Economy and Work + Education and Research
• May 5 – Communication and Media
• May 6 – Active Citizenship and Politics
• May 7 – Peace & Human Rights
Various methods and proposals are available to make this happen, from the Time-out, an invitation to a shared moment of silence and prayer that unites everyone in asking for the gift of peace, to the Inspiration Box, a resource full of ideas and suggestions to be put into practice during the week.
Don’t miss:
Peace Got Talent – Living Peace, the broadcast of Living Peace International from 14:00 (GMT+1, Rome time) on Saturday, 2nd May on YouTube (@ unitedworldproject and @livingpeaceinternational), offering inspiration through the talents and messages of unity and peace shared by young people worldwide.
Run4Unity: the global relay for peace. At noon in each time zone, young people “pass the baton” to the next country, creating a worldwide wave of unity that circles the planet. Many countries are already organising their stages as part of this global race, such as Brazil, Venezuela, Paraguay, Argentina, Uganda, Burundi, New Caledonia, Italy and Croatia, among others.
– May Day Loppiano (Italy). From 1st-3rd May, the Focolare international town near Florence will host the 1st May event in Loppiano, the Festival of Fraternity dedicated to young people. ROOTS, discovering what unites us, is the title of the event: three days of meetings, stories, reflections, workshops, exhibitions, educational and sports activities focussed on the theme of roots and cultural diversity. An invitation to go deep, to rediscover one’s cultural and spiritual origins as a starting point for encountering others.
– Also in Portugal, at the Focolare’s little town “Rainbow” in Abrigada (Alenquer), 1st May will be an occasion for celebration and commitment to building a better world. Promoted by Youth for a United World, the event, with moments of sharing and workshops, will bring together people from all over the country and guests from different continents who believe that brotherhood is not just a dream but a reality that is built day after day, with concrete gestures of solidarity, dialogue and hope. The title of the event: “Connect. Do you have the courage to build bridges?”
How to organize events, share stories and join United World Week 2026?
From 26th January to 1st February 2026, Rome hosted 100 young political leaders from 36 countries for the conclusion of the first year of the two-year political formation programme “One Humanity, One Planet: Synodal Leadership”—a challenge to develop a different style of governance, starting from the paradigm of fraternity.
Following an online pathway of work in 16 learning communities, they came together for a political hackathon—literally a creative and collaborative marathon—focused on what most deeply wounds the global social fabric today: corruption, inequality, widespread violence, unethical digital transition, the ecological emergency, and declining civic participation. The programme, promoted by the Political Movement for Unity and the NGO, New Humanity, together with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, aims to restore an active role in decision-making processes, from the local to the global level, to young people. Giovanna Maroccolo – Italy (Italian)
Watch the video with interviews with young people from different countries. Turn on subtitles and then choose the language you want.
“I encourage you to work together in studying forms of participation that allow all citizens … Upon this foundation, it becomes possible to build that universal fraternity which is already taking shape among you young people, a sign of a new era.”
With these words, Pope Leo did not simply encourage the one hundred young political leaders gathered in Rome: he “recognized” their mission. He saw in them what traditional politics too often struggles to see: that the future will be born from inclusive processes, not form confrontations; from living communities, not from rigid structures; from a brotherhood that is not a naive sentiment but a concrete political category.
The one hundred from 36 countries participated in an audience with the Pope on 31st January. They were in Rome for the final week of the first year of the multi-year political school “One Humanity, One Planet”. Seven days that confirmed for them that fraternity is not an ideal: it is already a method, a lifestyle and a daily practice. They came from an online pathway of work in 16 learning communities, they came together for a political hackathon – literally a creative and collaborative marathon – dedicated to what most deeply wounds the global social fabric today: corruption, inequalities, widespread violence, unethical digital transition, the ecological emergency and declining civic participation. The programme, promoted by the Politics for Unity Movement and the NGO New Humanity with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, aims to give young people an active role in decision-making processes, from local to global.
The Holy Father offered a vision that was as demanding as it was liberating. He asked the young people to look at the world through the lens of listening and collaboration between different cultures and faiths; to seek peace not as an abstract concept, but as a daily choice in the places where they live, study and work; to build policies capable of involving all citizens, men and women, within the institutions. He recalled that peace is a gift, a covenant and a promise all at once and that no society can call itself just if it continues to exclude the weak, ignore the poor and remain indifferent to refugees and victims of violence.
Jesús Morán – Pasquale FerraraEmilce CudaJavier Baquero – Margaret Karram
When she met the young people, the President of the Focolare, Margaret Karram spoke about a new political culture, based on fraternity, in the wake of what Chiara Lubich, founder of the Focolare, had taught. She encouraged them to “live” a form of leadership that places the collective “We” at the centre, that generates trust and seeks convergence in diversity. Not a method for a few, but an approach that can be exported everywhere: in institutions, in parties, in social movements and in civil society.
The testimonies of the participants powerfully confirmed this. Cristian, from Argentina, said: “It is the most important experience of universal fraternity in my life… every person, with their language, their dances and their charism, created the symphony of global harmony”. For Joanna, from Poland, resident in Italy, the experience was “a stimulus to concrete commitment”, fuelled by workshops, good practices and meetings with Italian and Korean parliamentarians. Zé Gustavo, from Brazil, spoke of an “intense and challenging experience”, capable of rekindling an adult, clear-eyed hope, born not from naivety but from the scars of lived politics. And Uziel, from Mexico, summed everything up in a simple and true phrase: “This is true globality”.
Now the school enters its second phase, involving 600 young people from the five continents to continue sharing visions, methods and actions with real impact.
For a week, Rome was a living laboratory of what politics could become again: a generative place; a training ground for fraternity; and a space where differences cease to be walls but become the raw material of the future. It was a concrete and credible testimony that another politics is not only possible, but has already begun.
The concluding residential week of the first year of the two-year political action training programme will be held from 26th January-1st February 2026. The programme is promoted by the New Humanity NGO of the Focolare Movement in collaboration with the Pontifical Commission for Latin America
L’evento, con la metodologia dell’Hackathon, vedrà la partecipazione di 100 giovani leader dei cinque continenti, impegnati nei propri Paesi in ambito politico e sociale, di diverse culture e convinzioni politiche. Dopo mesi di intenso lavoro online, i giovani si ritroveranno a Roma in presenza per tradurre il percorso di apprendimento, che hanno condiviso da remoto, in proposte di incidenza politica: la sfida che dovranno affrontare è quella di ideare processi e strumenti idonei ad affrontare i punti di crisi che emergono nell’esercizio del potere politico, nelle relazioni e nelle istituzioni politiche.
Great attention will be paid to the participatory dimension of public policies, leading to the definition of shared pathways that will be assessed and presented during an evening open to the public, to young people and interested politicians.
“Oggi ci troviamo di fronte a problemi gravissimi – spiega Javier Baquero, giovane politico colombiano, presidente Movimento politico per l’unità/Mppu internazionale -. Ciò che va coltivata è una cultura politica che guardi all’umanità che è una e al pianeta come casa comune. A nostro parere, c’è un diverso paradigma che dobbiamo esplorare e sperimentare insieme, imparando a comporre le nostre diverse visioni a partire da alcuni valori universali”.
Argia Albanese, President of MPPU Italy agreed, “A meaningful response to the needs of our peoples cannot rely solely on the reform of institutions or from a purely managerial approach, which often seems devoid of democratic content. Our starting point must continue to be the social and community bond rooted in universal fraternity and sisterhood.”
The week concludes the interdisciplinary training focused on integral ecology, civil economy, collaborative governance and generative communication, which began in May 2025 with the support of experts from various academic institutions: Rotterdam School of Management (Netherlands), Universidade de Coimbra (Portugal), Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina), Georgetown University (Washington DC), University of the Philippines, Universidade de Ribeirão Preto (Brazil), Escuela Superior de Administración Pública Bogotá (Colombia), University of Dschang (Cameroon), Sophia University Institute (Italy).
The week in Rome includes:
Two Hackathon days, in which the participants, divided into language groups, will seek solutions to collective problems.
Dialogues with experts and policy makers to connect reflection and proposals within a broad international framework.
A public meeting to present the Hackathon outcomes and to engage with politicians active at various levels and from different perspectives.
Visits and workshop activities in Rome at research and social engagement centres (which support migrants, women’s rights, climate justice, unemployment and disarmament).
Workshops to set up the global network for the second year and its governance.
There will be a much-anticipated audience with Pope Leo XIV in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday, 31st January. Representatives of the MPPU Centres who will come to Rome for the occasion will also participate and will have the opportunity to evaluate the results of the experience with the participants and to plan the next steps.
It is an intensive workshop designed to develop solutions to collective problems. The idea comes from the world of digital innovation, applying the logic of “doing together and doing it quickly” to the civic sphere.
By integrating political, administrative, economic, communication, social and technological skills, the process unfolds in several phases: analysis of problems and needs, definition of priorities and stakeholders, development of operational proposals and tools for public action.
Within the framework of the themes explored throughout the year, participants will address challenges such as corruption, oligarchic governance, media monopolies, polarization, crisis of representation and electoral abstention.
In the time available, with the support of the coaches, each group will move from problem identification to strategic proposal, building problem maps, analysing available data and designing implementable ideas. At the end, the groups will present their solutions: prototypes of intervention plans, political initiatives and cultural impact projects, participatory models and communication methods and strategies.
The added value lies not only in the ideas developed, but also in the method, which demonstrated how solutions to public problems can be co-designed with creativity and rigour, enhancing and integrating different perspectives, in the search for effective solutions to increase the quality and values of a way of living politics at the service of the unity of the human family.
“In the midst of the darkness we are living through today in Venezuela, we remember that we are not alone. Under the roar of the bombs in 1943, Chiara Lubich discovered that there is an Ideal that nothing and no one can destroy: God loves us immensely.”
This is how the “Message of hope and unity” begins. It was shared on the evening of 5th January by the Venezuelan Gen (the young people who adhere to the spirituality of the Focolare Movement), both those who live in Venezuela and those in other parts of the world. They met online to pray and to share how each one is living this critical time for the whole population, never forgetting the choice to love everyone. There was a strong sense of the need to face together what they described as a “sacred” time: “we are not alone because we are supported by the prayer of all those who, from Venezuela and from all over the world, are asking for Peace.”
The message continues:
“Today fear wants to paralyze us, but the response is not hatred, rather unity. Chiara taught us that wheneverything collapses, the only thing that remains is Love. If we become “one”, if we look after one another and place God as our rock, fear loses its power.
Let’s not be afraid. Let’s make this moment an opportunity to:
have full trust that God is our Father and does not abandon us, even when the outlook is difficult;
become “one”: may the suffering of others be our own. Let’s help one another, let’s share the little or the much that we have and break down the walls of indifference;
be builders of peace: let our weapon be solidarity.
If we remain united, Jesus is among us and wherever He is, light ultimately overcomes darkness.
