Following the profound experience shared with young people during the 2026 Hackathon, the second phase of the “One Humanity, One Planet: Synodal Leadership” programme is now getting underway. It offers a six-month virtual training course that combines in-depth study and dialogue based on participants’ diverse backgrounds, the exchange of projects and experiences, and the development of initiatives with local impact and global reach.
It is aimed at people aged between 18 and 40 who have experience in political representation, public administration, social movements, political parties and advocacy; who are committed to social and political transformation or interested in strengthening their capacity for dialogue, cooperation and collective action; and who are willing to contribute both practically and intellectually throughout the programme.
Lasting six months, delivered 100% online, completely free of charge with an estimated commitment of three hours per week, the programme aims to reach 500 young people this year.
“We are living in a historical moment marked by deep geopolitical tensions, socio-environmental crises, increasing social fragmentation, and high levels of polarization,” say the organisers in their introduction. “These challenges call upon us: they reveal the limits of traditional governance models and the urgent need for new forms of leadership capable of generating dialogue and activating processes of collective action to promote peace and unity. In this context, we have chosen a synodal style of leadership: a leadership based on listening, participation, shared responsibility, and the construction of shared solutions. If you believe that politics can be a space to regenerate relationships, promote the common good, and care for humanity and the planet, this call is for you. We invite you to become part of an international space for training and cocreation of political initiatives together with other young leaders from different regions of the world, in order to rethink governance in the face of today’s challenges”.
The deadline for applications is Friday 19 June 2026.
“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.
