The students thank the Pope for his five years of service as Pontiff and for inspiring global dialogue between diverse cultures and faiths. They express gratitude for his encouragement of young people and openness to discussion. While some criticize the Church, the students stand with the Pope and appreciate the priests who selflessly serve their communities. In closing, they congratulate the Pope and ask for his blessing on their studies and relationships.

1. Letter to the Pope
by participants of the
43rd
International
University Congress
UNIV,
on the theme “Can Christianity
Inspire a Global Culture?” Holy Father,
We are university students from 30
different countries. We come from
diverse cultures, not all of which are
Catholic or Christian; but we wish to
write the Pope to express gratitude
which we all share in common.

2. Letter to the Pope by students with occacion of the interational congress UNIV 2010 (Rome, Easter 2010) 2
Thank you, Holy Father, for these To these sowers of diffidence we wish to
five years of your Pontificate, in a say with clarity that we do not accept
commission of service and search for the their ideology. We hold respect for
truth. Thank you for your gatherings them, but we demand from them
with young people: We thank you in the respect for our faith and the recognition
name of millions of young men and of the right that we have to live as
women who have been able to hear your Christians in a pluralist society.
words in Cologne, Krakow, Sao Paolo,
Loreto, New York, Sydney, Paris, Each one of us, including those who
Yaoundé, Luanda, Prague… Thank you do not have the gift of faith, know in a
for your untiring service and for your personal way countless priests,
example of openness and dialogue which university chaplains, parish priests,
you constantly offer us, to search out spiritual directors and confessors. We
the truth of things. know them first hand, not by way of
newspapers, and we are grateful to
Thank you for having invoked this them for their constant presence,
Year of the Priest for the Church and for availability, self-sacrifice, and openness
the world. We notice that many have to everyone. To all of them, and above
taken advantage of some episodes that all to the Pope, we wish to say: thank
are painful for the Church and for the you!
Pope, to spread doubts and suspicion.

3. Letter to the Pope by students with occacion of the interational congress UNIV 2010 (Rome, Easter 2010) 3
Thank you, your Holiness, for the Please accept our thanks and our
courage with which you invite the most affectionate congratulations for
faithful of the Church to follow Christ these first five years as the Vicar of
with a total gift of self, without “allowing Christ!
oneself to be intimidated by the
bickering of reigning opinions”. We for more details see:
http://www.univforum.org/detalle_noticia.php?id_not=48&idi=2&sec=39
thank God that He has given his flock a
Shepherd that from the very first
moment has declared the Church as
young and alive as ever.
Also in the name of thousands of our
colleagues, we wish to express that we
are with you, Holy Father, through our
prayer, our affections, and our daily
work. We ask you to bless our studies,
our families, and the friendships we form
with God and with others, in the
university, in our volunteer work, our
sports and in our rest.