Pope Francis Will Speak at Harvard WorldMUN in 2016

UPDATED: October 5, 2015, at 10:15 p.m.

Pope Francis, who just days ago spoke at the United Nations General Assembly in New York during his historic visit to the United States, will address Harvard World Model United Nations delegates at their 2016 conference in Rome.

At the Harvard WorldMUN conference, which takes place in a different city every year and brings together more than 2,500 college students from across the world, delegates practice their diplomatic negotiation skills throughout a five-day event.

“[Pope Francis] is doing a lot in these areas that Harvard WorldMUN is very interested in,” said Joseph P. Hall ’16, the conference’s secretary-general. Specifically citing the pope’s action on the issues of climate change, economic inequality, and social justice, he added: “I don’t think the papacy has been this active in world affairs in a long, long time.”

According to Hall, reaching out to Pope Francis required “a lot of great work” on the part of the United Network, an association of Italian young professionals and students with whom Harvard WorldMUN partnered to organize the conference.

“We did not just send an email to [email protected],” he said, later adding that the organization’s staff was “floored” that the Pope accepted.

Harvard WorldMUN has hosted several influential speakers in the past, including the president of the Council of the European Union and the South Korean minister of unification. Still, Pope Francis is “the most high-profile speaker” that a MUN conference has ever had, according to Hall.

“I have enormous, enormous admiration for him,” he said. “[It is a] very exciting moment for the WorldMUN community.”