"Building bridges with others involves stepping outside yourself."

Last Thursday was held the opening of the FORUN 2026congress , which this year has as its degree scroll "Building bridges: the art of dialogue". The journalist Paloma García Ovejero was in charge of the inaugural session, in which she spoke about her experience as communications manager of an NGO, as well as the journalistic encounters she has had throughout her career.

Paloma holds a degree in Journalism from the Complutense University of Madrid and a Master's Degree in Basque programs of study from UNED, as well as programs of study in communication and management at New York University. She has worked as a journalist and correspondent in Spain, Belgium, UK, USA, Italy and the Vatican. In 2016 she was appointed deputy spokesperson and deputy director of the Vatican Press Office, becoming the first woman to hold that position.

After her time at the Holy See, which ended in 2019, she returned to journalism as a correspondent for the COPE group and TRECE in the United Kingdom. She is currently head of international press at Mary's Meals, an NGO dedicated to bringing school meals to more than 3 million children in 16 countries, including some of the world's poorest communities.

Paloma began her speech by explaining that "the core topic of dialogue is cordiality. Cordiality comes from the Latin: cor, cordis, which means heart. And opening your heart to others requires will and effort," she explained. For her, good dialogue requires effort and humility because it implies making yourself vulnerable, aware of your defects and shortcomings. When asked how to build bridges between two radical positions or how to dialogue with an antagonist, she added: "Your wound will financial aid you to understand the other's wound, and this is also the way to dialogue, so that even two opposing ideologies can be understood.

Paloma also made reference letter to some words of Pope Francis when he spoke of fleeing from self-referentiality. She stressed that it is important to be open to others and to take them into account: "Building bridges with others implies going out of yourself. You have to discover your talent in order to give it to others. We all have something to contribute. That which you overflow with belongs to the other, don't keep it for yourself," he said, emphasizing that the art of dialogue depends on each person, on how you show yourself to others, and that it is important to be true to yourself, that your talent interacts with your conscience.

"Dialogue also requires willingness, wanting to understand the other," he explained. In his opinion, to build a conversation it is necessary to avoid confrontation and talk as equals: "We are born and die equal, all with the same dignity. We are born and die equal, we all have the same dignity. Keeping that in mind, financial aid us to start talking to those who appear as enemies. And there is also forgiveness, which allows us to start from scratch". He also made reference letter to Pope Leo XIV's first apostolic exhortation, quoting this phrase: "Serving the poor is not a top-down gesture, but a meeting between equals.