MAESTRI CATTOLICI. - The Italian Catholic teachers' organization is based on two flourishing associations: the Movimento maestri di Azione Cattolica and the Associazione Italiana M. C., each with its own statutes and its own organizational life, complementary to one another, that is, the one functioning for the sake of the other: a connection and accord that guarantee their vitality and united action.
In 1900 the first organization of teachers came into being in Italy, called the "Unione magistrale nazionale," with the aim of raising the fortunes of national education and protecting the economic and legal conditions of teachers. The union, which gathered general adherence, guaranteed in its statutes absolute political and religious neutrality and full respect for all convictions. Soon, however, contrary to its statutes, it took a precise position in favor of the secular school. Catholics, forced to leave it as a matter of dignity, freedom and conscience, in 1906 founded the Associazione magistrale italiana "Nicolò Tommaseo" with the aim of reconciling the due protection of teachers' interests with the advancement of instruction and popular education on the basis of Christian principles. The "Tommaseo" had a flourishing life until the moment when the Fascist regime suppressed all professional and category associations, and it had to suspend its activity outright in 1929. The Catholic teachers joined the "Maestri di Azione Cattolica" section.
This section, having set itself the religious and moral formation of teachers themselves for the apostolate in the school, succeeded in keeping united, through a regular though necessarily limited activity, several thousand teachers, constant in pursuing, despite difficulties, the ideal of an educational mission inspired by the doctrine of truth. The importance and effectiveness of this section were revealed in the years 1944-45 when, with the fall of the Fascist regime, the urgent necessity emerged of a great teachers' association that would gather up the traditions of the "Tommaseo" and, organizing itself, formulate a program in accordance with changed needs. The members of the section called their colleagues together; the diocesan organizational network expanded, and thus arose the Associazione Italiana M. C., to which Pius XII on 4 Nov. 1945 pointed out as its specific purpose: "to procure and promote the perfect formation of the teacher, to furnish him with the means to fulfill in the best possible way his laborious but great and noble mission." Unitary trade-unionism and democratic practice gave a precise physiognomy to the new professional association, openly inspired by Catholic principles, requiring simple adherence to those principles but without binding the political opinion of individual members: a pre-union and mass association. In Sept. 1946 the supreme pontiff Pius XII gave the new statutes to Italian Catholic Action. In consideration of the absolute necessity of an apostolic nucleus that constitutes the permanent framework of a mass association (the experience of the Maestri section had been revealing) and of the necessary specific formation for the apostolate, in regard to elements as influential on social life as teachers, these statutes provided, alongside the large organizations already existing, a new association of Catholic Action (no longer a section), namely the "Movimento Maestri di Azione Cattolica." The teachers' organization thus received its definitive structure: on the one hand the great mass association, professional and pre-union, requiring simple adherence to Catholic principles; on the other a movement of animators on a par with the other associations of Catholic Action, which committed them to a special and direct collaboration with the hierarchical apostolate of the Church. Teachers who, as militants, feel called to a more demanding apostolic activity, enroll in the "Movimento di Azione Cattolica" and receive its specific formation; but the movement's own statutes direct them all to the "Associazione Italiana M.C." (A.I.M.C.), where among colleagues and with colleagues they carry out all external activity. The A.I.M.C. is responsible for the vast and multiform professional action, and for social affirmation and outreach. Catholic teachers have had the majority in all democratic contests for the elective bodies of the specific sector (Sindacato magistrale, third section of the Consiglio superiore della pubblica istruzione, Ente nazionale assistenza magistrale), reaching a percentage of 80% of voters.
The organization of the Movimento Maestri di A. C. is diocesan and is articulated into groups in the diocesan center and into nuclei in smaller centers; the appointments of presidents and vice presidents are the responsibility of the ecclesiastical authority, as for the other branches of Catholic Action. The principal initiatives of the Movimento Maestri are the formation courses and the national, regional and diocesan schools of the apostolate. The organ of the Movement is the monthly Lettera fraterna, completed by the Sussidiario for leaders and by La Via for those completing their diplomas at the Istituto Magistrale. The organization of the A.I.M.C. is diocesan with provincial coordination and is articulated into local sections answerable to the diocesan, provincial and national councils. The governing bodies are elected by the members. The national Congress elects the national Council every three years. Important national and peripheral activities and initiatives of the A.I.M.C. are the Centro studi, the Segretariato di Assistenza magistrale, the Ufficio presindacale, the Ufficio educazione popolare with its center of didactic technique, the by now three thousand schools for illiterate and semi-illiterate adults scattered throughout Italy and the traveling chair of popular culture, the specific activities for headmasters and inspectors, for young teachers, for teachers of the Scuola materna, the publishing house Il Maestro, the monthly magazine for educators, L'indice d'oro, which deals with art and literature for children, and the Villa "Il Maestro," which hosts the Association's conferences and meetings and teachers passing through Rome.
The A.I.M.C. publishes the monthly Il Maestro for all members, the bimonthly Dirigenti A.I.M.C. for leaders, and the monthly Notiziario sindacale.
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Maria Badaloni