Movement of University Graduates of Catholic Action

MOVIMENTO LAUREATI DI AZIONE CATTOLICA. – It is one of the “national associations” of which Italian Catholic Action is composed (v.).

I. ORGANIZATION

The organization of the Movement is national and diocesan, not parochial. It comprises persons of either sex who hold a university degree, or equivalent qualification, from a civil or ecclesiastical Faculty, as well as professional writers or artists, who intend to collaborate in the aims of Catholic Action. The Statutes of Catholic Action establish the following special purposes for the Movement: 1) to complete the religious, intellectual, and moral formation of its members; 2) to assist them in the faithful application of Christian principles in their individual professions; 3) to carry out an apostolate among the educated classes; 4) to ensure for Catholic Action the contribution of the particular expertise of university graduates.

The Movement of University Graduates is governed by a central Presidency (a president and a vice-president, appointed for a three-year term by the Holy See, a secretary, and a treasurer), by a central Council composed of the members of the Presidency, an appropriate number of councillors elected by the central assembly, and the presidents of the « Professional Unions » (organizations promoted by the Movement of University Graduates in response to the particular needs of individual professions and also comprising graduates who do not belong to Catholic Action); and by a central Assembly, composed of the members of the central Council and the presidents of the diocesan groups. The Movement is assisted by a central ecclesiastical assistant, appointed by the Holy See; and, in each « group », by ecclesiastical assistants appointed by the individual bishops. Organizational details are established in internal regulations. Since 1947, the Movement of University Graduates has been part of the Moncement international des intellectuels catholiques, whose Secrétariat is based in Fribourg, Switzerland, and which is one of the two branches of Pax Romana.

II. HISTORY

During the National Congress of the University Associations of Catholic Action (in which FUCI lived on after its dissolution in 1931), held at Cagliari in September 1932, the graduates present, at a meeting of their own on the 5th, expressed in a resolution a request which the president of FUCI, Dr. Igino Righetti, was to transmit to Pius XI: to establish “the organs necessary to provide graduates with spiritual and intellectual assistance suited to their specific needs and to engage more effectively, in the general work of Catholic Action, the particular expertise of graduates themselves.” There were 84 graduates voting.

At an audience granted to those returning from the Congress, Pius XI approved the request concerning religious assistance for graduates and expressed — according to the official communiqué of the audience — “his very special intention of blessing the other important desideratum: the organization and cooperation of graduates, in the meaning and spirit of Catholic Action and university Catholic Action.” The designation “M. L. di A. C.” had already appeared in Venice in a statute for a group of graduates from FUCI, drawn up in 1926. But the initiative had encountered a certain degree of opposition from Catholic Action itself, which feared that the few educated members would be taken away from the mass organizations. Righetti’s merit was to have brought the issue to a new formulation: if educated people were not numerous in those organizations, it was necessary to recognize the need to work in the field of culture in accordance with the needs and mentality of educated people.

After pontifical approval, in 1933 the journal Studium passed to the graduates, and during the “Social Week” held in Rome the tasks of the new Movement were explained in a report by Righetti; participation in the “Week” at Padua in 1934 was even more active. In 1935 the first Bollettino-laureati, attached to Studium, was published. In January 1936 the first National Conference was held at Florence; on that occasion, Msgr. Adriano Bernareggi, coadjutor bishop of Bergamo and president of the Social Weeks of Italian Catholics, was appointed central assistant of the new Movement. In September of the same year a “Week of Religious Culture” was held at Camaldoli. Several initiatives soon took shape which, alongside the journal Studium, remained fundamental to the activity of the Movement of Graduates: national meetings and congresses and the “Summer Weeks of Religious Culture.” Activity in 1938 and 1939 proved particularly difficult because of the arbitrary conduct, then more unrestrained than ever, exercised by the Fascist government. In 1939 the Movement replaced the previous sheet attached to the journal with an official organ entitled Bollettino di Studium. On 17 March of that year, at the age of 33, Igino Righetti, promoter and president of the new organization, died. Meetings, congresses, and the “Weeks of Religious Culture” continued until 1942; in 1943 the latter was replaced by a gathering at Camaldoli of scholars of social problems, who laid the foundations of what later became the Social Code of Camaldoli. Meanwhile, on 20 April 1941, in a memorable audience, Pius XII had outlined for the graduates the duties of the Catholic intellect.

With the end of the war, Professional Unions were grafted onto the trunk of the Movement; a central committee was also established for university professors, which had the honor of being presided over by Gaetano De Sanctis. In 1946, with the new Statutes, the Movement became one of the branches of A. C. I., alongside the traditional ones, abandoning its simple character as a secretariat. From January 1947 the official organ Coscienza replaced Bollettino di Studium. The Movement of Graduates received a further acknowledgment in the Exhortation concerning A. C. addressed by Pius XII to the Italian episcopate on 25 January 1950, in which the Pope expressed his desire that this Movement should be present in every diocese.

III. METHOD AND ACTIVITIES

The Movement offers its members the broadest freedom of form, provided that this is supported by the seriousness of the method employed in pursuing them. In the religious sphere, it establishes certain activities, such as preparation for the great solemnities of Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, courses of spiritual exercises and retreats, and active participation in the liturgical life. In the cultural sphere, it organizes locally courses in religious culture, meetings for the examination of problems of interest to modern man, especially those concerning professional morality, and “groups” on the Gospel. Of particular importance are the “Summer Weeks of Religious Culture,” an initiative of a national character, which, following that of Camaldoli in 1936, had reached seven in different places by 1951. During them, under the guidance of distinguished teachers of theology, a fundamental theme of Catholic doctrine is presented to the laity each year; the lectures are then interspersed with presentations in which the participants, on the basis of their own culture and professional experience, report on problems related to the theologians’ teaching. The day concludes with a meditation given by a spiritual director on a subject related to the general theme, so that the spiritual value of the doctrine studied may emerge.