Movement of University Graduates of Catholic Action

GRADUATE MOVEMENT OF CATHOLIC ACTION. - It is one of the "national associations" of which Italian Catholic Action (v.) is composed.

I. ORGANIZATION

The organization of the Movement is on a national and diocesan basis, not parochial. It includes persons of both sexes holding a degree, or an equivalent title, from a civil or ecclesiastical Faculty, or men of letters or artists by profession, who intend to collaborate in the aims of Catholic Action. The Statute of Catholic Action sets the following special purposes for the Movement: 1) to complete the religious, intellectual and moral formation of the members; 2) to assist them in the faithful application of Christian principles in their individual professions; 3) to carry out works of apostolate among the educated classes; 4) to secure for Catholic Action the contribution of the particular competences of graduates.

The Movement of 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, of a suitable number of councillors elected by the central assembly and of the presidents of the "Professional Unions" (bodies promoted by the Movement of graduates in response to the particular needs of the individual professions and which also group together graduates not belonging to Catholic Action); and by a Central Assembly, composed of the members of the Central Council and of 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. The particular organizational arrangements are set out in an internal regulation. Since 1947 the Movement of 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 the FUCI was revived after its dissolution in 1931) held in Cagliari in September 1932, at a meeting of their own on the 5th, the graduates present expressed in a resolution a wish, which the president of the FUCI, Dr. Igino Righetti, was to transmit to Pius XI, to constitute "the organs necessary to provide graduates with spiritual and intellectual assistance adequate to their specific needs and to engage more effectively, in the general work of Catholic Action, the particular competences of the graduates themselves." The graduates voting were 84.

In an audience granted to those returning from the Congress, Pius XI approved the resolution concerning religious assistance to graduates and expressed - according to the official communiqué of the audience - "his will to bless in a most special way the other notable postulate: the organization, the cooperation of graduates, in the sense and spirit of Catholic Action and of University Catholic Action." The name "M. L. di A. C." had already appeared in Venice in a statute for a group of graduates, coming from the FUCI, drawn up in 1926. But the initiative had not lacked a certain opposition on the part of Catholic Action itself, worried that the few cultured elements would be withdrawn from the mass organizations. It was to Righetti's credit that he brought the problem to a new formulation: if the cultured elements were not numerous in those organizations, one had to recognize the necessity of acting in the field of culture in conformity with the needs and the mentality of cultured people.

After the pontifical approval, in 1933, the journal Studium passed to the graduates, and in the course of the "Social Week" held in Rome the tasks of the new Movement were illustrated by a report of Righetti; even more active was the participation in the "Week" of Padua in 1934. In 1935 the first graduates' Bulletin, attached to Studium, was published. In January 1936 the first National Convention was held in 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. Soon certain initiatives took shape which, alongside the journal Studium, remained fundamental for the activity of the Movement of Graduates, such as the national conventions and congresses and the "Summer Weeks of Religious Culture." The activity proved particularly difficult in the years 1938 and 1939 because of the arbitrariness, then more unbridled 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 Igino Righetti, promoter and president of the new body, died at the age of 33. The conventions, congresses and "Weeks of Religious Culture" continued until 1942; the latter in 1943 was replaced by a meeting 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 to the graduates what are the duties of the Catholic intelligence.

With the end of the war, the Professional Unions were grafted onto the trunk of the Movement; for university teachers too a Central Committee arose, which had the honor of the presidency of Gaetano De Sanctis. In 1946, with the new Statutes, the Movement became one of the branches of the A. C. I., alongside the traditional ones, abandoning the simple character of a secretariat. From January 1947 the official organ Coscienza replaced the Bollettino di Studium. A new recognition finally came to the Movement of Graduates from the Exhortation concerning the A. C. addressed to the Italian episcopate by Pius XII on 25 January 1950, in which the Pope expressed the desire that this Movement should not be lacking in any diocese.

III. METHOD AND ACTIVITY

The Movement offers its members the widest freedom of forms, provided that it is sustained by seriousness of method in pursuing them. In the religious field it sets up 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 field it organizes locally courses of religious culture, meetings for the examination of problems of interest to modern man and especially of professional morality, and "groups" of the Gospel. Of particular importance are the "Summer Weeks of Religious Culture," a national initiative which, after the one at Camaldoli in 1936, had reached seven in different places by 1951. In them, under the guidance of distinguished masters of theology, a fundamental theme of Catholic doctrine is proposed to the laity each year; the lectures then alternate with communications, in which the participants, on the basis of their own culture and professional experience, report on problems inherent in the teaching of the theologians. The day closes with a meditation dictated by a master of the spiritual life on a subject related to the general theme, so that the spiritual value of the doctrine studied may emerge.

Angelo Gaiotti