Italian Catholic Federation of University Students

The Italian Catholic Federation of University Students[1] (Italian: Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana, FUCI) is a federation of groups representing Roman Catholic university students in Italy.[2]

History

On December 8, 1889, it was founded in Rome the Saint Sebastian Circle which published the La Vita Nova, a university cultural journal edited by Romolo Murri.[3] The circle tested a primitive form of coordination between some independent Catholic student groups who were active in the Italian universities. A column stated the program of the future FUCI, claiming the willingness to rebuild sciences and social life, to reconstruct the human community, but under the laws of the inspiring faith and under the bonds of the industrious Christian charity.[4]

The FUCI was founded during the 14th Italian Roman Catholics national congress which the Opera dei Congressi organized from the 1st to the 4th September 1896 in Fiesole. Since its beginning the FUCI was involved in Italian political life and particularly engaged in the abolition of the Non Expedit ban of Roman Catholics, which had come into force since the Constitution of the Kingdom of Italy in 1861.

In 1921 the FUCI promoted the institution of the MIEC PAX Romana, which was one of the first supranational experiences of the Roman Catholic laity.[5] In 1925 the future Pope Paul VI succeeded Gian Domenico Pini as spiritual director, while the barrister Igino RIghetti was elected president of the association. Montini remained in charge from 1925 up to 1933.[6]

After the Matteotti homicide in June 1924, the National Fascist Party founded its student and youth organization under the name of Fascist Universitarian Groups. At the same time, all the existing universitarian student organizations were suppressed by law, providing a unique exception for the FUCI.[7]

At the end of the Second World War, 35 FUCI members were elected within the 1946 Constituent Assembly of Italy.[8] During the 1960s some of the FUCI exponents and alumni were actively involved in the Second Vatican Council[9] whose pastoral suggestions were widely adopted across the following decades.

Notable members

See also

References
  1. "Message of John Paul II to the Italian Catholic Federation of University Students". The Vatican. 26 April 2002. Retrieved 7 November 2011.
  2. Fanello, Gabriella Marcucci (1971). Storia della FUCI (in Italian). Rome: Stadium.
  3. "Dalle origini agli Statuti del 1923" [From the origins to the statutes approved in 1923] (in Italian). p. 6. Archived from the original on December 8, 2016. Retrieved May 10, 2021 – via archive.is. {{cite web}}: External link in |via= (help)
  4. Rodolfo Murri; Francesco Maria Cecchini (1971). La vita nova (1895-1896) (in Italian). Edizioni di storia e letteratura. ISBN 9788884985965. OCLC 917811643. (p. 74).
  5. "Discours du Pape PAUL VI aux Participants au Congrès Mondial de "Pax Romana"" [Speech of Pope Paul VI to the participants of the Pax Romana Global Congress] (in French). July 22, 1971. Archived from the original on October 28, 2020. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  6. McCauliff, Catherine M. A. (April 19, 2011). "Jacques Maritain's Embrace of Religious Pluralism and the Declaration on Religious Freedom" (PDF). Seton Hall Law Review. Seton Hall University, School of Law. 41 (2): 597. ISSN 0586-5964. OCLC 729618115. Retrieved May 10, 2021 – via Paperity. {{cite journal}}: External link in |via= (help)
  7. Connelly, John; Grüttner, Michael (2005). "Italian Universities under Fascism". Universities under dictatorship (pdf). The Pennsylvania University State University Press. p. 54. ISBN 0-271-02695-2. LCCN 2004028124. OCLC 925989737. Retrieved May 10, 2021. Only the University Federation of Italian Catholics (FUCI) survived, in part because of its willingness ti collaborate with the GUFS in Fascist anti-Masonic campaigns.
  8. Dagnino, Jorge (March 1, 2017). Faith and Fascism: Catholic Intellectuals in Italy, 1925–43. Histories of the sacred and the secular 1700-2000. Springer. p. 9. doi:10.1057/978-1-137-44894-1. ISBN 978-1-137-44894-1. OCLC 934193691. Retrieved May 10, 2021.
  9. Ahern, Kevin; Malano, Christopher Derige (September 20, 2018). God's Quad: Small Faith Communities on Campus and Beyond. Orbis Books. p. 51. ISBN 9781608337538. OCLC 1037886577.
  10. John Peter Pham (November 30, 2004). Heirs of the Fisherman: Behind the Scenes of Papal Death and Succession. Oxford University Press. p. 232. ISBN 9780195346350. LCCN 2004009726. OCLC 1048618007.
  11. "Giorgio La Pira: una straordinaria figura di laico cristiano" (in Italian). Archived from the original on April 4, 2019.
  12. "Il compromesso tra la fede e il mondo di Giorgio La Pira". Corrispondenza Romana (in Italian). July 1, 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.