about us

ACMICA'S IDENTITY

ACMICA is a movement of Catholic intellectuals and professionals inspired by the life of Christ and called to fulfil their vocation and mission through their professions as well as in their intellectual commitments to Church, society and polity.

ACMICA is engaged in the process of critical analysis, careful reflection and just action. It is a movement for solidarity and dialogue and is concerned with issues of human rights, social equity and environmental justice.

It is affiliated with ICMICA, one of the two autonomous organisations of Pax Romana, which is a lay apostolate movement recognised by the Holy See and has consultative status with ECOSOC and UNESCO.

ACMICA works to achieve its objectives through its global network and in partnership with other social movements.

METHODOLOGY

ACMICA links liturgy, theological reflection and socio-political analysis with practical community development and political action in a never ending cycle of see-judge-act. This defining method is at the core of our activities and is known as the “circle of praxis”. The method involves 4 “moments”:

• See: the moment of touching the reality through objective observations and subjective feelings
• Analyse: the moment of asking questions of time, structures and values and their interconnections in order to understand the deeper reality
• Reflect: the moment of discerning the meaning of the situation in view of our shared values, our faith commitments, the teaching of our scriptures and church and the norms of our communities
• Act: the moment of planning concrete actions, taking the steps necessary, and evaluating the results

HISTORY OF THE INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT

The International Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (ICMICA) was founded in April 1947 at its first Plenary Assembly held in Rome, Italy. However its historical roots can be traced back to 1921 when Pax Romana was created as an international body of Catholic students with a secretariat in Fribourg, Switzerland. Since 1947 when the two movements, ICMICA and the International Movement of Catholic Students (IMCS) were established, they have been operating independently through their respective international secretariats and regional structures while sharing the common name Pax Romana and sharing a common international representation at the United Nations and UNESCO.

Since its beginning as a separate movement, ICMICA has developed in many ways into a truly international body. With the addition of Australia, it is now represented in all continents with more than 50 member federations throughout the world.

ICMICA IN AUSTRALIA

Historically, the graduate movement in Australia has always been closely linked with its tertiary counterpart. Australia's story began in 1944 with the founding of the University Catholic Federation of Australia (UCFA) at the University of Sydney under the instigation of Rosemary Goldie (who was to become the first woman ever to hold an official post of authority in the Roman Curia). This movement affiliated with Pax Romana in 1961 and changed its name shortly thereafter to the Tertiary Catholic Federation of Australia (TCFA). By this time the graduate movement diminished as a force and became localised. In Sydney the Newman Association continued its link with Pax Romana but did not play any part in the TCFA. This last ICMICA graduate movement died out by the late 1970s.

In early 2002, instigated by former members of IMCS and TCFA, a faith community based on the ICMICA pedagogy was revived under the new name of the Australian Catholic Movement for Intellectual and Cultural Affairs (ACMICA).

ACMICA was launched by way of a conference in April 2002 at the University of Technology, Sydney. A provisional committee was established by this conference with the mandate of reactivating the movement's affiliation with Pax Romana and establishing the necessary institutional networks and structures for a viable national movement.

International affiliation was achieved in July 2002 by resolution of the 89th Pax Romana-ICMICA International Council in Lima, Peru. The final mandate was achieved in June 2003 with the development and adoption of a national structure, national constitution, strategic plan and the election of the first coordination committee.

AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE

We invite expressions of interest in individual membership, group affiliation or coalition building.

Your support of this movement will help secure its place once again as a critical and transformative force in the Australian Church, polity and society.

Please contact us for more information.