AICUF
AICUF
(AICUF) is an organization of Catholic university students. The movement was started in 1924, at St. Joseph’s College, Tiruchirappalli by Fr.Carty, SJ. Currently it operates in 15 states of India. The organization is affiliated to Pax- Romana, an international association of catholic professionals. The AICUF’s vision is “to sensitize students towards those at the margins and involve ourselves in the struggle for their basic rights by equipping ourselves physically, intellectually and spiritually while networking with NGOs and peoples’ movements”.
Vision:
“We were born in an unjust Society and we are determined not to leave it as we have found it”.
Mission:
To Help Students evolve a Spirituality that has humanization as it core, through involvement and reflection.
Objective:
To enable students to play a prophetic role in their communities through a living and critical understanding of their faith.
The Catholic Young Men Guild (CYMG), started by a group of college students with the guidance of Fr. P. Carty SJ at St. Joseph’s College, Trichy. It is an organization in the tradition of ‘Catholic Action’. The guild was based on the following principles:
- The spirit of Christian Brotherhood
- Informed catholic mind
- Application of catholic principles to social problems
It was then merged with the MCYL (Malabar Catholic Youth League) that was founded by Fr. Honore SJ in 1915. CYMG was renamed as CYMF (Catholic Young Men Federation). In 1937 CYMF grew in the southern part of India and got re-christened itself as SICUF. SICUF became AICUF in 1949 as a national level student movement and got recognized by Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India. AICUF publishes an alternative student monthly ‘THE RALLY’ in English which deals with the current educational, social, cultural and political scenario of the country.
Members:
The AICUF membership is open to university students who share the ideas of the movement as enshrined in the constitution. However, every member state has the autonomy to decide on its own policy regarding membership. Every member is entitled to participate in all the decision-making activities of the unit. However, a member can be selected as an office-bearer only on completion of one year in the AICUF, except in the case of newly formed units.