SUPPORT from Catholic university societies has boosted the flagging International Movement of Catholic Students Australia.
Nicholas Rynne, the movement’s national convener and representative from the Newman Society at the University of Queensland, said the movement recently held a meeting in Sydney to decide whether it was worth keeping.
‘There had been a decline in numbers since the 1970s and last year we saw participants from NSW and Queensland only,’ he said.
‘Before the meeting I got on the phone to ring around the nation and found a variety of different groups that wanted to take part.’
A favourable response came from campus groups across the country.
These included the Catholic Community at the University of Adelaide, the St Thomas More Society at the University of Melbourne and the Catholic Truth Society at the University of Notre Dame in Fremantle.
Responses also came from the Catholic Students Society at the Queensland University of Technology, some individuals from Griffith University, the Society of St Peter at the University of Sydney and the Faith and Reason Society at the University of NSW.
Representatives from most of the groups attended the Sydney meeting, and within a day, the size of the movement had doubled.
‘We decided that the movement was worth keeping and we are now in the process of planning the conference some time around Easter in Sydney,’ said Nicholas.
‘All the groups that attended the meeting have become affiliated with the movement and the members can now take up roles within it.’
The topic for the Easter conference will be ‘The Incarnation and the University’.
The movement is a fantastic opportunity for Catholic students to get together to discuss their faith and social justice and to discuss that relationship in the context of what it is to be a student,’ said Nicholas.
