Associazione Guide e Scouts Cattolici Italiani | |||
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Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts | |||
Headquarters | Piazza P. Paoli, 18 00186 Rome |
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Country | Italy | ||
Founded | 1974 | ||
Membership | 179,761 (2015) | ||
Chief Scout | Ferri Cormio (Apulia) |
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Chief Guide |
Donatella Mela (Liguria) |
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Presidents of the National Committee |
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Ecclesiastical Assistant |
Davide Brasca B. (Lombardy) |
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Website www.agesci.it |
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The Associazione Guide e Scouts Cattolici Italiani (Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts, AGESCI) is a Catholic Scouting and Guiding association in Italy. AGESCI is coeducational and has 179,761 members, including 32,681 leaders (of which 1,862 priests), 1,953 groups and 6,306 units, making it the country's largest Scout association.
AGESCI was formed in 1974 upon the merger of the Associazione Scouts Cattolici Italiani (ASCI, founded in 1916) and the Associazione Guide Italiane (AGI, founded in 1943). Some ASCI and AGI leaders, who had disagreed with the merger (and, above all, opposed the principle of coeducation) and had refused to join AGESCI, formed the Associazione Italiana Guide e Scouts d'Europa Cattolici (AIGSEC or Scouts d'Europa) in 1976, along with disgruntled members of the early AGESCI.
Since 1986, AGESCI has formed, along with the 12,000-strong non-denominational Corpo Nazionale Giovani Esploratori ed Esploratrici Italiani (CNGEI), the Italian Scout Federation (FIS), Italy's national member of the World Organization of the Scout Movement (WOSM) and the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS).
Affiliated to AGESCI are the Südtiroler Pfadfinderschaft (SP), the Catholic association of the German-speaking minority in South Tyrol, and the Slovenska Zamejska Skavtska Organizacija (SZSO) serving Slovenes in Friuli-Venezia Giulia.