2006 — ACU Diamond Jubilee Year
By Kyle Shinseki @ 8:29 PM :: 325 Views
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The Agrupación Católica Universitaria marks this year the 75th anniversary of its foundation. The ACU was started by a group of 1st Year University of Havana students under the direction of a Spanish Jesuit Priest, Fr. Felipe Rey de Castro. The foundation and subsequent history of the ACU reveals the perseverance of its members and the Grace of God. Starting the ACU required early ACU members to convince the Jesuits to return Fr. Rey de Castro back to Cuba and to assign him to lead this activity. Later, the ACU survived many critical events including the Cuban revolution, the Bay of Pigs Invasion, and the exile and dispersion of its members in the early 1960s. Today the ACU has active chapters in 6 cities, owns the Juan Pablo II Retreat House in Miami where Spiritual Exercises are held on a weekly basis, and owns the Jesús Maestro Residence in Miami housing university students.

The ACU will celebrate its Diamond Jubilee with a number of special activities this year. Two of the special events planned for the Jubilee celebration are a pilgrimage to the Holy Land and a weekend of celebratory activities in Miami during December.

ACU Director Fr. Amando Llorente, SJ, and Assistant Director Fr. Nelson García, SJ, will lead a pilgrimage to The Holy Land departing at the end of May. This will not be purely a sightseeing trip but an opportunity to meditate the Life of Christ in His homeland in the style of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola.

The Diamond Jubilee celebration concludes in Miami in early December with two major events. The first will be a solemn mass concelebrated by a number of agrupado priests - we have invited the newly minted agrupado Cardinal, Sean O'Malley of Boston, to be the principal celebrant. During the mass we will witness the consecration of new congregants from the various chapter houses of the ACU. And, as is our custom, we will follow the spiritual celebration with a dinner party the next day on the grounds of the ACU Headquarters in Miami. The mass and dinner party celebration will be open to agrupados, family and friends and is by invitation only.

While it is important to celebrate the ACU's Diamond Jubilee, we will also have the opportunity during the year to reflect on how to continue to fulfill the ACU mission in the future years. Our number one activity is the recruitment and formation of new members, students and professional men, whose vocation is to live the Christian life according to the principles of the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius. The ACU will continue to sponsor Spiritual Exercises - more than 30 a year in our Juan Pablo II Retreat House and at the other chapter houses. We will, of course, continue our apostolic work that ranges from radio programs in Miami and Orlando, Prison Ministry in Miami, Assistance to the Poor in Atlanta, Puerto Rico, and other chapters houses, etc. One major focus of the ACU in the near future will be the operation of the Jesús Maestro Residence in Miami, an abode for young men to reside in as they complete their professional formation and learn about the ACU as a Christian vocation.