The International Council of Universities of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Spanish: ''Consejo Internacional de Universidades Santo Tomás de Aquino'') is a world-wide network of universities inspired by the thought of
St. Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas, OP (; it, Tommaso d'Aquino, lit=Thomas of Aquino; 1225 – 7 March 1274) was an Italian Dominican friar and priest who was an influential philosopher, theologian and jurist in the tradition of scholasticism; he is known ...
. Generally known as ICUSTA, it promotes academic exchange between students, professors and researchers. ICUSTA unites some 23 universities, with over 200,000 students on the five continents.
Mission
ICUSTA has as its main mission, to unite all the Catholic universities based on the intellectual, pedagogical and methodologic principles of
Thomism
Thomism is the philosophical and theological school that arose as a legacy of the work and thought of Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274), the Dominican philosopher, theologian, and Doctor of the Church. In philosophy, Aquinas' disputed questions ...
, the thought of Saint Thomas Aquinas, in order to create and to integrate university policies. This takes the form of increasing the interchange between students and professors, the development of joint plans between the various institutions and the sharing of information and programs.
History
ICUSTA grew out of a meeting in 1993 between representatives of the
University of St. Thomas (Houston) and
Universidad Santo Tomás, Chile. They were soon joined by the
Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, ''Angelicum'' in Rome, and the
Universidad Santo Tomás, Colombia. In 1995 in Rome, a second conference was held which was attended by 12 universities. There a permanent international organization was established with bylaws and protocols for the accomplishment of the ICUSTA mission.
In the successive conferences additional members were added. The later meetings were in
Manila
Manila ( , ; fil, Maynila, ), officially the City of Manila ( fil, Lungsod ng Maynila, ), is the capital of the Philippines, and its second-most populous city. It is highly urbanized and, as of 2019, was the world's most densely populate ...
, in 1997; in
Fredericton, New Brunswick,
Canada
Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...
, in 1999; in
Rome
, established_title = Founded
, established_date = 753 BC
, founder = King Romulus (legendary)
, image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg
, map_caption ...
, in 2001; in
Mar del Plata,
Argentina
Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...
, in 2003; and in
Barcelona
Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...
,
Spain
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
, in 2005, Australian Catholic University in Melbourne, Australia (2007), and Mary Immaculate College in Limerick, Ireland (2009).
ICUSTA returned to the
Pontifical and Royal University of Santo Tomás in the Philippines in 2011 to commemorate the 400th anniversary of the founding of this great university in 1611. In 2013, the conference will be held in France at the
Catholic Institute of Higher Studies - ICES
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...
. In 2015, ICUSTA hold its biennial meeting for the first time in Africa at the University of St. Thomas of Mozambique for the 12th Biennial.
Members
See also
*
List of institutions named after Thomas Aquinas
External links
ICUSTA official webpage
ICUSTA 2013 - 11th biennial conferenceabout the Barcelona Conference, in Spanish;
{{ICUSTA, state=expanded
Lists of Catholic universities and colleges