The ''Associazione Scouts Cattolici Italiani'' (Association of Italian Catholic Scouts, ASCI) was a

Catholic 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 ...

Scouting Scouting, also known as the Scout Movement, is a worldwide youth Social movement, movement employing the Scout method, a program of informal education with an emphasis on practical outdoor activities, including camping, woodcraft, aquatics, hik ...

association active in

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

from 1916 to 1974, while being suspended under

Fascism Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and th ...

. In 1974, after a long debate, ASCI was merged with the ''

Associazione Guide Italiane The ''Associazione Guide Italiane'' (Association of Italian Guides, AGI) was a Catholic Girl Scouting association active in Italy, founded in 1943. In 1974, AGI merged with the '' Associazione Scouts Cattolici Italiani'' (ASCI), its male counterp ...

'' (AGI), its

female Female (symbol: ♀) is the sex of an organism that produces the large non-motile ova (egg cells), the type of gamete (sex cell) that fuses with the male gamete during sexual reproduction. A female has larger gametes than a male. Females a ...

counterpart, started in 1943, to form the ''

Associazione Guide e Scouts Cattolici Italiani The ''Associazione Guide e Scouts Cattolici Italiani'' ( en, Association of Italian Catholic Guides and Scouts, italic=yes, link=yes, AGESCI) is a Catholic Scouting and Guiding association in Italy. It is coeducational and has 183,925 members, ...

'' (AGESCI), one of the first

coeducational Mixed-sex education, also known as mixed-gender education, co-education, or coeducation (abbreviated to co-ed or coed), is a system of education where males and females are educated together. Whereas single-sex education was more common up to ...

organizations in world Scouting. Many ASCI leaders who disagreed with the merger (and the principle of coeducation) formed the '' Associazione Italiana Guide e Scouts d'Europa Cattolici'' (AIGSEC) in 1976, along with former leaders of AGI and disgruntled members of AGESCI.

See also