USKI

FEDERATION OF THE SLOVAK CHRISTIAN INTELLECTUALS

PRESIDIUM

PRESIDENT

Doc. RNDr. Emil Betak, DrSc.

VICE PRESIDENTS

MEMBERS

PhDr., PaedDr. Jan Manik PhD.	Mons. Mgr. Gaspar Fronc
manikjanik@gmail.com	fronc@ksnr.sk


RNDr. Lubomír Prikryl, CSc.	Doc. PhDr. Miroslav Karaba, PhD.
lubomir.prikryl@gmail.com	karabamiro@yahoo.com


Ing. Maria Spisiakova, PhD.
spisiakova@kbs.sk

EXECUTIVE SECRETARY	FINANCIAL ISSUES
RNDr. Magdalena Kucerova	RNDr. Jozefina Krizanova
magdalena.kucerova@zoznam.sk	finakriz@centrum.sk

HONORARY PRESIDENT

Prof. RNDr. Jozef Tino, DrSc.

jozef.tino@gmail.com

CHAPLAIN

Mons. Andrej Imrich

imrich@kbs.sk

OUR MISSION

Education focused on relation between science and faith and spiritual growth

Propagation of Christian Principles on personal and professional life

NUMBER OF MEMBERS:190

TYPES OF OUR ACTIVITIES:

Lectures

Periodical: Radost a nadej – RAN (Gaudium et Spes)

FROM THE HISTORY

1919: Date of foundation as Federation of Slovak Catholic Students (USKS), which was co-founder of the world movement Pax Romana

1962: USKS changed its name to Federation of Slovak Catholic Intellectuals (USKI)

1964: USKI was recognized by Pax Romana as the legal successor of USKS

1962 – 1990: Operated in exile

1990: Revival of its activity in Slovakia, registered as Federation of the Slovak Christian Intellectuals (USKI)

Presidents:

1962 – 1971 Dr. Anton Began

1971 – 1998 Dr. Jan Guncaga

1998 – 2005 Prof. Anton Hajduk

2005 – 2011 Prof. Josef Tino

ACTIVITIES AFTER REVIVAL OF USKI ORGANISATION IN SLOVAKIA

- Organization of symposia, international and national conferences and seminars for the young generation; conferences about ethics in politics, theological seminars.

- Cooperation with other Christian organizations, especially with Pax Romana.

More details about former activities can be found in the book The Laity as Christians by Profession, (Ed. Michal Vasko, Presov 2000) written by the honorary president Jan Guncaga.

PRESENT ACTIVITIES

USKI takes into consideration different levels of education and age structure of the public, for which prepares its activities. Special attention is paid to the needs of the smaller towns too. With respect to that, three grant projects were planned and realized:

Further Education of Teachers. The project was designed for elementary and high school teachers and was focused on the questions of the relation between science and faith in the different teaching subject. Project was completed in two phases. Each phase consisted of 12 modules. Experts for natural sciences, philosophy, pedagogy, history and theology gave lectures for every module.

Interdisciplinary Dialog on science and religion at Slovak Universities and Faculties of Theology (2002/2003), containing 4 three days conferences, followed by seminars. Lectures were focused on: cosmic and biological evolution, anthropic principle, science and faith relations, church history etc. This project was supported by the Center for Theology and Natural sciences (CTNS) and the Templeton Foudation. Lecturers were specialists in the fields of natural sciences, philosophy, pedagogy, psychology and theology.

Interdisciplinary Dialogue between Science and Faith under the presidency of Mons. F. Rabek – chairman of the Council for Science, Education and Culture at the Catholic Slovak Bischop Confernce – is holding quarterly. These dialogues are dealing with questions connected with relation between science and faith: interpretation of the Bible, evolution, bioethics, cloning etc.

USKI focuses its actions on the population outside Bratislava where generally are fewer opportunities to attend lectures. For this target group the project was realized with the support of American foundation Metanexus, focused on the relationship between science and faith. Lectures has been given in these towns: Vranov n/T, Kosice, Stara Lubovna and Modra.