MILAN. Franco Anelli, rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, committed suicide in his home in Milan a few weeks before the end of his mandate. He was found dead on Thursday evening 23 May in the internal courtyard of the building where he lived in the center of Milan. The 60-year-old jurist and lawyer took his own life by jumping from his sixth-floor apartment. The alarm went off around 10.30pm and the 118 rescuers arrived on site and were only able to declare his death. There was another person in the apartment, who had nothing to do with the voluntary gesture. No suicide notes were found, but the police have already acquired other elements that would exclude other possible scenarios. The circumstances of his death are still under investigation. The Milan Prosecutor’s Office will open a file on the death of the rector, a technical step to carry out all the necessary investigations, including the autopsy.
– Franco Anelli, who was the rector of the Catholic University who died tragically
Anelli should have participated this morning in the presentation of the research “Disability and poverty in Italian families” in Largo Gemelli in Milan. Event which included the closing speech of the Archbishop of Milan, Mario Delpini. The Holy See was also informed of the tragedy during the night.
«With profound dismay – we read in a note from the university – the Community of the Catholic University and of the Agostino Gemelli IRCCS University Polyclinic Foundation, to which he dedicated his work and his entire life, gathers in the mourning and prayer, expressing our deepest condolences to his mother and loved ones.”
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In the photo Franco Anelli, Rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, with Mario Draghi in 2019 for the delivery of the Honorary Degree in Economics
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«I share in the pain of the Catholic University and the Agostino Gemelli IRCCS Polyclinic Foundation for the tragic passing of the Magnificent Rector, Professor Franco Anelli. In this moment of dismay, on behalf of the Italian Episcopate, I express condolences to his mother, to her loved ones and to the entire community of the University and the Polyclinic, to which he dedicated his existence. I assure the prayers of our Church, entrusting dear Professor Anelli to the mercy of the Father.” Thus in a note Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, Archbishop of Bologna and President of the CEI.
Who was the rector of the Franco Anelli Catholic?
Anelli, alumnus of the University and full professor of Private Law at the Faculty of Law, was in his third term, coinciding with the four-year period 2020/21-2023/24, after the unanimous confirmation of the Board of Directors which met on 15 July 2020.
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In the photo, the rector Franco Anelli and Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi during the delivery of the Honoris Causa Ermes Beltrami degree in 2022
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Born in 1963, he graduated in Law from the Milan branch, after a PhD in Commercial Law, he became associate professor of Private Law Institutions at the Faculty of Economics and Business in 1993, and then extraordinary professor in the Faculty of Law of the University of the Studies of Parma in 1996.
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The rector of the Cattolica, Franco Anelli, received in audience by Pope Francis in 2020
Returning to the Catholic University in 1997, he was professor of private law institutions at the Faculty of Law. Furthermore he was Vice-President of the E4Impact Foundation, and among the members of the Board of Directors of the “A. Gemelli” IRCCS and “Avvenire Nuova Editoriale Italiana SpA”. On May 13, 2022, Pope Francis appointed Franco Anelli as consultant to the Congregation for Catholic Education. The professor thus became one of five Italians among the 19 new consultants appointed by the Holy Father.
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