Rossi, Agnelu

Agnelo Rossi was born on May 4, 1913 in Joaquim Egidio, Brazil, in the Campinas diocese . His parents were Vicente Rossi, commander of the Order of the Holy Sepulcher and Vitoria Colombo. In 1933, he left his Brazilian home to go to study in Rome . There he studied at the Pontifical College of Pio Brasileiro and the Pontifical Gregorian University . He was ordained a priest on March 27, 1937 in the patriarchal Lateran Basilica of Luigi Traglia , governor of Rome, future dean of the College of Cardinals.

Rossi subsequently served, in Brazil , as Secretary to Bishop Campinas for one year and as a member of the faculty of the Central Seminary of São Paulo and the Faculty of Economic Sciences of the University of Campinas. He was a canon of the Cathedral chapter of Campinas in 1943 - 1956 .

On March 5, 1956, Rossi was appointed bishop of Barra do Pirai, within the metropolitan area of Rio de Janeiro . Paulo de Tarsu Campos, bishop of his native diocese Campinas, consecrated him to the bishops on April 15 of the same year. He was assisted by Vicente Marchetti Zioni, titular bishop of Lauzado, auxiliary bishop of São Paulo and Elder Pessoa Camara , titular bishop of Salde, auxiliary bishop of San Sabastiano do Rio de Janeiro. Agnelu Rossi was appointed Archbishop of Ribeiran Preto on September 6, 1962 . Two years later, he became Archbishop of São Paulo, who he was until 1970 .

On the consistory of February 22, 1965, Rossi was elevated to cardinal priests by Pope Paul VI , and received the titular church Gran Madre di Dio .

In 1970, Cardinal Rossi was appointed prefect of the Holy Congregation for the Evangelization of the Peoples , recently renamed the Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide (Holy Congregation for the Propaganda of the Faith). Subsequently, Rossi was appointed chairman of the Administration of the Church property of the Holy See , a post which he held from April 8, 1984 to December 6, 1989 .

In 1984, he was also elevated to the Cardinal Bishops of Sabina and Poggio Mirteto by Pope John Paul II . Two years later, he received the title of Bishop of Ostia, thus becoming dean of the College of Cardinals .

Rossi participated in two conclaves in 1978 ( August and October ). He left the post of chairman of the Property Administration of the Holy See in 1989 and the post of dean of the College of Cardinals in 1993 . Subsequently, Cardinal Rossi returned to Brazil. Angelo Rossi died on May 21, 1995 in Indayatuba. He is buried in Campinas .

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