Franco Anelli, rector of the Catholic University, died on the evening of Thursday 23 May. «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.”
It would be a suicide. 118 received a call from a condominium owner who saw a body lying on the ground in the condominium courtyard. When the police also arrived on site, the death of Anelli was confirmed, having jumped from the sixth floor, despite living on the lower floors. The presence of signs of violence was excluded, if not compatible with the fall.
Born in 1963 in Piacenza, Anelli was a jurist and a lawyer, leading the university since 2013. After graduating, Franco Anelli graduated in law from the Cattolica of Milan. Then the PhD in commercial law and the exam for admission to the bar which led him to become a member of the Supreme Court of Cassation in 1998. He first taught civil law at the Piacenza branch of the Catholic University, then, after his appointment as rector, he began to follow the ‘Institutions of Private Law’ course in Milan. In 2022 Pope Francis appointed Anelli as consultant to the Congregation for Catholic Education: the rector was one of five Italians among the 19 newly appointed.
THE CONDORENCES OF TARASCONI, BRIANZI AND THE COUNCIL
«We are dismayed, shocked. The sudden and premature death of Franco Anelli, rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, is a tragedy that profoundly affects not only the local and national academic world of which he was one of the most illustrious and esteemed exponents, but which affects and shakes everyone us and the entire Piacenza community to which Professor Anelli belonged. We were working together and in close contact, sharing the vision of Piacenza as a university city; a vision that had led us, with all the rectors of the local universities, to sign the “University Protocol” last February of which Franco Anelli was proud. Franco Anelli was in love with Piacenza, his city, and there was no occasion, even recently, like at the Dies Academicus a few weeks ago, in which he did not underline it and demonstrate it with the sympathy and affability that characterized him. He has always been particularly attached to the Piacenza headquarters of the Cattolica, which boasts seventy years of existence in our territory and he demonstrated it every day with the passion, affection, kindness and availability that have always distinguished him. Piacenza and the whole of Italy lose a great man. We express our deepest condolences for his passing and we embrace his family, his closest friends, the academic community – colleagues and students – in a touching embrace.”
THE PROVINCE’S CONDORENCE
«I express, also on behalf of the Provincial Council and as sole director of Epis, deep condolences for the passing of the Magnificent Rector Franco Anelli and, sharing in the pain of the Catholic University and the Agostino Gemelli Irccs Polyclinic Foundation, I extend my deepest condolences to his family and loved ones.” This is what was declared by the president of the Province, Monica Patelli, as soon as she heard the news of the passing of Professor Franco Anelli: «Even in the recent Dies Academicus event I had admired his encyclopaedic culture and appreciable human trait, qualities which contributed significantly fundamental to the growth of a University deeply rooted in the territory, which has always looked at the frontiers of research and aimed at providing students with a truly international education”.
PAOLA DE MICHELI’S CONDORENCE
«Dismayed and saddened by the sudden passing of the rector of the Catholic University Franco Anelli, I sympathize with the pain of the entire university community, to which the rector generously dedicated a large part of his life. I also want to remember Anelli for his commitment in recent years to the development of the Piacenza branch of the university. I express my deepest condolences to his family.” These are the words of the Piacenza parliamentarian of the Democratic Party Paola De Micheli.
CONFAGRICOLTURA’S CONDORENCE
Confagricoltura Piacenza expresses «condolences and dismay for the sudden passing of Professor Franco Anelli, Magnificent Rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart. Jurist and lawyer, Milanese by adoption, but of Piacenza origins, he was a man of great culture and humanity who was able to guide the university with wisdom and vision and at the same time maintain strong ties with the territory and with its representatives, such as Confagricoltura Piacenza which is particularly linked to the Catholic University”. Remembering him with profound esteem, the president of Confagricoltura Piacenza Filippo Gasparini, the director Marco Casagrande, the governing bodies and the entire Association, express their condolences and share in the pain of his loved ones, of the Catholic University and of the Agostino Gemelli Irccs Polyclinic Foundation to which the Prof. Franco Anelli has dedicated his existence to it.
