He died last night Franco Anelli, 61 years old, lawyer, jurist and rector of the Catholic University of Milan. The university announced this in a note, explaining that the circumstances of the death “are being investigated”.
Anelli took his own life by jumping from the sixth floor of the building where he lived, in the center of Milan. The alarm went off yesterday evening, around 10.30pm. The police, the medical examiner and the 118 operators intervened on site.
After the first findings on the body, the investigators and the medical examiner ruled out the intervention of third parties.
The career of Franco Anelli
Franco Anelli was born in Piacenza on 26 June 1963. He has held the position of rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart since January 1, 2013, succeeding Lorenzo Ornaghi. It was his third term, a term that would have expired next July.
Anelli graduated from Respighi Scientific High School in Piacenza in 1982 and then graduated in Law from the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan, subsequently obtaining a PhD in commercial law. In 1991 he passed the state exam for access to the bar, becoming a member of the Supreme Court of Cassation in 1998. Full professor of Civil Law at the Piacenza branch of the Catholic University until the 2011/2012 academic year, Anelli taught Institutions of Law Private at the Milan branch, where he held the position of rector.
On May 13, 2022, Pope Francis appointed him consultant to the Congregation for Catholic Education.
The note from the Catholic University
Late yesterday evening, in his home in Milan, the Magnificent Rector Prof. Franco Anelli has tragically passed away in circumstances still under investigation.
With deep dismay, 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 together in mourning and prayer, expressing its deepest condolences to his mother and to his loved ones.
The condolences of Mayor Tarasconi and the entire municipal 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 join his family, his closest friends, the academic community – colleagues and students – in a heartfelt embrace”.
The condolences of President Patelli and the Provincial Council
“I express, also on behalf of the Provincial Council and as Sole Administrator 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 learned the news of the passing of Professor Franco Anelli: “Even in the recent Dies Academicus event I 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”.
The condolences of Confagricoltura Piacenza
Confagricoltura Piacenza expresses its 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.
Paola De Micheli’s condolences
“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 all my condolences to his family.” These are the words of the Piacenza parliamentarian of the Democratic Party Paola De Micheli.
Elena Murelli’s condolences
“I learned with immense sorrow of the death of the rector Franco Anelli. I was his student at the Catholic University and we saw each other on various occasions, the last time last week at the Senate for the graduation day of two Masters in Public Administration. All my closeness, in this difficult moment, to his family, to his loved ones and to the entire Catholic community.”
The condolences of the Region
The Presidency of the Council and the University Department express the heartfelt condolences of the Emilia-Romagna Region for the passing away of the Magnificent Rector of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, professor Franco Anelliand are moved by the pain of his family and the entire university community, to which he had dedicated his life with commitment, passion and generosity.
Born in Piacenza, Professor Anelli taught civil law at the Piacenza branch of the Catholic University until 2012 and spent generously on the development of the University in the city. Throughout his career he has always collaborated effectively with local and regional institutions and in 2020, in the role of Rector, he signed the Pact for Work and the Climate with the Region, allowing the Lombard University to join the proposed document and signed by the Emilia-Romagna Region together with all the social partners.
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