Agnelo Rossi

Agnelo Rossi (born Aniello Rossi; 4 May 1913 – 21 May 1995) was a Brazilian cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals.

Biography Aniello (later changed to "Agnelo") Rossi was born on 4 May 1913 in Joaquim Egidio, in the municipality of Campinas. Both his parents, Vincenzo Rossi e Vittoria Colombo, were Italian immigrants from the village of Lagonegro.

In 1933 he left his Brazilian home for Rome. There he studied at the Pontifical College Pio Brasileiro and the Pontifical Gregorian University. He was ordained a priest on 27 March 1937 in the Patriarchal Lateran Basilica by Luigi Traglia, Vicegerent of Rome.

Rossi subsequently met duties in Brazil, as secretary to the Bishop of Campinas for one year and as faculty member of the Central Seminary of São Paulo and the faculty of economic science of the University of Campinas. He was canon of the cathedral chapter of Campinas in 1943–1956.

In 1956 Rossi was appointed Bishop of Barra do Piraí within the metropolitan district of Rio de Janeiro. Paulo de Tarso Campos, bishop of his home diocese Campinas, consecrated him in the same year. Rossi was named Archbishop of Ribeirão Preto in 1962. Two years later he was transferred to the Archiepiscopal see of São Paulo, which he held until 1970.

In the consistory of 1965 Rossi was created Cardinal-Priest by Pope Paul VI, and he received the title of Gran Madre di Dio. In 1970 he was appointed Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples, the recently renamed Sacra Congregatio de Propaganda Fide. He participated in the two conclaves of 1978 (I, II).

The Congregation for the Evangelization of People's 1978 Faculties and Privileges Granted to Clergy and Catholics Living in Mainland China in These Grave Circumstances was issued during Rossi's tenure.

He stepped down as president in 1989 and as Dean in 1993; because he ceased to be Dean, he gave up the title of Bishop of Ostia. He subsequently returned to Brazil. Cardinal Rossi died on 21 May 1995 in Campinas.