Giuseppe Lazzati

Giuseppe Lazzati (22 June 1909 – 18 May 1986) was an Italian rector of the Sacred Heart college in Milan and a former parliamentarian. He was also the founder of the Secular Institute of Christ the King. Lazzati served as a professor and for a time served as a politician at the close of the Second World War despite initial hesitance in doing so. He later resigned to further dedicate himself to his lecturing while instituting the Secular Institute of Christ the King to bring together men who wished to consecrate themselves to God though not as religious. He was a collaborator of several well-known figures in Italian politics such as Giorgio La Pira and Aldo Moro while he maintained close relationships with Pope Paul VI and Pope John Paul II.

The cause for Lazzati's beatification was opened in 1994 and in 2013 Pope Francis named him as venerable after recognizing that Lazzati had lived a life of heroic virtue.

The end of his service in the parliament saw him he return to Milan where devoted his energies to the formation of men and women. But another motivator for his retirement from politics was the retirement of his good friend Dossetti. who was serving at the time as a professor of Christian Origins. In 1979 - upon reaching the age limit - Lazzati retired from the Chair of Ancient Christian Literature and his former student Luigi Franco Pizzolato succeeded him.

Lazzati dedicated his retirement to find a path out of the profound crisis of Italian politics and he attempted to do this through the relaunching of a programme of political ideals through the foundation in 1985 of the association "Città dell'uomo" which served as a revival in large part of the post-war "Civitas Humana".

Lazzati died in Milan in mid-1986 at Pentecost at the Capitanio Clinic. In 1984 doctors had diagnosed him with an incurable intestinal tumor and had to operate on him to alleviate the pain. He was hospitalized during the morning of 27 March 1986 - Holy Thursday - and he received a phone call from Pope John Paul II. He was hospitalized once again two months later at the Capitanio Clinic and on 14 May his priest friend Giuseppe Grampa celebrated Mass for him at his bedside and gave him the Anointing of the Sick. His institute still exists and operates across the globe in places such as New Zealand and Uganda. Since September 1988 his remains have been housed at the San Salvatore Hermitage.

Beatification process In 1991 the Secular Institute of Christ the King began promoting the cause for Lazzati's beatification which received archdiocesan approval before it could be considered on a formal level. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini provided personal support to this cause. The Congregation for the Causes of Saints approved this request and on 17 June 1994 launched the cause while titling Lazzati as a Servant of God. Cardinal Martini oversaw the diocesan phase of investigation from 17 December 1994 until 14 December 1996. The cause was then transferred to Rome where the Congregation validated the diocesan phase on 3 October 1997 and received the positio from the cause's officials in 2001.

Theologians met and approved the cause after scouring the contents of the positio on 7 October 2011 while the cardinal and bishop members for the C.C.S. likewise approved it on 4 June 2013. The cause culminated on 5 July 2013 when Pope Francis approved the promulgation of a decree that recognized that Lazzati had lived a life of heroic virtue which also conferred the title of a venerable upon him. The postulator overseeing this cause is Pier Giorgio Confalonieri.

Published works Teofilo d'Alessandria, Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1935 L'Aristotele perduto e gli scrittori cristiani, Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1938 Introduzione allo studio di Clemente Alessandrino, Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1939 Gli sviluppi della litteratura sui martiri nei primi quattro secoli, Torino: Società editrice internazionale 1956 Il fondamento di ogni ricostruzione, Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1947 I Laici nella Chiesa, Milano: Gioventù italiana di azione cattolica, Presidenza diocesana milanese, 1954 Il valore letterario della esegesi ambrosiana, Milano, 1960 Azione cattolica e azione politica, Vicenza: La Locusta, 1962 Maturità del laicato, Brescia: La Scuola, 1962 Lo Spirito Santo nella vita della Chiesa, Milano: Edizione Corsia dei Servi, 1964 La scuola cattolica, Trento: Edizioni scuola cattolica diocesana, 1978 Francesco d'Assisi nell'ottavo centenario della nascità, Milano: Vita e Pensiero, 1982 La città dell'uomo: costruire, da cristiani, la città dell'uomo a misura d'uomo, Roma: AVE, 1984 Laicità e impegno cristiano nelle realtà temporali, Roma: AVE, 1985 Per una nuova maturità del laicato: il fedele, Roma: AVE, 1986 Il laico, Roma: AVE, 1986 Chiesa, laici ed impegno storico: scritti (1947-65) riediti in memoria, Milano: Vita e pensiero, 1987 La carità, Roma: AVE, 1987 La verità, Roma: AVE, 1987 La prudenza, Roma: AVE, 1987 Pensare politicamente, Da cristiani nella società e nello Stato, Roma: AVE, 1988 La vita come vocazione, Roma: AVE, 1990 Il Regno di Dio, Roma: AVE, 1990 Il cristiano nella città dell'uomo, Bezzecca: Citta dell'uomo Valle di Ledro, 1991 La spiritualità laicale, Roma: AVE, 1992 Lo Spirito Santo, Roma: AVE, 1992 Spiritualità della professione, Roma: AVE, 1993 La verità vi farà liberi, In Dialogo, 2006 Chiesa, cittadinanza e laicità, In Dialogo, 2004 Laici cristiani nella città dell'uomo: scritti ecclesiali e politici, 1945-1986, Cinisello Balsamo: San Paolo, 2009