Dossetti, Giuseppe

Giuseppe Dossetti (13 February 1913 – 15 December 1996) was an Italian jurist, politician, theologian, and Catholic priest. A prominent anti-fascist and Resistance fighter, Dossetti served as Vice-Secretary of the Christian Democracy, and as a member of the Constituent Assembly of Italy from 1946 to 1948 and the Chamber of Deputies from 1948 to 1952. Around him a movement emerged, known as "Dossettismo", which has continued to influence the Italian political, social, religious, and cultural landscape. Having left the political arena, Dossetti founded in Bologna a centre of documentation for religious studies, known as the John XXIII Foundation for Religious Studies, and the monastic community Piccola Famiglia dell’Annunziata of male and female cenobites and consecrated spouses, active in the Monte Sole Historical Park of Marzabotto, Monteveglio, Modena, Bonifati, Reggio Emilia, Parma, Verona, Milan, Mantua, and in the Holy Land. Ordained a priest in 1959, Dossetti participated in the Second Vatican Council as a theological expert (peritus) assisting Cardinal Giacomo Lercaro. In 1963, he became secretary to the Council's four moderators: Cardinals Gregorio Pietro Agagianian, Leo Joseph Suenens, Julius August Döpfner, and Lercaro himself. After the Council, Dossetti moved to Jericho, where he devoted himself entirely to monastic life. Returned to Italy in the final years of his life, he became actively engaged in opposing attempts to reform the Italian Constitution.