Agnelo Rossi

infobox cardinalstyles
cardinal name=Agnelo Rossi
dipstyle=His Eminence
offstyle=Your Eminence
relstyle=
deathstyle=
See=Sabina e Pogio Morteto (suburbicarian), Ostia (suburbicarian)

Agnelo Rossi (May 4, 1913 - May 21, 1995) was an Brazilian Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church and Dean of the Sacred College of Cardinals.

Agnelo Rossi was born on May 4, 1913 in Joaquim Egidio, Brazil, in the Diocese of Campinas. 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 March 27, 1937 in the Patriarchal Lateran Basilica by Luigi Traglia, Vice-Regent 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 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". Afterwards Rossi was President of the Administration of the Patrimony of the Holy See from 1984 to 1989.

In 1984 he also was promoted to Cardinal Bishop of Sabina e Poggio Morteto by Pope John Paul II. Two years later he received the title of Bishop of Ostia in addition, becoming Dean of the College of Cardinals.

Rossi participated in the two conclaves of 1978 (I, II).He resigned as President in 1989 and as Dean in 1993. He subsequently returned to Brazil. Angelo Rossi died on May 21, 1995 in Indaiatuba. He was buried in Campinas.

=Sources=
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/bishop/brossia.html Catholic Hierarchy]
* [http://cgi.fiu.edu/~mirandas/bios-t.htm Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church]