Giuseppe Lazzati

The work of Giuseppe Lazzati is primarily structured around the foundation of the Secular Institute of Christ the King (Istituto Secolare Cristo Re) and his academic and political commitment. In May 1931, during a spiritual retreat led by Father Agostino Gemelli and Msgr. Francesco Olgiati, Giuseppe Lazzati felt the call to secular consecration. He first joined the Missionaries of the Kingship of Christ, founded by Father Gemelli. However, believing that this structure limited the scope of lay consecration by linking it too closely to specific works, he resigned in June 1938. With the support of Cardinal Schuster, he founded in 1939, with a group of friends, a new association of consecrated laypeople called Milites Christi. This group, which took the name Milites Christi Regis and then Istituto Secolare Cristo Re in 1969, was established as an institute of diocesan right in 1952, before receiving the decree of praise (pontifical right) on October 27, 1963. The institute promotes the consecration of laypeople living fully in the world, without religious habits or mandatory communal life, to evangelize temporal realities (family, work, culture, politics). Upon his return from captivity in 1945, urged by his friend Giuseppe Dossetti, Lazzati entered politics under the banner of the Christian Democracy. Elected municipal councilor in Milan and then deputy to the Constituent Assembly in 1946, he was, alongside Dossetti, Giorgio La Pira, and Amintore Fanfani (nicknamed the "little professors" or professorini), one of the key drafters of the Constitution of the Italian Republic. He was subsequently elected deputy to the first Republican Parliament from 1948 to 1953. He chose not to run for re-election in 1953 to devote himself fully to his educational and university mission. A professor of ancient Christian literature at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Milan, he obtained his teaching chair in 1958. From May 1961 to July 1964, at the request of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI), he directed the Milanese Catholic daily L'Italia. Elected dean of the Faculty of Letters and Philosophy in 1965, he became rector of the Catholic University in July 1968, succeeding Ezio Franceschini. He held this position for fifteen years (five consecutive terms) until 1983, guiding the institution with firmness and dialogue through the tumultuous period of the 1968 student protests and the Years of Lead.

After leaving the rectorship in 1983, Giuseppe Lazzati dedicated his remaining strength to the formation of young people and the renewal of politics. In 1984, he founded the association Città dell'uomo (City of Man) to promote a high ethic of civic engagement. Afflicted by intestinal cancer, he continued to lead spiritual retreats and accompany young people at the Hermitage of San Salvatore, located above Erba (Como). He passed away at the Capitanio clinic in Milan at the dawn of Pentecost Sunday, May 18, 1986, at the age of 76. His funeral was celebrated solemnly in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini. On September 17, 1988, his remains were transferred to the Hermitage of San Salvatore in Erba, in accordance with his wishes.

The cause for the beatification of Giuseppe Lazzati was introduced at the initiative of the Secular Institute of Christ the King. On June 17, 1994, the cause obtained the Nihil obstat from the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. On December 17, 1994, the diocesan inquiry was officially opened by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, Archbishop of Milan, before being closed on December 14, 1996. On October 3, 1997, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the decree of validity for the diocesan inquiry. On July 5, 2013, Pope Francis authorized the promulgation of the decree recognizing the heroic virtues of Giuseppe Lazzati, who was then proclaimed venerable. To this day, no miracle has yet been officially recognized to pave the way for his beatification, but the cause is following its course.

The spirituality of Giuseppe Lazzati is deeply Christocentric and anchored in the paschal mystery. He developed a true "theology of the laity," insisting that the laity are not second-class Christians, but that they have as their specific mission the consecratio mundi (the consecration of the world). For him, the layperson must inhabit the "city of man" by bringing the leaven of the Gospel, not through a clerical or conquering attitude, but through the witness of a coherent, professional, and spiritually mature life. His legacy remains alive through the Secular Institute of Christ the King, the Città dell'uomo association, as well as through his numerous theological, patristic, and political writings. Pope Francis described him as a "great-hearted educator" and a "model of the Christian educator to be inspired by" during an audience in October 2024.