GROSOLI, GIOVANNI. - Count, senator, b. at Carpi on 20 Aug. 1859, d. at Assisi on 20 Feb. 1937.
Having entered the Catholic Works while still very young, which he developed in Ferrara, where he resided, in 1902 he was called by Leo XIII to the presidency of the Opera dei Congressi, at a particularly difficult moment because of the excesses of d. Romolo Murri and the rising modernism. G. was unable to reconcile the discordant currents and in 1904 had to tender his resignation. He then devoted himself to the Catholic press, but even in this field his work did not meet with the approval of the Holy See and he was obliged to withdraw.
Pope Benedict XV, on the other hand, restored him to full prominence, entrusting to him—together with Marquis Crispolti and Count Dalla Torre—the direction of Italian Catholic Action, and withdrawing the disavowal imposed upon the so-called “trust” of Catholic newspapers headed by G. (Avvenire d'Italia, Momento, Corriere d'Italia, Corriere di Sicilia, Italia).
After the First World War he was among the founders of the Partito popolare, and at the advent of Fascism, under the illusion that he could reconcile the Catholic movement with the regime, he worked for the establishment of the Centro nazionale. Disappointed in his hopes and seriously affected in his financial resources by the collapse of banking institutions which he had helped to establish, he spent his last years in seclusion and prayer. From 3 Oct. 1920 he was a senator of the Kingdom of Italy.