PINI, GIOVANNI DOMENICO. – Assistant of Catholic Action, b. in Milan on 29 Jan. 1871, d. at Arona on 11 Apr. 1930. He attended the Universities of Pavia and Genoa, where he earned a law degree. Returning to Milan, he participated with Filippo Meda in the religious and social activities of Catholics, collaborated with *L’Osservatore Cattolico*, and promoted the idea of a Catholic university. Obeying his priestly vocation, he entered the Seminary of Tortona and was ordained by Cardinal Ferrari on 23 Dec. 1899.
After a brief parish assignment, he was assigned to the Ambrosian Library, but continued to work especially within the Fasci Democratici Cristiani. Alongside L. Necchi, he contributed to the conversion of Edoardo Gemelli. Already an assistant in the Catholic University Circle of Milan, after the 1906 national congress of the FUCI, he became federal assistant. It was in this role that he devoted all his energies for sixteen years: to him were due the overcoming of so many organizational, Modernist, and political crises; the direction he imparted remained the distinctive characteristic of the FUCI within Catholic Action. He was also vice-general assistant of the G.C.I. In 1913 he was appointed parish priest of S. Eustorgio in Milan, and during the war his parish became the center of an active welfare experience for soldiers and their families: 1,400 letters bear witness to his initiative in keeping the FUCI alive while its members were at the front. In 1923 he left the FUCI to take up the general assistantship of the G.C.I.; at the same time he was appointed canon of St Peter’s in the Vatican. Two years later he was replaced and became vice-president of Eucharistic Congresses. He compiled a little prayer book, *Ora felice, Ora breve* (Milan 1895), another small manual, *Collana di perle* (ibid. 1898), and a pamphlet, *Roma alla mente e al cuore del giovane* (Rome n.d.).