Born in Turin in 1906, son of Count Alessandro and Countess Alice Andreis, a descendant of the noble family of the Counts of Rovasenda, he graduated in engineering from the Polytechnic of Turin in 1926. Meanwhile, he joined the FUCI (Italian Federation of Catholic University Students). In 1929, he took his vows and entered the Order of Preachers.
In 1929 he was in the convent of San Domenico di Chieri (TO), in 1933 he was ordained a priest.
He then went to study theology and philosophy at the Institut Catholique in Paris, where he earned his doctorate and licentiate. Between 1939 and 1945, he was Master of the Student Friars. In 1954, he was transferred from Chieri to the convent of Santa Maria del Castello in Genoa.
In 1974, Pope Paul VI appointed him director of the chancellery of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, a position reconfirmed by John Paul II in 1978, which began the Catholic Church's reopening of the Galileo Galilei case. In 1977, he became ecclesiastical assistant to the Catholic Action Graduate Movement. In the 80s, together with John Paul II, he promoted a conscientious objection among nuclear scientists against the military use of their research.
In 1987, he was named an honorary academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In 1992, the University of Genoa awarded him an honorary degree in architecture for his work promoting restoration in Genoa's historic center. He then retired to the convent of Santa Maria del Castello in Genoa, where he died in 2007 at the age of 101. His funeral was held in his church of Santa Maria di Castello in Genoa on December 17, 2007, presided over by Cardinal Angelo Bagnasco, Archbishop of Genoa and President of the CEI. In the afternoon, a Eucharist was also celebrated in the parish church of Rovasenda (VC), where his body was interred in the family tomb.
The history of your Association
it is made up of many “saints next door” – many! –,
and it is a story that must continue:
holiness is a heritage to be guarded and a vocation to be welcomed.