Adriano Ossicini (20 June 1920 – 15 February 2019) was an Italian partisan, politician, psychiatrist, academic, and Minister for Family and Social Solidarity in the

Dini Cabinet The Dini government was the 52nd government of the Italian Republic. It was the second and last cabinet of the XII Legislature. It held office from 17 January 1995 to 17 May 1996, a total of 486 days, or 1 year and 4 months. It was the Italian R ...

Biography

Ossicini was born in

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

on June 20, 1920.

During the Fascist regime

Ossicini's father, Cesare, was a lawyer and one of the founders of the Italian People's Party. A brilliant student, Ossicini enrolled at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rome, two years younger than normal. In December 1937, while still a student, he began to volunteer at the

Fatebenefratelli Hospital Fatebenefratelli Hospital (officially Ospedale San Giovanni Calibita Fatebenefratelli) is a hospital located on the western side of the Tiber Island in Rome. It was established in 1585 and is currently run by the Brothers Hospitallers of Saint John ...

on the Tiber Island in Rome. In April 1938, at a

FUCI The Italian Catholic Federation of University Students ( it, Federazione Universitaria Cattolica Italiana, FUCI) is a federation of groups representing Roman Catholic university students in Italy. History On December 8, 1889, it was founded in Rom ...

Catholic students' conference held in

Orvieto Orvieto () is a city and ''comune'' in the Province of Terni, southwestern Umbria, Italy, situated on the flat summit of a large butte of volcanic tuff. The city rises dramatically above the almost-vertical faces of tuff cliffs that are compl ...

, Ossicini voiced his opposition to fascism. Once he returned to Rome, he was interrogated by the fascist police, who opened a file on him. In October of the same year, at a new conference of

Genoa Genoa ( ; it, Genova ; lij, Zêna ). is the capital of the Italian region of Liguria and the List of cities in Italy, sixth-largest city in Italy. In 2015, 594,733 people lived within the city's administrative limits. As of the 2011 Italian ce ...

, he appealed to Italian Catholics to oppose racism and fascism, accusing the

regime In politics, a regime (also "régime") is the form of government or the set of rules, cultural or social norms, etc. that regulate the operation of a government or institution and its interactions with society. According to Yale professor Juan Jo ...

of connivance with

nazism Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...

. Ossicini disagreed with the future post-war Prime Minister Alcide De Gasperi over the reconstitution of a single political party for Catholics, the future

Christian Democracy Christian democracy (sometimes named Centrist democracy) is a political ideology that emerged in 19th-century Europe under the influence of Catholic social teaching and neo-Calvinism. It was conceived as a combination of modern democratic ...

, placed at the center of the political spectrum. On 18 May 1943, Ossicini was arrested by the fascists during a raid and was imprisoned for more than two months. Despite being violently beaten for a few days, he only admitted that he had expressed criticism of racial discrimination under fascism as racism ran counter to Christian Doctrine. On this occasion, from the fascist police, he heard the term " cattocomunista" or Catho-Communist for the first time, a derogatory term for left-wing Catholics. On 30 September 1943, Ossicini received a letter from

Giulio Andreotti Giulio Andreotti ( , ; 14 January 1919 – 6 May 2013) was an Italian politician and statesman who served as the 41st prime minister of Italy in seven governments (1972–1973, 1976–1979, and 1989–1992) and leader of the Christian Democra ...

, in which the future

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

expressed "in the name of the

Pope The pope ( la, papa, from el, πάππας, translit=pappas, 'father'), also known as supreme pontiff ( or ), Roman pontiff () or sovereign pontiff, is the bishop of Rome (or historically the patriarch of Rome), head of the worldwide Cathol ...

" the opposition to unconditional co-operation between Catholics and the Italian Communist Party. Ossicini replied that he disagreed with Andreotti. Ossicini would claim that the

where he was working also received orders from the Pope to admit as many

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

as possible, something Ossicini claimed led to his supposed creation of a deadly but fictional disease known as syndrome K that was used to deter the nazis and fascists from investigating its purported sufferers, who were Jews hiding in the hospital's premises. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, Ossicini became one of the founders of the

Party of the Christian Left The Party of the Christian Left ( it, Partito della Sinistra Cristiana) was a political party in Italy founded in 1939 by Franco Rodano and Adriano Ossicini. History The pro-Marxist Catholics initially organized themselves into a group composed ...

, close to the Italian Communist Party; the party was dissolved in 1945 after the Vatican's newspaper L'Osservatore Romano announced that only

was entitled to represent Christians in politics.

After World War II

Ossicini graduated in Medicine at the end of 1944 and was admitted as a volunteer assistant at the Fatebenefratelli Hospital. He enrolled in a specialization course in Psychiatry, dealing with nervous and mental diseases; in 1947 he became a University professor of Psychology at the Sapienza University of Rome. In 1968, Ossicini returned to politics and was elected to the

Italian Senate The Senate of the Republic ( it, Senato della Repubblica), or simply the Senate ( it, Senato), is the upper house of the bicameral Italian Parliament (the other being the Chamber of Deputies). The two houses together form a perfect bicameral sy ...

as an independent candidate in the list of the

PCI PCI may refer to: Business and economics * Payment card industry, businesses associated with debit, credit, and other payment cards ** Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, a set of security requirements for credit card processors * Pro ...

. In the Senate he was a member of the group of the

Independent Left The Independent Left (french: Gauche indépendante, GI) was a French parliamentary group in the Chamber of Deputies of France of the French Third Republic during the interwar period. It was not a political party but a technical group formed by ind ...

closely linked to the Communist Party; Ossicini held his seat at

Palazzo Madama Palazzo Madama might refer to: * Palazzo Madama, Rome * Palazzo Madama, Turin Palazzo Madama e Casaforte degli Acaja is a palace in Turin, Piedmont. It was the first Senate of the Kingdom of Italy, and takes its traditional name from the embelli ...

uninterruptedly from 1968 to 1992. Between 1970 and 1989 he promoted a law for the establishment of the Order of Psychologists, which provided a regulatory framework for the profession. He was also Vice-President of the Senate from 1979 to 1983 and from 1985 to 1987. In 1995 he became Minister for Family and Social Solidarity of the

, formed after the fall of the first

Berlusconi I Cabinet The first Berlusconi government was the 51st government of the Italian Republic. It was the first right-wing and non-Christian Democrats government since World War II. Berlusconi resigned on 22 December 1994. History In order to win the March ...

. He joined Lamberto Dini's Italian Renewal party and was elected for the last time to the

Senate A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior (Latin: ''senex'' meaning "the el ...

in 1996. He retired from the Senate in 2001. In the 2001 elections he supported

Democracy is Freedom Democracy (From grc, δημοκρατία, dēmokratía, ''dēmos'' 'people' and ''kratos'' 'rule') is a form of government in which the people have the authority to deliberate and decide legislation ("direct democracy"), or to choose gover ...

, a liberal democrat alliance. In 2007 this latter movement merged with the ex-Communists to form the

Democratic Party Democratic Party most often refers to: *Democratic Party (United States) Democratic Party and similar terms may also refer to: Active parties Africa *Botswana Democratic Party *Democratic Party of Equatorial Guinea *Gabonese Democratic Party *Demo ...

, which Ossicini then supported for the rest of his life.

References

External links

*Files about his parliamentary activities (in Italian)
V
legislature {{DEFAULTSORT:Ossicini, Adriano 1920 births 2019 deaths Politicians from Rome Italian partisans Italian Renewal politicians Senators of Legislature V of Italy Senators of Legislature VI of Italy Senators of Legislature VII of Italy Senators of Legislature VIII of Italy Senators of Legislature IX of Italy Senators of Legislature X of Italy Senators of Legislature XIII of Italy