Giovanni Bazoli, chairman of Banca Intesa and a law professor at the Catholic University of Milan, became widely known when he re-funded the Banco Ambrosiano (better known at the “Vatican Bank”) after the financial scandals of the 1980’s. He not only re-established order and respectability to an institution whose reputation had been severely tarnished but was able to create, in a 10-year span, the major banking group in Italy, Banca Intesa, now one of the 12 major banking groups in Europe.
On Tuesday, September 27, at 6 p.m., Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò at New York University, located at 24 W. 12th Street, will present a lecture by Bazoli entitled “Divine Justice and the Plea of Abraham: A Jurist Reads Genesis: 18-19.” Following his lecture, he will engage the audience in a discussion about Biblical justice.
Bazoli’s long essays on divine justice, retribution, collective punishment, and the salvation of the city first appeared on the pages of Repubblica, one of the leading Italian daily newspapers. Immediately published in a small volume, Giustizia e uguaglianza. Modelli biblici (Morcelliana, 2005), these essays became the center of an engaging and thorough debate that involved theologians, jurists, and intellectuals of all backgrounds and political persuasions.
A member of the Board of Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, Bazoli is also the president of the Fondazione Cini in Venice, one of Italy’s most prestigious cultural institutions.