Overview
- Gelmini died on November 29, 2025, at age 94, according to multiple Italian outlets.
- He launched Telefono Amico in 1964 as a listening helpline based at the Sant’Angelo convent in Milan.
- The service now operates multiple lines with about 100 volunteers, handling more than ten million calls a year.
- A few years after the helpline, he founded the Mondo X recovery communities, converting convents in Milan, Cozzo, the Isola di Formica, and Cetona, with activity also cited on Mount Tabor.
- A visible figure in Italian football culture, he was a spiritual guide linked to AC Milan and a close friend of Gianni Rivera, who once dedicated the 1969 European Cup to him.