Departures of note

Antonio Mazzi was born in Verona on November 30, 1929, and ordained in the Congregation of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence, founded by Giovanni Calabria. From the beginning of his priesthood, he chose to be a street priest, welcoming all and speaking frankly without hesitation. He defined himself as "crazy for God" and never spared criticism of the Church hierarchy, once stating he would tell the Pope to sell the Vatican and move the Church to Assisi if he could.

In the 1970s, he founded Exodus in Milan's Parco Lambro, then a symbol of urban decay and drug trafficking. The community became a reference point for thousands of people struggling with addiction. Mazzi believed no young person was beyond recovery, a mantra he repeated in parishes, municipalities, and associations throughout Italy, from small Lombardy villages to Sicily. His work extended to welcoming former terrorists who decided to change their path.

While remaining faithful to the Catholic Church, Mazzi adopted an original pastoral style characterized by direct language, freedom of judgment, and concrete attention to people's real problems. He extended this activity through mass media including radio, television, and book publications. In 1997, he created the diary-agenda "Tremenda" as a tool to communicate with young people. Throughout his life, he appeared on popular Italian television programs and met with heads of state and Popes, becoming one of the most recognizable faces of Italian social Catholicism in the post-war period.