Mario Sturzo (Caltagirone, November 2, 1861 - Piazza Armerina, November 12, 1941) was an Italian Roman Catholic bishop.
Biography
Family and early life
He was the second born out of the six children of Felix Sturzo Taranto and Catherine Boscarelli, among his brothers, ten years younger, was Luigi Sturzo. He joined the well known seminary at a very young age where he knew Bishop Blandini known for his social commitment. In 1881 he inscribed in the Law Faculty of Catania. and then continued his legal studies in Rome. In his youth he was the president and the chief promoter of the Catholic Youth Club "St. Thomas Aquinas", whereby lay Catholics gathered.
Priesthood
In 1887, at the age of 26, returned to the seminary in Caltagirone and September 21, 1889, was ordained a priest by Xavier Gerbino, previously the Bishop of Piazza Armerina. He was rector of the seminary of Caltagirone in 1890-1891 and among his pupils was his brother Luigi, whom he helped to reach priesthood. He was later appointed canon of the Cathedral of Caltagirone and then vicar general. In 1894 he coordinated the work of the first diocesan synod. In his priestly activity he collaborated with his brother Louis to promote the Catholic movement Calatino. In 1895 the first interparochial committee of organization of congresses in St. George's parish, with the youth section “St. Philip Neri”, the workers section, St. Joseph" and the agricultural section, “St. Isidor”. In 1897 he collaborated in the redaction of the Catholic movement Calatino review, “The Cross of Constantine”, in which he published three novels of the popular-moralistic character with the pseudonym Eneleo in the appendix. Moreover, he wrote 27 sketches which highlight his initial inclination for Christianity embodied in the story.
Activities as a bishop
In 1903 Pope Leo XIII appointed him Bishop of Piazza Armerina and was consecrated in the cathedral of Catania by Cardinal Francesco Nava July 19, took possession of the diocese on 11 October and made the solemn entry on 15 November 1904. In his first pastoral letter, of November 1903, he maintains, on the wake of the thought of his brother Luigi's thought, that, for obtaining salvation of souls one cannot ignore so as to pursue interests of the body, through a commitment in the renewal of the society in the light of the social teaching of the church. He realized a general reorganization of the diocesan clergy and erected numerous parishes in almost all the twelve town councils of the diocese. He refounded the diocesan monthly bulletin, changing the title from “Gleaning” to “The Angel of the Family”. His episcopal activities were carried on, in the periodic pastoral visits, in the celebration of meetings of “Catholic Action”, in the Lenten preachings and retreats and in the conference for teachers and professionals. He reformed morally and materially the diocesan seminary, closed temporarily from 1904 to 1907 and from 1920 he started his activity of teaching in the internal school of the seminary. He founded in the diocese the priestly congregation of the Oblates of Mary, on the example required by Carlo Borromeo, for which he laid the constitutions and of which he organized the common life. In the villages of his diocese he favoured the rise of rural banks and other Catholic Social works. Some local officials accused him to the Holy See of modernism and socialism and was sent to the diocese as apostolic visitor, Charles Joseph Cecchini, who wrote to pope Pius X on 19 August 1907 a letter accompanied by a positive report on his reforms. He established in Piazza Armerina a Catholic School named after Prospero Intorcetta. He wrote numerous pastoral letters in which a cross-recurring theme was that of the family and moral education. He also wrote on the theme of psychological intense activity of the conversion and outlined a theology of the laity. For a decade he was also a secretary of the Sicilian Episcopal Conference and spread some collective pastoral letters. In 1937 he addressed at Enna the first Congress of the parish.
