Ferrara, July 31, 2026 – “With deep sorrow I learned of the passing of Don Antonio Mazzi, a man who dedicated his long life to the least and the most fragile, never sparing himself. When I was mayor of Bondeno, right after the earthquake, I was able to closely witness his concrete commitment, also in our territory, through the Casa di Carlotta di Salvatonica, a reality of his Exodus Foundation that for years has welcomed families in difficulty and people trying to rebuild their lives,” recalled the mayor of Ferrara Alan Fabbri, upon hearing the news of Don Mazzi’s death at 96 years old.
The Casa di Carlotta: refuge for fragile parenting
Until May 2012, the facility was located in the historic rectory of San Biagio. However, the earthquake shocks that hit Emilia severely damaged it and made it unusable, and since 2013, the community has found its “permanent home” in Salvatonica, at via Provinciale 44, inside a municipally owned building. It is a refuge for fragile parenting, an excellence in the national landscape of addiction recovery and among the few facilities equipped to welcome the entire family unit of the person involved. In 2014, it was precisely Don Antonio Mazzi, together with then mayor Alan Fabbri, who inaugurated the new headquarters in the former schools, in May 2014.
Don Mazzi, ordained in Ferrara, was one of the most well-known faces of social Catholicism
Priest, educator, pedagogue, theologian, philosopher, journalist, writer, Don Mazzi, who studied and was ordained in Ferrara, was one of the most well-known faces of Italian social Catholicism in the post-war period. Founder of Exodus, the network of therapeutic communities for drug addicts, but also a well-known TV personality, from Mara Venier to “Domenica In” to Bruno Vespa’s “Porta a porta”.
Mayor Fabbri: “He never made distinctions between salons and the street”
“I clearly remember his energy, his frankness, and his ability to speak to everyone, believers and non-believers alike, with the same direct language and without concessions. Don Mazzi never made distinctions between salons and the street, and it is precisely in the latter, among the youth and families in difficulty, that he shaped his mission. On my own behalf and on behalf of the entire Ferrara City Council, I wish to express my deepest condolences to the Exodus Foundation, the communities of Bondeno and Salvatonica, and to all those who, over these decades, have crossed his path finding in him a point of reference,” concluded Fabbri. Other ties united the city of Estense and Don Mazzi. The priest had in fact graduated in Philosophy at the University of Ferrara. Also in the city, he was ordained in 1956 in the congregation of the Poor Servants of Divine Providence, founded by Saint Giovanni Calabria. In the 1960s, he became responsible for several assistance and training initiatives for young people, first among all the Città del Ragazzo of Ferrara.
