The following year he was appointed deputy pastor in the town of Argenta (in Emilia-Romagna), which he left in 1912 to go to study in the Scuola Sociale in Bergamo, where he was awarded his degree.

At the end of World War I, Minzoni returned to Argenta, where he joined the Popular Party (Partito Popolare Italiano), the forerunner of the Christian Democrats.

In addition to his ideas about social rights, he became increasingly convinced of the need for cooperation, thus becoming an open enemy of the fascist regime that strongly favoured corporativism.

Minzoni opposed the introduction of the fascist youth movement, the Opera Nazionale Balilla, in Argenta, because he believed the young people of the town should instead be educated in the values of Catholicism.

They especially wanted to hack at the roots of his teaching work, which aimed at raising young people to prepare them for both a Christian life and a commitment to changing and improving society.