Sturzo received his ordination to the priesthood on 19 May 1894 from the Bishop of Caltagirone Saverio Gerbino at the Chiesa del Santissimo Salvatore in Enna.

In 1898, he received a doctorate in his philosophical studies from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, and he taught that subject in his hometown from 1898 to 1903.

In his spare time, he liked to collect antique ceramic art; while serving as the Vice-Mayor, he opened a ceramicists' school in 1918.

[2][3] In 1900, at the same time as the Boxer Rebellion, Sturzo asked his bishop to serve in the missions in China despite the persecutions the Catholic Church was enduring there; he was denied this request on the account of his precarious state of health.

Sturzo was a committed anti-fascist who discussed the ways in which Catholicism and fascism were incompatible in such works as Coscienza cristiana and criticized what he perceived to be clerical fascist elements within the Vatican.

Sturzo also wrote about the thought of Saint Augustine of Hippo and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, as well as Giambattista Vico and Maurice Blondel.

[5] The stance of Pope Pius XI was ambiguous - according to Richard A. Webster, "there is no evidence that the Pontiff yielded so openly to Fascist coercion."

Sturzo himself leaned towards resignation, aware that his position in the party was vulnerable - as a priest, he was forbidden from sitting in the parliament, and his political power was limited because of his priesthood.

In 1926, Sturzo refused an offer from the Vatican that was communicated through Cardinal Francis Bourne to serve as a chaplain in a convent in Chiswick and lodging for his twin sister Nelina in exchange for ending his journalistic activism and issuing a "spontaneous declaration" that he was retired from politics in full.

After the signing of the Lateran Treaty in 1929, he was offered an appointment as a Canon of Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome again in exchange for his permanent renunciation of politics.

On 22 September 1940, Sturzo boarded the Samaria in Liverpool bound for New York hoping for an academic appointment and arrived there on 3 October 1940.

[1] The beatification process for Sturzo opened under Pope John Paul II on 23 March 2002 after the Congregation for the Causes of Saints issued the official nihil obstat decree and titled the priest as a Servant of God.