Mario Milano was born on 23 April 1936 in Lamezia Terme, a comune in the Province of Catanzaro and the region of Calabria in Italy.
"[4] This was due, especially, to his refusal to initiate the process for the beatification of Giuseppe Diana, a priest of the Diocese of Aversa killed by the Camorra in Casal di Principe in 1994.
In 2007, Milano forbade the presentation of The Cost of Memory (Italian: Il costo della memoria), a biography of Diana that criticized the reluctance of the diocese to condemn Camorra killings.
Similarly, the suppression of pastoral initiatives aimed at homosexuals, parents of the disabled, drug addicts, and young people in crisis provoked some negative comments.
[5] Significant controversy stemmed from the eviction and threatened secularization of several elderly cloistered nuns at the Capuchinesse convent in Aversa ordered by Milano.