He is the eighth of ten children of Rinaldo and Antonia Adorni. In Parma, at the Brothers of Christian schools, he attended elementary school. Despite his father's resistance, in 1876 Guido entered the seminary. In those years Monsignor Andrea Ferrari was rector and became the guide of Conforti. On 22 September 1888 he was ordained a priest. During the years of the seminary, the reading of a biography of healthy recognized by the bishop of Parma, Monsignor Magani the Congregation of St. Francis Xavier for foreign missions promoted by him. In 1899 he sent the first two missionaries to China. In May 1902 he was called by Pope Leo XIII to govern the archdiocese of Ravenna.
On 11 June 1902 he was ordained bishop in Rome in the basilica of San Paolo Fuori le Mura and took his religious vows together with the vow to devote himself unreservedly to proclaiming the Gospel ad gentes. He sets to work without sparing energy, but after only two years, he has to give up the job for serious health reasons. He returns to Parma and dedicates himself to the formation of his young aspiring missionaries. Having recovered, in 1907 Pius X appointed him bishop of Parma where he placed religious instruction at the foundation of his pastoral commitment. Facing countless hardships and hardships, he made five pastoral visits, celebrated two diocesan synods, established and promoted Catholic Action, especially youth.
He takes particular care of the culture and holiness of the clergy, the formation of the laity, Catholic associations, the Catholic press, missions to the people, Eucharistic, Marian and missionary congresses. In the first pastoral letter, Conforti dedicated a paragraph to Catholic Action: «… And I trust no less in the work of those militant Catholics, who united in holy league, with the press, with the word, with associations of every kind and with all means wanted by the new times, work for the triumph of the good cause". He is convinced that the laity have an important role in society. In Parma there is also the Union of Catholic women. To the duties of bishop and superior of a missionary institute, a great activity is added to support the growing missionary spirit of the Italian Church. For this reason, in 1916 he collaborated with Fr. Manna to the foundation of the Pontifical Missionary Union of the Clergy, of which he becomes the first president.
He had the joy of being able to send the Xaverians to China and to consecrate one of his missionaries in Parma in 1912, Fr. Luigi Calza, bishop of ChengChow in China. In 1921 the missionary Congregation was definitively approved by the Pope. In 1928 he went to China to visit his missionaries confirming the bond of communion between the Church of Parma and the young Church of western Honan. Back in Parma, he resumed his pastoral activity, but his health deteriorated and he died on 5 November 1931.
He was canonized by Benedict XVI on October 23, 2011.
