«The train has remained the same, but the tracks have changed». It is with this metaphor that Don Alberto Ravagnani motivated his abandonment of the priesthood which online and on social media has become one of the most discussed topics in recent days with various reflections and opinions both for and against. He tells it himself PoreCastthe podcast of Giacomo Poretti, explaining the profound reasons that led him to make one of the most delicate steps in his life which led him to abandon, with the priesthood, also the roles of parish vicar in the church of San Gottardo al Corso in Milanas a collaborator of the diocesan youth ministry and as the first manager of Fraternity, the community of young people for digital evangelization that he founded.
Not a break with faith
This is not, Ravagnani immediately clarifies in the podcast, a break with the faith nor a departure from the Gospel: «The train has remained the same, but the tracks have changed». What remains intact is the desire that has run through its entire history: “I still want to live for God, I want to follow the message of Jesus.” And again: “I want to live my humanity as much as possible in a divine way, I want to aim for this at least.”
Inner tension
The decision arises from an internal tension that has developed over time: “I realized that the way life as a priest asks me to be is no longer enough for me.” Ravagnani speaks about the ministry with great clarity, without judgment or recrimination: «Priest is a role, it is a social role, to which expectations, obligations and a delimited field of action are linked». And it is precisely this that, over time, began to bother him: “I realized that I have already gone beyond all this.”
The central point of choice
The central crux of his discernment is a strong word, which he does not attempt to soften: «A real dissonance has been created in me between what I should be as a priest and what perhaps I am called, in this moment, to be, to become and to do». Hence the decision to leave the priesthood 8 years after his ordination, which took place in 2018.
Don Alberto Ravagnani during Eucharistic Adoration in a gathering of Fraternities, the community he founded
The weight of change
When asked how he is experiencing this transition, Ravagnani does not hide his fatigue: “Even though it weighs on me, even though it’s tiring, even though it’s not painless, I think the time has come to take this step.” The dominant feeling is fear: “So much fear, because I realize that I have something important in my hands and I wouldn’t want to break it.” A fear that arises from the desire to preserve what has been: “The desire is not to waste the good.” A good made of relationships, experiences, a shared journey: «A lot of kids around me, a lot of fruits, a lot of experiences». And again: «I have traveled a lot, met many people, I have learned from many people, I have changed». Looking back, the balance remains deeply grateful: “It was really fantastic.”
The origin of the vocation
To fully understand this choice, Ravagnani, who also wrote a book, significantly titled The choice (SEM), which will be in bookstores from February 10, then returns to the origins of his path, to that vocation born from a radical conversion, which took place seventeen years ago: “When I converted at 17 years old, my family wasn’t believers, I wasn’t very churchgoing”. The decisive experience comes unexpectedly, during a confession: “When I experienced God during a confession, I changed after the confession.”
A change of identity
A clear change, almost a transition of identity: “Before I was one way and then I became another way.” First, he says in the interview with Giacomo Poretti, “I was closed, introverted, I had low self-esteem.” Afterwards, however, “I experienced love, joy of living”. From that meeting a new research was born: «I began to be attracted by transcendence, I asked myself questions: where I come from, where I’m going, what it means to love, what is my place in the world».
Prayer and the encounter with Jesus
Prayer becomes the place where these questions take shape: “Then I started praying.” And he immediately specifies: “For me, praying meant reading the Gospel.” It is there that the decisive encounter takes place: “I read the Gospel, I got to know Jesus, what he said, what he did, how he did it, and he fascinated me.”
The birth of the vocation
The vocation to the priesthood was born as a natural response to that encounter: “If God has changed my life to this point, why can’t I give him my life?”. A question that becomes a concrete choice: “It seemed almost natural to me to live accordingly, and so I entered the seminary.”
The desire for fullness
At the base, Ravagnani reiterates, there was not an idea of sacrifice as an end in itself, but a profound desire for fullness: «The original request was the desire to live a full, fulfilled, happy life, in the service of others». The priesthood appeared to be the most coherent space: “The seminary and the life of the priest were the tracks in which this could be done.”
The “influencer priest” in the spotlight
Ravagnani, known as the “influencer priest”, has more half a million followers across Instagram, Facebook and TikTok and 160 thousand subscribers to the YouTube channel. It is almost natural that his choice has been and continues to be much debated in the Catholic community with many priests and faithful divided.
He himself responded with an Instagram story to the wave of attention he received: «I see that many are expressing considerations on my choice. That’s right. I wish to share with you what is going on in my heart and give you some necessary explanations. I just ask you for a little patience.”
The pain of those who remain
One of the first to publish content was Don Marco Ferrari, priest at the parish of San Vittore in Rho, with over 10 thousand followers on Instagram. In his post on Saturday, a photograph taken in Egypt portrays him together with a young Don Alberto: «The choice, to be honest, is never just self-determination but involves in concentric circles everyone who is next to you», writes Don Marco, «and I cannot help but suffer for a friend who leaves the ministry, and I cannot and do not want to silence the displeasure for a choice not so much that I do not agree with, but that I am not able to accept and which I have to suffer like a boulder».
The thoughts of Don Luca Zamboni
At the same time too Don Luca Zamboni, priest of the diocese of Verona with 13 thousand followers on Instagram, shared a photo together with Don Alberto, both in black shirts and white collars, accompanied by some reflections: «Now, unfortunately, I don’t agree with your choice. Even if I love you, it will hurt and it will be a wound for the whole Church… it is undeniable”, and again: “The Church has always loved you, she will continue to do so because she is a faithful wife, she will respect this choice of yours, she has never taken away your freedom and will never take it away from you”.
Thanks from Don Roberto Fiscer
He also intervened on the matter Don Roberto Fisher, parish priest of the Santissima Annunziata del Chiappeto in the Borgoratti district of Genoa, who addressed Ravagnani in a video published on Instagram and TikTok, where he is followed by over a million users: «Thank you for everything you have donated in these years here on social media, but not only that, also in your parishes, in your fraternity with your children». Don Fiscer continues with another thank you: «With this choice that you have made, you made the beauty of being priests, of being priests, but also of the effort of being priests shine in me, and I think not only in me: because it is an immense treasure in a fragile vessel, which is us, our humanity, above all our time.” Before closing the video, the priest sends an apologetic message: «For all the comments you have received, real stabs, sometimes disguised as advice, sometimes gratuitous, but people who cannot understand us: many are failed priests or failed nuns, who bring out all this hatred.”
Don Cosimo Schena’s comment
Don Cosimo Schena, priest of the diocese of Brindisi and highly followed on social media with around half a million followers, also entrusted his comment to social media: «When a spiritual guide stops or changes direction, there is not just news to comment on, but a wound to listen toAnd. Those who stay are hurt and often those who leave are hurt too. It is not a story of betrayal, but of fragility”, writes the priest, “many are not angry, they are lost. They don’t ask “who made a mistake?”, but “where do I stand now?”. In these moments, an idealized image of faith and the Church collapses, and it hurts everyone. The fragility of a person is not the failure of faith. The risk is to transform pain into judgement, which protects, but does not cure. Faith is not a performance, but a journey. Sometimes we don’t lose God, but a way of thinking about him. “It is not the fragility of a man that causes faith to collapse, but the inability to remain human in the face of wounds”.
