PERUGIA – “Ours was an act of transparency, which wanted to inform the community of a decision matured over a long time”. With a few essential words, the bishop of Orvieto-Todi, Gualtiero Sigismondi, reiterates a Republic the sense of the choice to publicly announce, during Sunday mass, the intention of Fr. Riccardo Ceccobelli to leave the cassock for the love of a girl. “My heart is in love”, said at the end of the service the 42-year-old parish priest of Massa Martana, in the province of Perugia, who chose to cultivate a relationship with Laura, a catechist in his own parish and a nurse.
Massa Martana, the parish priest who left the priesthood for love: “I feel a sense of honesty”
A choice that made the issue of priestly celibacy re-emerge in the comments of the local community, to which Monsignor Sigismondi replies firmly: “It is good to point out that this affair has never called into question the celibacy of priests and the suspension itself against Don Riccardo, the hardest and most painful measure that a bishop can take, expresses in itself how important celibacy is for a priest “. The bishop of the Umbrian diocese, who accompanied the 42-year-old priest on the path of maturing his choice, wanted “at the same time to testify immense gratitude to all those priests who live the fidelity of total dedication with a free and ardent heart”.
Don Riccardo returned yesterday to his house in Pantalla, in the municipality of Todi, and in the next few days he will be busy preparing the dossier to be transmitted to the Holy See, to ask for the grace of dispensation from the obligations of celibacy.
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