On Saturday, June 8, priests Giulio Vannucci and Michele Di Stefano were ordained in the Cathedral of Prato (Italy); the first a former guitarist and keyboardist for a punk group; and the second a former police officer, now united by the same vocation.
According to the website of the Diocese of Prato, the new priests, who had also received diaconal ordination together on November 18, were now ordained by the local bishop, Bishop Giovanni Nerbini.
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“The Lord has not chosen administrators or supermen, but simple and always generous people,” said the prelate in his homily at the ordination Mass.
Father Vanucci has long hair and a beard, and was part of the group the Quantums, a local punk band. “A period in which I had a lot of fun and that I do not regret,” comments the priest, according to the Italian newspaper. Future.
This priest is 38 years old. He was born in the town of Pistoia and eight years ago he joined the male community of the Reconstructors at the Prato Prato. He has two degrees, one in letters and the other in educational sciences, which allowed him to work as a teacher.
The community to which it belongs, which has Father Guidalberto Bormolini as its guide, implemented the housing project Everything is Life.
“Lately I have been a bricklayer and I welcomed many people who came to the town, a wonderful experience. For me, being a priest means putting oneself even more at service, it means taking care of everything and everyone,” says Father Vannucci, who celebrated his first Mass on the night of the same Saturday that he was ordained.
The other priest, Father Michele Di Stefano, is 39 years old. At 19 he wanted to be a police officer and was sent to the town of Bardonecchia, where he met a priest who worked with children in the summer.
In 2009 when he arrived in Prato, he was received by the bishop at the time, Bishop Gastone Simoni, to go to the seminary and study theology in Florence.
“Today there is no goal achieved, but rather it is the beginning of a new path, even exhausting, but I am sure that I am not alone and that I have God’s help. My intention is to be close to people who suffer, who feel alone,” said the priest, who was accompanied by his former police colleagues.
His first Mass was celebrated on Sunday, June 9.
Walter Sánchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.