Following the interview with Mother Maria Vittoria Longhitano, published on Friday, January 21 City.
I wanted to be a priest since childhood
Maria Vittoria Longhitano next Sunday will become pastor of the Old Catholic Church in Milan. The first ordained and elected in Italy.
She is a woman priest and Catholic, as you can?
because they belong to the Old Catholic Italian Church, which is independent of Rome and wants to recover the true Church, the undivided, democratic and pluralistic previous to schisms.
As he understood that he wanted to become a priest?
I wanted since childhood. I used to play dolls baptized, to say mass with the chips as if they were communion wafers, each scarf is a scarf.
But what she liked being a priest?
The idea that a priest is a person who has care, which embraces all. And the contact with God: I knew it was very deep. Then the liturgy: the colors, incense, gestures and symbolism.
The Mystery of contact with God found him?
course ... As children we have an idealized image: black or white. Contact with God but it is not something that is in one day: is cultivated and beyond the call.
She was educated in the Roman Church, when he realized he could not make the priest?
When I told the pastor that I wanted to become an altar boy - I dared not ask too much! He replied that Jesus did not want. It was the anguish of my childhood.
Some say that means a child baptized join an association of which can never become the leader ...
( laughs. ) Beautiful! I would say that is an association in which a child can not fully express his talent and his vocation.
She put the soul in peace?
with us please very Santa Rita, the "holy of the impossible." We were told that if we wanted something impossible, she had to pray. On his feast day, May 22, I asked her to become a priest. There
failed. Yes
After many years, when the bishop has set the date of my ordination to the priesthood has chosen May 22 - without knowing it. It is as if, in the communion of saints, this extraordinary woman I had supported.
How was your actual path?
I studied theology and tried the road to a secluded monastery: I was attracted by the radical nature of the contemplative life. But that entry was closed when I was before I began the novitiate.
was closed? Why?
was considered too "liberal": the nuns recited the homily, there was internal democracy and managerial autonomy.
Eventually he left the Catholic Church.
"Catholic" means universal. How can you be a truly universal Church that excludes women? That Old Catholic but is truly inclusive and universal.
You also have bishops and confession?
We have the bishops and all the sacraments of the Roman Church. But not his sexual phobia, not the exclusion of women, not the idea that the pope is infallible and superior to other bishops. And our clergy are elected by the faithful.
When did your church?
In 1873, after 55 bishops refused to sign the papal idea that the pope can do no wrong. We, however, like to say that we exist from the beginning of Christianity and we have kept its original meaning of freedom, dignity and respect for people.
many of you in Italy?
Hundreds, concentrated in Milan, Sabbioneta (Mantova), Rome. In many words share our choices, but then they are lazy is hard for an Italian left the Roman Church
And you priests can marry.
Even in the Church of the first millennium was the marriage of priests a regular thing. In Ravenna there are still paintings depicting Saint Peter and his wife.
Also on sexual morality, you have more open positions than the Roman Church ...
Sexuality is a positive force for the growth of people. And one way to show love between two people who have a common project. God does not enter the bedrooms.
There must be a project of common life?
We are for the absolute freedom of conscience, not a libertine lifestyle. Sexuality profoundly affects the structure and soul of the people, can not be used casually. But we are not afraid of pleasure and desire. It is also
per gli amori gay?
Accettiamo i divorziati, i gay, qualunque amore, perché Dio è amore. Nella nostra messa partecipata gli omosessuali sono liberi di parlare della loro vita e pregare con gli altri per i loro partner. E ogni seconda domenica del mese, a Milano, celebriamo con il Guado, un’associazione di credenti gay, lesbiche e trans.
Lei spesso va in giro vestita da prete, con il clergyman: come reagisce la gente in Italia?
A Milano non si stupisce nessuno. Al Centro si girano e fanno considerazioni a voce alta: “È anglicana?”, dicono. Al Sud chiedono.
E lei cosa preferisce?
Il Sud! Sono siciliana! E preferisco la gente che si mette in dialogue.
What do you like best about being a priest?
Give Hope. That people will stop identifying with Jesus and God Church male, macho, which excludes many people.
Elena Thebanelena.tebano [at] rcs.it
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