THE «DON RAVA CASE»: BETWEEN GUILTY AND INNOCENT AND THAT SYMPTOM OF AN ECCLESIAL ILLNESS THAT WE STILL DO NOT WANT TO ACKNOWLEDGE

The first issue to be resolved is the choice of men who know how to truly be trainers and not "deformers", on this point it is necessary that the bar of demand and desire remains very high, without compromising.

- Church news -

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Author
Ivano Liguori, Ofm. Cap.

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In this time there have been numerous writings that have interested the web on the story of Don Alberto Ravagnani's abandonment of the priestly ministry.

Fernando Botero, The priest's rest, year 1977

Personally, that's what bothered me the most — and I say this both as a priest but also as a faithful Christian — is that, Once again, people reacted by perceiving the whole story by reacting "gut-first". By assuming a dialectic of stadium fans it is impossible to read in depth and detect the evident educational emergency, pedagogical, theological and ecclesial that underlies it. Which means — rest assured — that a few months have passed, everything will fall into oblivion and we will look for a new scandal scoop to run after. We can say about Don Alberto Ravagnani what Manzoni's Don Abbondio said about Carneade: «Who was he??», and this not before having exhausted all the possible television and journalistic hosts who will use the case of this young man for their editorial itches and to launch yet another attack on the priesthood, to celibacy and the Church.

If all this wasn't sad enough already, we also had to put up with the various posts and videos of fellow priests «on page» who tore their clothes for the excessive severity against which people reacted in the face of the "Don Rava case". A completely out of place defense that has more the aftertaste of a psychological defense mechanism than of real interest in a person in crisis and in need of help. What is interesting to know instead, for a realistic and honest reading of the story, is that Don Alberto has collected with interest the price of media visibility cultivated for years as priest influence, and this is for better or for worse.

In 2026 most people is aware that the consecration of an individual to a public figure through the use and language of social media opens the door to a cascade of completely unpredictable events and consequences, including the fact that the Web it grants the right to speak to legions of imbeciles who previously only spoke at the bar after a glass of wine, without damaging the community while now they have the same right to speak as a Nobel Prize winner. I quote Umberto Eco by the way in this reading on the phenomenon of social because evidently this reading appears confirmed by the case in question. What seems strange is that a priest who has chosen to evangelize young people through the use of the media has not made this type of reflection, including the various public defenders who worked hard to put out the flames of the media fire around Don Alberto of whom we Fathers of the Island of Patmos continue to affirm substantial good faith combined with human and spiritual immaturity. Unfortunately, good faith alone is not enough and does not save.

Upon careful reflection, the whole affair evidently appears too unbalanced because dear Don Alberto had long ago abandoned the interior features of the priest to take on those of the sole influence and this disproportion of intent and image then bore fruit by depersonalizing him and directing him to aspire to other horizons considered more suitable and desirable for him, bordering on denial. The same need for greater freedom was the clear symptom of a priestly ministry perceived in a compelling way and it is there that someone should have exercised a prior paternal and pastoral responsibility, a surveillance made of charity and truth that our fathers had summed up with the Greek term bishop (the bishops) arising from epi (above) e skopéō (observe/watch), or “the one who controls”. Dare to look at this young man first, rather than acting diplomatically afterwards, with press releases demanding respect, silence and prayer. All good things if they didn't smell like clerical hypocrisy a mile away. Because it is clear that the epilogue of the entire "Don Rava" affair was the abandonment of the ministry, with accompanying publication of a book/confession, It doesn't take much acumen to understand that the oxen had already escaped from the stable some time ago, for at least a year.

For the love of truth, we must equally reject the contemptuous comments bordering on personal offense that many have directed against Don Alberto in a completely gratuitous and malicious way. Beyond personal sympathies and whether or not we share his activity, no one can judge so with impunity. His attendance at the gym or i selfie in the disco they may have made him pass off perhaps a little too much as a "pussy" but the judgment was disproportionate because it sounded like a sentence without the possibility of appeal: «you are not worthy of being a priest!».

There is so much to say about this plethora of gallows blamers - all de rigueur eminently Catholic, apostolic and Marian - who never miss an opportunity to rebuke priests because their way of being or presenting themselves does not correspond to the "priestly canons" that these sublime minds think a priest should have, when then, when tested by facts, they prove completely incapable of straightening out their hearts, your family and children. But then what are these desirable canons of perfection that these leaders of priestly orthodoxy propose for a clergy above all suspicion?? I mention just a few, among the most recurring ones: the first is that the priest cannot be good-looking, de rigueur he must be ugly and sloppy and possibly overweight because otherwise it would be a waste for him to become a priest. If he is handsome and takes care of himself it is a fault because there is undoubtedly something to hide because it is inconceivable that a handsome man remains chaste. In this regard I limit myself to recalling the slanderous aesthetic evaluations on H.E. Mons. Georg Gänswein and his objective being a handsome man (you see who, who, who, who). Subsequently the priest cannot cultivate a public life, a life full of interests, of aspirations, of personal and spiritual maturation and improvement, as well as keeping dreams and ideals to achieve in our hearts. The priest on the other hand should be a disappointed recluse, stay within the four walls of the sacristy or rectory, have a dull life, flat, without aspirations, possibly always relegated to places where it cannot arouse suspicion, without aspiring to anything because desire is a demonic evil in that: "you have made a choice that precludes you from a normal life". We could add many other things but I will limit myself to these which are the most common evaluations that also wind through the naves and pews of our churches.

About that let us try to remember those words of the blessed apostle Paul who says:

«everything you do in word and deed, everything be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him." (With the 3,17).

Paul doesn't say what to do, but how to do it. Let us be careful as the apostle does not make it a moral question but of baptismal identity aimed at praise and the rendering of grace: carry out every word and action with authority, the spirit and charity of Christ, living as ambassadors of His kingdom, this is the lifestyle not only of the Christian but also of every priest.

All this is possible only within a Church who manages to be mature and responsible, who perceives contact with the people of God and with his fellow priests as an asset and not as a danger, without forgetting that the conformity to the cross of Christ with its inevitable trials will always exist and there is no insurance on the ministry that protects us from all misunderstandings, problems and criticisms.

We therefore come to the crucial point, to the problem of a healthy and mature ecclesial responsibility on the training of future priests and on the accompaniment of priests which for at least thirty years now seems to be completely ineffective if not deleterious.

The first knot to untie it is the choice of men who know how to truly be trainers and not "deformers", on this point it is necessary that the bar of demand and desire remains very high, without compromising. Both in the seminary and in houses of religious formation, there is a need for personally structured people, who know how to "build" a priest or religious person as a harmonious whole through holistic training - allow me this term - which is respectful of humanity and spirituality; of the body and soul of the candidate. I already expressed myself in this sense some time ago with an article (you see who) concerning that divine aesthetic of the Son of Man as the model of all well-proportioned humanity.

Without this pretense we invariably fall into a bigoted and fideistic spirituality, which mortifies the human being and will not allow the future minister of God or religious person to grow healthily. There are numerous cases - which are still too little talked about - of priests and religious who have fallen into dangerous depressions and harmful tendencies to the body and soul because they are fundamentally dissatisfied with their life and abandoned to themselves. Mortified as people by their hierarchical superiors and by those who should prove to be their "brothers", they experience the worst abusive dynamics of a totalitarian regime in the silence of those places that were born to be outposts of Paradise and which instead end up proving worse than the most absurd Purgatory.

The priority is to train the trainers. Naturally when we talk about training of trainers we cannot just think of academic-specialist preparation alone, but of a heart formation, wisdom and experiential that makes the trainer the image of that "wounded healer" capable of training and healing others because he is aware of his own wounds handed over to God and the Church. In this delivery I see a lot of the action of the Holy Spirit as the interior master and first educator of every self-respecting trainer. The temptation to look for rectors and teachers of formation without blemish and without sin risks leading to fanaticism, just as settling for the first to arrive just because it seems "so good" and therefore harmless is equally disastrous.

The second knot to untie it is that of the permanent accompaniment of the priest, as well as the religious. The idea that a young person cannot still stand, after priestly ordination he is left to his own devices and must manage himself as he sees fit only because he has completed the initial and theological training process. A way of understanding the ministry of the priest, turnkey, where one then becomes the arbiter and judge of one's own life and ministry without any control. And this becomes practically impossible to manage if you have not been trained before but deformed, and it is even more unlikely within a ministerial life which will bring inevitable challenges and tiring tests that cannot be faced and overcome (not twenty!) with only seminary training or that received in the religious house of one's own order or congregation.

The priest cannot and must not be left alone by your bishop or hierarchical superior, this is the first duty of responsible fatherhood still neglected in the Church which arises from that gesture of placing one's hands in those of the bishop: "I promise to me and to my successors reverence and obedience?». This promise does not constitute an act between vassal and sovereign. Obedience can be filial and respectful only when fatherhood becomes caring and constant, otherwise we move on from«I care!» (I'm interested), al «I do not care!» (you are a problem for me). Let's be honest, how many priests no longer look their bishop in the face because they feel abandoned or betrayed? Or what about certain bishops who see in their priests only a problem to be neutralized as soon as possible? What tangible embarrassment one can experience during certain Chrism Masses on Holy Thursday. We can also find the same thing in religious life with the aggravating circumstance that religious life insists more on a fraternal and mutual help dynamic, risks tearing apart the charismatic nature of the form of life that was assumed with the religious profession.

These are the conditions that generate the most frequent abandonments of the ministry priestly or requests to leave religious orders. Those who leave are always at fault? Personally I think not, but they are always victims. There would be a lot to say about it but I think the wisest thing in these cases is to note that these epilogues represent the most obvious sign of a faulty mechanism that must be fixed as soon as possible. And such a responsibility falls on everyone, no one excluded.

Sanluri, 10 February 2026

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The books of Ivano Liguori, to access the book shop click on the cover

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