Don Alberto Ravagnani? Like Chiara Ferragni
“You are not of the world.” In this verse from the Gospel of John, Jesus addresses his disciples explaining that he has chosen them to live and preach a spiritual nature that contrasts with worldliness. A cornerstone of Christianity that finds space in the priesthood, or at least it should. Who better than a priest can live like a disciple?
Yet, in recent years, within the Church there seems to be confusion on this point, between being in the world and being of the world. Between getting among the people and getting confused with the people. A confusion that has evidently overwhelmed Don Alberto Ravagnani, an “influencer priest” with over half a million followers on Instagram and TikTok, who became famous during Covid thanks to some viral videos published on YouTube to stay in touch with the children of the San Michele oratory in Busto Arsizio, where he carried out his service before arriving at San Gottardo al Corso, in Milan. A success that definitively exploded after the guests on Fedez’s podcast and became a sort of social pastoral.
The result was surprising. The online community has become a concrete youth reality, “Fraternity”, which with the guidance of Don Alberto has organized a long series of meetings, catechesis, moments of prayer and sharing since 2022, making him a point of reference for thousands of young people. Popularity, however, always has another side of the coin, which the 32-year-old Ravagnani has no longer been able to manage.
From faith to supplements, the collapse of the castle
The modern language with which he addressed young people, talking about God and faith, has transformed in the last year into an incessant narration of himself: from training in the gym with his biceps visible, to selfies in the hotels where he was a guest for some event. And woe to say that perhaps he was going a little off track, a horde of young believers was ready to defend him in the name of a necessary renewal within the Church that he was finally bringing about.
Then came the advertising of supplements – “Holy yes, but also healthy” cit. -, a podcast where he showed up in a white t-shirt and blazer to answer uncomfortable questions about sex and sins, another podcast with Giorgia Soleri and a series of posts in which to mix worldly moments and parables. Until the announcement of his second book, “La Scelta”, to be released on February 10, in which he tells “the story of a priest and what lies behind a collar”.
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This happened last January 15th in a video on Instagram. Dates and words are fundamental to recount the collapse of a communication castle built ‘in the name of God’. Already in October Don Alberto Ravagnani had begun to give some clues about the arrival of a new book, which this time however would have talked about him, his vocation, his consecrated life, even his crises, but without ever mentioning a radical decision such as that of suspending the priesthood, which at this point is supposed to be central to his story. That arrived only in recent days, given hastily by the person concerned, after the statement from the Diocese of Milan to inform the faithful of the parish of San Gottardo al Corso that Don Alberto would no longer carry out the task of parish vicar and collaborator of youth ministry.
A freezing shower, perhaps more for Ravagnani than for his followers and parishioners, given that this communication clearly anticipated all the promotional planning for the release of the book, forcing him to take action. Within 24 hours he rushed to publish a video on Instagram in which he announced his decision – referring to a longer video that will be released on YouTube – and within a few hours the episode of Giacomo Poretti’s podcast was released (recorded weeks before) in which he talks about renouncing the priestly ministry. Everything already ready and packaged for a while.
Communication errors
Without any personal, much less moral, judgment on such an important choice, the result of profound reflections, which will certainly have also caused pain, in front of a public figure – as well as a priest – one cannot fail to notice the stumble. What is sobering are the months of omission while he was writing his memoir. Ravagnani, in fact, continued to portray himself as a priest on social media, riding the great success of the character with the white collar, when in his heart the choice was already written and he just had to put it in black and white for the editorial project. He would have done so in all likelihood until the book came out, providing a master marketing twist.
A “communication error” worthy of Chiara Ferragni, except that Codacons is not enough here.
