Priest Announces His Love for a Woman and Decision to Leave Clerical State

"Friends, women and men of Chiusano, I have an important announcement to make. On October 18th, I expressed to the bishop my firm will to renounce the clerical state and consequently to be relieved from all the duties and obligations connected to it, including celibacy." This is how a long Facebook post by Don Antonio Romano, parish priest of Chiusano San Domenico, begins, announcing that he is in love with a woman and wants to leave the priesthood. "After a long friendship, I discovered that I love a woman with whom I share feelings, aspirations, projects, values, faith, principles and ideals - writes Don Antonio Romano -. We cannot do without each other despite all the efforts made to repress the feeling and attempts to separate. I can't continue to fight against my nature. This inner conflict has eroded over time, even the enthusiasm and fertility of my ministry to the point of making it heavy and oppressive. As for my future spouse, to avoid hasty judgments, insinuations and slander, I would like you to know that she has been out of a traumatic and troubled cohabitation for a few years."