A personal testimony of a converted priest
I was born in Venice, northern Italy, on March 22, 1917. At the age of ten, I was sent to the Roman Catholic Seminary in Piacenza, and after 12 years of study I was ordained a priest on October 22, 1939.
Two months later, Cardinal R. Rossi, my superior, sent me to America to assist a pastor in a new Italian church called "Blessed Mother Cabrini" in Chicago. I preached in Cigaco for four years, and later in New York. I never wondered if my sermons or instructions were against the Bible. My only concern was to satisfy the Pope.
It was on a Sunday in February 1944 that I turned on the radio and accidentally adapted the station to a program at a Protestant church. The pastor presented his message. I was about to change the program because I was not allowed to listen to Protestant sermons, but I was interested, I don't know how it happened, I kept listening.
My old toology was shaken by a Bible text I heard on the radio: " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved."
So, it was not a sin against the Holy Spirit to believe that someone was saved.
I had not yet been converted, but my mind was full of doubts about the Roman Catholic religion. I began to worry more about the teachings of the Bible than the dogmas and decrees of the Pope. Poor people gave me between five and thirty dollars every day for twenty minutes of a ceremony called the Liturgy, because I promised to free the souls of their relatives from the fires of purgatory. But every time I looked at the great crucifix on the altar, it was as if Christ rebuked me, saying, “You steal money from the poor, working people through false promises.
You teach doctrines that are against My teaching. The souls of those who believe will not go to a place of torment, for I have said, ' Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on!' Yes, says the Spirit, they shall rest from their labors, for their works follow them! '(Revelation 14:13). I do not need a repetition of the sacrifices on the cross, because my sacrifice was complete. My work of salvation was perfect, and God sanctioned it by My resurrection from the dead. ' For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified. '(Hebrews 10:14). If you priests and the Pope have the power to free souls from purgatory through Masses and Indulgences, why do you wait to be offered money?
If you see a dog in a fire, don't wait until the owner gives you five dollars to get the dog out of the fire.
I could no longer look at Christ on the altar. When I preached that the Pope is the vicar of Christ, the successor of Peter, the infallible rock on which the church of Christ was built, a voice seemed to rebuke me again: “You saw the Pope in Rome; his large and wide palace, the guards, the people kissing his feet. Do you really think he represents me? I came to serve people, I washed their feet, I had nowhere to lay my head. Look at me on the cross. Do you really believe that God built His Church upon a man, when the Bible clearly says that the Vicar of Christ on earth is the Holy Spirit, not a man? (John 14:26). " And that rock is Christ ." (1 Corinthians 10: 4) If the Roman Catholic Church is built on a man, then it is not My Church. ”
We still preach that the Bible is not a sufficient rule of faith, but that we need the tradition and dogma of the church to understand the Scriptures. But again, a voice inside me said, “You preach against the teaching of the Bible; you learn nonsense. If Christians need a Pope to understand the Scriptures, why do they need to understand the Pope? I have condemned the tradition because anyone can understand what is necessary to know about personal salvation . '(John 20:31)
We taught people to go to Mary, to the saints, instead of going directly to Christ. But a voice inside me asked me:
Who served on the cross? Mary, the saints, or I, Jesus? You and many other priests do not believe in objects, novenas, rosaries, statues, candles, but continue to keep them in your churches because you say that ordinary people need simple things that remind them of God. You keep them in your churches because they are a source of income. But I do not want any trade in My church. My believers should worship Me, Spirit and Truth. Destroy these idols, teach people to pray, to come only to me. "
The place where doubts really tormented me was inside the confessional.
People came to me, knelt before me, and confessed their sins to me. And by the sign of the cross, I promised them that I had the power to forgive their sins. I, a sinner, a man, took the place of God, the right of God, and that awful voice penetrated me saying, “You deprive God of His glory. If sinners want to obtain forgiveness of sins, they must come to God and not to you. What they have broken is God's law. Therefore, they must confess to God; only in God should they pray for forgiveness. No man can forgive sins, but Jesus can, and He truly forgives sins, " She shall bear a Son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins ." (Matthew 1: 1) 21) 'There is no salvation in anyone else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved . ' (Acts 4:12) ' For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus .' (1 Timothy 2: 5) ”
I could no longer remain in the Roman Catholic Church, because I could not continue to serve two masters: the Pope and Christ. I could no longer believe in two contradictory teachings: tradition and the Bible. I had to choose between Christ or the Pope, between tradition or the Bible; and I chose Christ and the Bible. I left the Roman priesthood and the religion of Rome in 1944, and now I have been led by the Holy Spirit to evangelize Roman Catholics and encourage Christians to witness to them without fear.
[Source: https://bereanbeacon.org/ro/preotul-care-l-a-gasit-pe-cristos/]
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