ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 7, 2023 / 18:10 pm (CNA).
Young Edoardo Santini, considered “the most handsome man in Italy,” has decided to leave his promising career as a model and enter a seminary to become a priest.
Dancer, swimmer, actor — these were a few of the dreams of Santini, a 21-year-old Italian who in 2019 when he was 17 earned the title of the most handsome young man in his country after winning a national contest.
This award opened the doors to the world of fashion, and his future seemed clear: He was destined to become a big star. However, God’s plans were different. Santini was going to continue shining, but away from the spotlight and catwalks.
A courageous first step
In a video posted on social media Nov. 23, Santini explained that he is on his way “to become, God willing, a priest.”
He says that during these years he has met people who, “by showing me what it means to ‘be Church,’ have given me the strength to investigate this question that I had been carrying around since I was little” but which, he says, “I didn’t delve into because of fear.”
In January 2020 he discovered “the real Church,” and that was when on social media he began to talk about God and the call he felt.
“Living in God doesn’t mean locking yourself inside the church but rather living one’s life more fully,” he told his more than 11,000 followers on Instagram.
He also mentioned the opposition of his grandmother, who “expected something else” from her grandson. However, he stressed that he didn’t feel “alone” in his decision and that he was “tired of satisfying the will of others and posting photos where I am apparently secure and happy.”
The young man from the Tuscany region took “a first step” and last year he went to live with two priests, which he described as “the most beautiful experience of my life.”
Sharing his daily life with the priests allowed him to “find in everyday life the answer that I hoped for, which has come to me from above.”
“At the end of the year, it was natural for me to ask the bishop to enter the preparatory course, the year preceding life in the seminary. And here I am, studying theology and serving in two parishes of the Diocese of Florence,” he said in his video.
He also shared that he was slow in taking the first step “for fear of not being accepted” and that making this decision was something “that terrified him” although, he said honestly, “I built more walls for myself than there were.”
Experience at World Youth Day in Lisbon
Santini also shared on Instagram his experience during World Youth Day in August in Lisbon, Portugal.
Through different videos, he showed how this gathering of young people marked a before and after in his life.
Between “laughter, dancing, jumping up and down,” and new friendships, Santini discovered that “the Church is beautiful.” Now, at the age of 21 and after having dared to say “yes” to the call of the Lord, he said he feels really “happy.”
This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.
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To bend low to uplift the lowly is a major grace. It takes courage to answer a call. All the best.
Dear anti-Pope Francis and anti- Vatican II doomsday bashers: Here is a sample of a Pope Francis and Vatican II seminarian.
And then there’s the opposite case of one Michael Edwards…
…who, after Elvis Presley had died, spent some six years with Priscilla. After that time of genuine affection, distraction, and then a tragic abortion (Edwards held himself responsible for not preventing it), this handsome and one-time clothing model wrote about it. But then added a postscript protesting that he was not really as stupid as this former behavior:
“Our perpetual, unremitting love life had been the devil’s making. We’d become like two animals snared in a trap—snarling, eyes bulging and berserk, twitching and jerking. Our world was completely out of kilter [….] The big house, fine cars, tennis court, pool, people attending us around the clock—none of this could get you the moon. . . .Or even a little bit of serenity [!]. That, I now realized, was what I wanted.”
Serenity! Recalling his one fleeting moment of serenity, in his youth and in a church, Edwards writes,
“. . . Above the organ was a life-sized crucifix, and if I stared at Jesus long enough, he came to life and smiled at me. I was filled with a warm feeling of love and understood the meaning of the words ‘My cup runneth over’” (“Priscilla, Elvis and Me: In the Shadow of the King,” New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988).
Just in case your references to Vatican II mean that you hold that the Novus Ordo Mass came from Vatican II, the Vatican II document on the liturgy doesn’t even hint at the Mass composed by Bugnini.