Alberto Ravagnani (born 1993) is an Italian social media personality and former Catholic priest. He became known for his decision to renounce the priesthood due to disagreements over the church's celibacy rule for clergy members.
Early life Ravagnani was born in 1993 in Monza, in the Lombardy region of northern Italy. His father was a warehouse worker and his mother was a cook. He wrote in his autobiography, published in 2026, about how he condemned his classmates at school, had a pornography addiction as a teenager and was not shown much affection through his childhood.
Priesthood and social media success Ravagnani came to faith at 17, and was ordained as an associate pastor in 2018, initially at the Church of St Michael the Archangel in Busto Arsizio before later moving to San Gottardo in Corte in Milan. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he started a YouTube channel, where he quickly gained over 75,000 subscribers by July 2020.
Ravagnani wrote a letter to Italian rapper Fedez after he released a song containing a remark about the Church's history of child sexual abuse scandals, suggesting that Fedez meet several of the children in his parish to learn of their experiences in the church, with Fedez later blocking Ravagnani on Instagram. Ravagnani was also a speaker at the Jubilee of Catholic Digital Missionaries and Influencers held in Rome in June 2025.
Ravagnani attracted controversy in September 2025, following an Instagram post containing a paid partnership with a supplements company. He defended the decision, claiming that it was necessary in order to cover expenses related with his career. Ravagnani also stated that he occasionally used ChatGPT to write sermons.
Departure from the priesthood In January 2026, Ravagnani announced that he would stand down as a priest, citing his main reason for doing so as his disagreement with the Church's celibacy rules, which require ordained members of the Church to abstain from marriage and sexual activity. Initially he believed in celibacy during his study at the seminary; however his opinion changed after being questioned by his parishioners, some of whom pointed out contradictions in the Church's teachings. In an interview with Triple J Hack, he said that throughout his priesthood, he struggled with remaining celibate, and that he desired a relationship. He stated, "I think we don't have to demonise having sex and try to feel pleasure about giving love and receiving love."
He wrote an autobiography about his experiences with priesthood and social media fandom, titled La Scelta (). Ravagnani is encouraging the church to reconsider its stances on celibacy and to be more inclusive.
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