Being a priest is the vocation of Francesco Fiorioa young 25 year old Italian seminarian of the Society of Apostolic Life of the Sons of the Cross, a male branch of the House of Mary community, a Marian reality born out of the Medjugorje experience. Thanks to the support of the CARF FoundationMany of its members, seminarians, priests, religious and laity, have been trained at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. Now, it is beginning its second year of Theology.
The roots of his vocational history go back to his childhood. He was born and raised in Rome, in the suburb of Trullo. From an early age he attended the parish, which was entrusted to the Sons of the Cross in 2005. From the age of 6-7 years he went every day to the oratory, which for him had become his second home.
"The priests and the religious Daughters of the Cross accompanied me to receive all the sacraments: from my first Confession, my first Communion to Confirmation. The Sons and Daughters of the Cross, together with the other boys of the parish, were a second family, and I believe that all the good they did me was to make me feel that I had a second family. left a mark indelible in my heart and in my conscience".
"I remember once, as a child, I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up and I calmly answered: 'the priest', because I saw the Sons of the Cross who every day played soccer and were simply happy, and so I wanted to be like them."
Another anecdote that explains this link with his childhood is that the Daughters of the Cross, who were his catechists, are now the same ones who attend to his daily needs in the seminary. "These people were for me the extension of the hands of Our Lady who took care of me since I was a child. Through them I came to know and come into contact with the reality of the House of Mary, our superiors and the other boys in the community."
Everything was going well until his teenage years, when he began to seek out other friendships that took him away from the true bonds offered to him by the Virgin Mary. "I started to have my foot in two shoes. I never completely broke with the faith: I continued to go to Mass on Sundays, to frequent the parish; but at the same time the only thing that interested me was to build an image of myself in front of the world and to conquer the girls."
It went on like this for a while until 2016 when, at WYD in Krakowgoing on a pilgrimage to the sanctuary of the Black Madonna of CzęstochowaHe felt the call to the priesthood. "This call had left me totally bewildered, because it was like a bolt of lightning in the serene sky, in fact, I can say that it came precisely in the period when I was most out of it.
When I returned home, I totally closed myself off, because there was no way I wanted to be a priest: I had other projects and other programs. I wanted to build a self-managed life for myself. I opposed it for several years, until 2018, when, going to Medjugorje for the summer retreat, we passed through Široki Brijeg, a village at the center of Catholicity in Bosnia and Herzegovina."
On February 7, 1945, Yugoslav communist partisans murdered 30 Franciscan friars, burning their bodies and destroying the convent, library and archives. It was an attempt to erase the Catholic cultural and religious presence in Herzegovina. In total, more than 120 Franciscans from the province of Herzegovina were killed.
were killed during that persecution. Today the friars are remembered as martyrs for the faith, and their sacrifice is commemorated every year.
"When I visited Široki Brijeg, I learned that dozens of Franciscan friars were martyred there during the period of communist occupation in the 20th century and many others still in the preceding centuries of Turkish domination.
The history of that place was explained to us by a local lady. I remember very well that she was moved and wept as she told us about the dedication of the priests to the point of giving their lives for the people, and also the dedication of the people themselves for their priests. She wept as she spoke of the priestsof the Holy Mass.
That testimony of his touched me intimately and began to move something in my hardened heart. Going down to the
In the place of martyrdom, one of our priests who was following our group of young people said to me: "Do you want other answers?", realizing that I had not been indifferent to those words".
In Lent 2019 rediscovered the love of Christ and the centrality of prayer. Lent that year was guided by the words of St. Benedict: "to put nothing before the love of Christ". "These words stayed with me and I associated them with those of St. Paul: "For his sake I gave up all these things, and consider them garbage, that I might gain Christ". Thus I began once again to place prayer, the relationship with the Lord, at the center, considering superfluous all that I had previously desperately sought."
The ordination of eight Sons of the Cross became an occasion that confirmed in Francesco the certainty of his vocation, showing him the joy of a life given.
"However, the priestly ordination of eight Sons of the Cross, which took place on May 12 of that same year, was decisive for me. Seeing the joy and happiness of those new priests, who had welcomed and loved me as a younger brother, in giving themselves totally to the Lord in virginity, in the offering of their whole life for the Church, for the brothers and sisters of the House of Mary and for so many other souls that the Virgin would have them meet, made me say: "Lord, if this is what you want of me, what you are calling me to, all right, I accept".
Vocation in the House of Mary, made him understand that the Virgin Mary was already offering him everything he desired in that place: a spiritual family and the meaning of their dedication.
"Then I realized that everything I was looking for and desired Our Lady had been offering me for a long time in Mary's House, waiting only for me to welcome and accept her call. She fulfilled all my most sincere desires: she gave me a spiritual family, brothers and sisters, the love of a spiritual father and mother, the realization of my affectivity, calling me, not to love a particular person, but to a total gift to the Lord and to others. It was clear to me from the beginning that, if I had to be a priest, I would never have wanted to be a priest outside the House of Mary, because only in this family does my vocation make sense.
In 2021 she consecrated herself to Our Lady and in 2022 she entered the House of Mary, where she lives her vocation in community today.
"Thus I began a more radical approach to the House of Mary. On January 6, 2021, I consecrated myself to Our Lady. On December 4, 2022, I entered the community, and to this day I have been living in the House of Mary for two years".
"I want to conclude my testimony by explaining how, beyond particular events or experiences that I can relate, my vocation is founded on the love that the Virgin Mary has had for me throughout my life and that she has manifested to me through the people she has placed at my side accompanying me in every moment and circumstance."
"Therefore, I also take this opportunity to thank the benefactors of the CARF Foundation for the financial help with which they are supporting my studies and those of my brothers at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. I hope to be able to reward them with my prayers and also with good results in the university path".
Gerardo FerraraDegree in History and Political Science, specializing in the Middle East. Head of the student body at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome.
