After the death of his wife, Antonio Celleti, a retired general in the Italian Air Force, was ordained a priest in 2018 in the diocese of Rome.
Priestly vocations clearly have no age. Like the great saints, Mr. Antonio Celletti, a widower after 30 years of marriage, was ordained a priest on June 2, 2018. He comes from a family of workers. When he was a child he entered scouting. Married to Luciana, they had a daughter, he entered the Air Force and rose to the rank of general.
Luciana suffered from a severe autoimmune disease, the beginning of a long and arduous battle against death, she had successive operations and each operation was worse. A pain that is hard to accept, but the couple endured for a long time: “Watching my wife suffer is not easy, but it makes me available to her at any time. Ready not only materially but also human, husband, and man. I think a grieving person will be comforted if they have someone to lean on.”
Desire to dedicate oneself to God
His desire to dedicate himself to God became so strong after Luciana's death on November 23, 2006. Although he had been prepared for her death, her departure also caused him pain, and he suppressed his emotions to release it. Likes: “Faith helped me, because I always considered her alive, I felt she was close to me, I knew she was there with us.”
Then he felt a growing desire to dedicate himself to the Lord, first serving as a deacon. But he didn't stop there, he wanted to go to the end of his commitment, he wanted to be a priest. His wish surprised his daughter and worried his granddaughter.
Maria asked her grandfather:
If you were a priest, would you still be my grandfather?
Of course, he's always been my grandfather.
Do you continue to play with your children?
Will you continue to play with me?
That's ok! Maria happily agreed to let her grandfather become a priest!
And Antonio was ordained, he was the parish priest of the parish of Saint Irenaeus in the diocese of Rome. He told Aleteia: "As a priest, my job is to try to bring God's mercy to people, to find them so they can meet God's mercy. This is my job too: to find souls.”