Former Religious: Francis Appoints Secretary For Laity Dicastery
The Vatican press office introduces Souza, who was born in Brazil in 1984, as a religious education teacher in Galatina, Italy, and a married father of two daughters.
Prior to his marriage, he was a member of the Congregation of the Sons of Divine Providence of Don Orione for 11 years (2005-2016) and therefore probably made perpetual profession.
In January 2014, while still a religious and in the second year of theology studies in Rome, he wrote to Francis about his "vocation". Francis then called him and invited him to a private meeting at St Marta. Souza appeared in a grey collar shirt (see picture). He later published a very effusive account of this meeting.
He left his order in his fourth year of theology, about a year before he would have been ordained a deacon. Agencia.Ecclesia.pt presented Souza as a "former priest", but the article was later deleted.
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