Italian priest’s suicide underscores humanity of priests

 

ACI Prensa Staff, Jul 8, 2025 / 16:18 pm (CNA).

The Catholic Church — especially in Italy — was profoundly shocked by the news of the death of Father Matteo Balzano, a 35-year-old priest who took his own life on Saturday, July 5.

Alarm was initially raised when he failed to celebrate Sunday Mass. Shortly after, his colleagues found the young priest dead in his parish residence in the town of Cannobio in the Italian region of Piedmont, part of the Diocese of Novara.

In a moving message, Father Franco Giudice, episcopal vicar for clergy and consecrated life in the Diocese of Novara, recalled that “only the Lord, he who scrutinizes and knows each one of us, knows how to understand the most impenetrable mysteries of the human soul.”

“We lift up to the God of mercy a prayer for Don Matteo, our brother in the priesthood, expressing our human closeness, in this dramatic moment, to his family and to the entire parish community of Cannobio,” Giudice wrote.

Balzano was born Jan. 3, 1990, in Borgomanero, Piedmont. He was a member of the parish in Grignasco and was ordained a priest on June 10, 2017, by Bishop Franco Giulio Brambilla of Novara. He served as parochial vicar in the community of Castelletto sopra Ticino from 2017 to early 2023. After a period of time at the Marian shrine in Re, a village in northern Italy, he enthusiastically resumed his mission among the young people of the oratory of the parish of Cannobio, also serving in the Cannobina Valley, according to the Diocese of Novara.

‘No one knows the hell one has inside’

One of Balzano’s parishioners, Maria Grazia, told the newspaper Il Secolo d’Italia that before taking his own life that he had commented to her regarding the death of another person who was close to the parish that “no one knows the hell one has inside to commit such an extreme act.”

On the afternoon of Monday, July 7, a prayer vigil was held at St. Victor Church in Cannobio. On Tuesday, July 8, at 10:30 a.m. local time, Bishop Franco Giulio Brambilla offered the funeral Mass.

After the service, burial took place in the cemetery church of Grignasco, about 55 miles southwest of Cannobio.

The human heart of priests

The tragic event points to the urgent need to provide support and accompaniment to priests, who often bear great responsibilities and challenges, usually alone.

Father Omar Buenaventura, a Peruvian priest widely recognized for his work in solidarity with those most in need, reflected on this vulnerability — inseparable from the human condition.

“Like any man, I feel, I suffer, I laugh, I cry, I get anxious, I get sad, and many, many times I feel that the weight on my shoulders is too great and is going to crush me,” he wrote on Facebook.

Buenaventura noted that “inside every priest there is a human heart, with feelings, joys, wounds, traumas, and histories that few people know. And when this happens, I can’t help but stop and ask myself about my own life.”

“It’s true, God is our strength, but we are made of flesh and blood. And in the face of a situation as painful as this, there are no words. Only faith,” he added.

After emphasizing that God is his strength, he acknowledged that he too needs “to be embraced, listened to, supported, loved, forgiven, and cared for. We need to be treated like men, not like machines. Seriously, sometimes the weight is enormous, and without God, I would be crushed too.”

‘We are not the functionaries of the rite’

Along these lines, Father Francisco Javier Bronchalo, a priest of the Diocese of Getafe in Spain, emphasized that priests “are not superheroes” and that the vocation does not alleviate suffering.

He explained that “the loneliness of priests is not so much physical but emotional” and emphasized the need for support.

Bronchalo also stated that “indifference kills more than hatred” and lamented that many priests live “in a climate of indifference, judgment, and excessive demands. If we make a mistake, they point it out. If we do something right, no one usually says anything.”

In this context, the Spanish priest noted that the suicide “is not an isolated case” but rather a symptom that brings to light “communities that demand much but offer little support. Who receive but don’t give [support]. A symptom of priests who silence their pain out of fear or shame and then fall ill and go through an ordeal.”

Bronchalo therefore insisted on the need to “rediscover the humanity of the priest”: “We are not the functionaries of the rite. We are poor men with fragile souls who have left everything and have been ordained full of hope. We don’t need pity but truth, prayer, affection, community. God sustains us, but none of us are immune from such a tragedy,” he added.

Not an isolated case

A study published in 2020 revealed that at least seven priests died by suicide in France over a four-year period.

In the case of Ireland, according to the Association of Catholic Priests, at least eight priests have taken their own lives in the last 10 years. Another worrying example is Brazil, where 40 priests died by suicide between 2016 and 2023.

These incidents are often associated with overwork and too many responsibilities, poor mental health including anxiety and depression, as well as a culture of being over-demanding of oneself and clericalism.

This story was first published by ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. It has been translated and adapted by CNA.