Aline Pereira Ghammachi, a 38-year-old economist and former nun of the Saints Gervase and Protasius monastery in Italy, has denounced the Vatican for having been expelled from her congregation because of her physical appearance.
The Brazilian nun claims that she was discriminated against because of her beauty, her media charisma and her youth. In a case that has captured the attention of the media in Europe and Latin America.
The former nun, originally from Macapa, Brazil, considers that her forced departure responds to sexist prejudices within the Church. Aline has filed an appeal with the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura and hopes that the new Pope Leo XIV will review the process. “I was told that I did not fit the image of a nun, that I was too attractive to represent the Church,” she told the Italian press.
An outstanding career inside and outside the convent.
Aline’s vocation began at the age of 15, but she decided to confirm her spiritual path after graduating in Economics and Commerce. During her youth, she collaborated with local media in Brazil and worked in the family newspaper. She also participated in radio and television programs explaining the Word of the Day, which cemented her public profile.
In 2018, she surprised the ecclesiastical environment by becoming the youngest regent of a Cistercian convent in Italy. Her blue eyes, serene presence and ease of communication made her an unusual figure in the monastic sphere. However, this profile was precisely what, according to her statements, made some superiors uncomfortable.
The decision to dismiss her followed a complaint from four sisters, who wrote to the Pope alleging mistreatment. Aline maintains that the accusations are false and part of a campaign of slander led by Abbot Friar Mauro Giuseppe Leporia. “He jokingly said I was too pretty to be an abbess, but he exposed me to ridicule,” she said.
Support, controversy and an uncertain future.
The controversy intensified when eleven nuns decided to leave the congregation in support of Aline Ghammachi. One of them, Sister Maria Paola Dal Zotto, publicly denounced the climate of harassment: “A medieval treatment has been inaugurated, an atmosphere of unfounded slander against a serious and dedicated woman”.
In 2024, the Vatican sent a new apostolic visitator to the monastery, but Aline claims that no formal interviews were conducted and no facts were verified. The visitation concluded, she says, that she was an “unbalanced” person and that the other nuns feared her. “I was not allowed to defend myself. They expelled me for no reason. I am appealing,” she said.
Aline is currently in Milan, where she spent a few days at her sister’s house. During the week of the recent conclave. She traveled to the Vatican to personally ask that her case be reconsidered. She reiterates that her expulsion is due to a combination of factors: “I am a woman, I am young and, in this context, I am Brazilian”.
The media impact and the Vatican’s reaction
The case has been covered by Italian media such as RAI and Corriere del Veneto, and has also generated international interest. A German production company is already working on a possible film adaptation of the story. The headlines have been striking: “Runaway nun: too beautiful to be an abbess?”, headlined Italian public television.
In interviews with the daily Folha de S.Paulo and the Gazzetino, the former abbess insists that her case evidences a systemic problem within the Catholic Church. “There is a machista and sexist problem. If a young woman is attractive, then she cannot be intelligent, she must keep quiet,” she denounced.
Despite the pain, Ghammachi remains hopeful of returning to the convent. She has faith that the new Pope Leo XIV, a human rights advocate with a background in canon law, will be sensitive to the legal and human aspects of the case. “I ask nothing more than that the law be respected,” she says.
With information by Camila Mendoza/La Republica de Perú
Translated by Aliani Rojas Fernandez
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