Vanessa da Mata reveals why she left the Catholic Church: “Disgusting priest”

Summary
Vanessa da Mata told a podcast that, during her childhood, she was sexually harassed by a Catholic priest and that, as an adult, she joined Candomblé for spiritual reasons.

The singer Vanessa da Mata revealed, in an interview, why she left the Catholic Church, doctrine into which she was inserted during childhood. She started following the Candomblé already an adult. The artist, now 48 years old, said he suffered sexual harassment from a priest as a child.

“I was the girl who ‘led’ prayers in people’s houses with my grandmother, then there was a really disgusting priest, who tried to ‘eat’ me anyway, and I left the church completely“, said the singer on the podcast Sealwhen approaching the subject of spirituality.

Despite the priest’s advances, something worse did not happen to Vanessa. The artist attributes this to her grandmother’s protection, who, according to her, always “pulled her” at the right time. “She always passed by, she felt like a spiritual protection,” she added.

The harassment made Vanessa feel ‘revolted’ and took a while to reconnect with her ‘spiritual side’. It took years for her to understand that the whole situation was motivated by man, not by the saints.

“But then I closed myself off to Candomblé, which was great for me,” admitted the singer.

Previously an atheist, Vanessa da Mata revealed, during the release of her seventh album, ‘Vem doce’, in 2023, that she embraced Candomblé for spiritual reasons.

“I faced a moment in my life when I was completely open. I didn’t know what was happening. I saw figures, people in front of me, energies that were not human. Things that had no explanation. That’s when I looked for Candomblé to close myself off. To close your body, as they say,” she told the magazine Look.

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Source: Redação Terra