Cristina Scuccia, winner of The Voice Italy 2014 / Credit: Shutterstock

CNA Newsroom, Nov 21, 2022 / 08:47 am (CNA).

Sister Cristina Scuccia, the religious sister who won the 2014 edition of The Voice of Italy, has left the consecrated life after 15 years, despite having made her final vows in September 2019.

The now former religious recently moved to Spain, where the 34-year-old continues to dedicate herself to music and works as a waitress.

Last weekend, Scuccia gave an interview to the Italian program “Verissimo,” without a habit, dressed in a red pantsuit and wearing makeup.

She explained to host Silvia Toffanin that “The Voice paved the way for an evolutionary change, but the decision came with COVID that forced me to stop and look inside myself.”

“The media exposure, over time, was the driving force behind many questions. I went into a crisis, I couldn’t figure out who I was, I started the journey with a psychologist,” she said.

In this context, the former religious made the decision to abandon the consecrated life.

“At one point I was no longer well. It’s as if my personal maturation was squeezed into the habit and its rules,” Scuccia commented.

“I didn’t understand who I was. I have never denied God, but I did not find myself within my habit,” she added.

At another point in the interview, the former nun said she didn’t want to leave the faith.

“I still believe in God and I have no intention of abandoning the path of faith,” she said, adding that she is “grateful for everything [she has] experienced up to now.”

Born in 1988 in Vittoria, Sicily, Scuccia entered the Ursulines of the Holy Family at age 19.

After being discovered by The Voice, the producers contacted the superior general of her congregation to determine the possibility of Scuccia participating in the contest, which she won in 2014.

That day, after winning the contest, Scuccia made everyone present pray an Our Father, something she said “was my dream.”

“At first I was very afraid of this invitation, but in a second moment I read it as a call to go out and reach a ‘periphery’ of the world, bringing the joy of the Gospel,” Scuccia said in 2019.

Since Scuccia left the order, the Congregation of the Ursuline Sisters of the Holy Family has not issued a statement on the matter.

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