 He was born in 1941 in Farra di Soligo (near Treviso, Veneto), in a Roman Catholic family.In 1968, he was ordained priest of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Vittorio Veneto, by Bishop Albino Luciani, who later became Pope John Paul I (1978).By 1983, he had left the Catholic Church, associating himself in succession with several Christian denominations.