Damián María Montes, a Redemptorist priest known for his participation in La Voz España, his presence on social media, and for having received the 2016 Bravo Music Award from the Spanish Episcopal Conference, has announced that he is definitively leaving the exercise of priestly ministry.
Montes communicated the decision through a video posted on his social media, in which he states that it is a determination made after “nearly three years of questions, searching, silences, and a deep inner struggle.” “I have decided to withdraw definitively from the exercise of priestly ministry,” he affirms at the beginning of the message.
Born in Granada in 1986 and ordained a priest in 2013, Montes was until now superior of the Redemptorist community at the Parish of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Granada. Previously, he had served in various pastoral assignments both within and outside Spain, including Madrid, Italy, India, Honduras, Thailand, Colombia, and several Spanish cities.
In his message, the religious acknowledges that there are “weighty reasons” he prefers not to detail and that made the last years of his ministry especially difficult. Nevertheless, he states that he views the future “in deep continuity” with what he has lived and expresses gratitude for his priestly and missionary journey.
A public trajectory also marked by doctrinal controversies
In addition to his musical and pastoral activity, Montes maintained a notable public presence on social media for years, where some of his statements on sexual morality, homosexuality, and the renewal of the Church’s moral teaching drew criticism from priests and Catholic communicators.
In various public interventions, he defended the need for a new approach to sexual morality and expressed support for blessing formulas for same-sex couples—positions that several priests flagged as ambiguous or distant from the Church’s Magisterium.
He was also co-founder of digital evangelization initiatives such as iMission, linked to the use of social media for a Catholic presence on the internet. Some of these proposals received criticism from priests who warned of the risk of doctrinal confusion in certain content.
New stage in the educational and cultural sphere
Montes has explained that he has already begun a new professional stage linked to education and culture.
According to his website, he currently works as a Language and Literature teacher at the Liceo Europeo in Madrid and serves as academic vice-director of the Ernesto Cardenal Foundation.
In the video, he states that he hopes this new stage will allow him to develop projects related to literature, poetry, theater, communication, and content creation. He also acknowledges that he contemplates the possibility of a shared life or of forming his own family.
His departure adds to that of other priests and religious with a public presence on social media who in recent years have announced their abandonment of the ministry or religious life, such as Daniel Pajuelo, known as smdani, the French priest Matthieu Jasseron, or the Italian Alberto Ravagnani.