Federica and Isabel fell in love while working at rehab center for drug addicts and renounced being nuns but say they have not lost their faith 
 
 Federica and Isabel’s love story was not that unusual, apart from one detail. 
 
 
 
 The affair, which culminated in a civil union this week in the Italian town of Pinerolo, began “slowly” according to their friend, Franco Barbero. The two had a lot in common, having both decided to devote their lives to charitable work. 
 
 They fell in love working at a rehabilitation centre for drug addicts, but there was just one hitch. 
 
 Both were already married to the Catholic church. 
 
 Federica and Isabel were Franciscan nuns when they met and fell in love, and have both since renounced their vocation and spoken out against the church’s position against homosexuality. 
 
 “God wants people happy, to live the love in the light of the sun,” Isabel recently told La Stampa, the Italian daily newspaper. The two brides said that they have not lost their faith and would not otherwise have wanted to leave the church. 
 
 “We call upon our church to welcome all people who love each other,” added Federica, her new bride. 
 
 The courtship and civil union comes about one year after a Vatican official, Krzysztof Charamsa, publicly abandoned the church after announcing that he was gay and in love. Charamsa was sacked and defrocked after admitting he was in love with another man. 
 
 The two women were joined in a civil union in a ceremony behind closed doors in Pinerolo’s city hall, about 24 hours before they had planned. The ceremony was supposed to take place on Thursday, but the time was changed after the media were alerted to the story and the couple wanted to avoid a media frenzy. 
 
 Luca Salvai, the Five Star Movement mayor who performed the ceremony, told La Stampa: “We have guaranteed the right to privacy for this couple, who asked for discretion.” 
 
 He added that the couple were expected to remain in Pinerolo, which is near the city of Turin. 
 
 “Yesterday morning they arrived by themselves, scared by all the clamor, and after the ceremony they left by themselves in silence, one next to the other,” Salvai said. 
 
 It was the second same sex civil union ceremony performed in the town of Pinerolo since Italy passed legislation to legalise same-sex unions earlier this year. The couple are also due to participate in a religious service by their friend, Barbero, a former priest who was suspended because of his support of gay marriage. 
 
 
 
 “I can assure you that not all [of the other nuns] were against this. They have been criticised, but also understood by some sisters. Just as there are many good priests who do not condemn these kind of choices. I must add, for the record, that it is not the first time that I happen to marry two sisters,” he said. 

 Four months after the historic approval of same-sex civil union legislation in Italy, two former nuns were “married” in Pinerolo, Piedmont on Wednesday. 
 
 Isabel and Federica, two laicised Franciscan nuns who met three years ago during their pastoral service to the church, undertook civil union in front of Pinerolo mayor Luca Salvai of the anti-establishment Five Star Movement. 
 
 “God wants people to be happy and to live their love by the light of day,” Isabel told reporters. 
 
 Commenting on the Catholic Church’s continuing rejection of same-sex marriage, her future bride, Federica, said, “We call on our church to accept all those who love one another.” 
 
 Even though the Italian Catholic Church and Pope Francis were strongly opposed to the civil union legislation, the Bill was overwhelmingly approved by parliament last May, 372-51. Those in favour repeatedly pointed out that Italy was the only country in western Europe that did not recognise either same-sex marriage or some form of civil union. 
 
 Isabel, who comes from an undisclosed South American country, and Italian Federica, held a religious ceremony after their town hall formality. Presiding over that ceremony was Don Franco Barbero, an excommunicated priest, who has “blessed” many same-sex couples and who was defrocked by Pope John Paul II in 2003, largely because of his support for such unions. 
 
 ‘Intense faith’ 
 
 “They are two lovely people, of intense faith and with serious studies behind them . . . They prayed a lot about this and they reflected at length during a difficult process. In the end, they took their decision knowing that not many would approve,” Don Franco told reporters. 
 
 “Mind you not everyone in the church disapproves,” he added. “They were criticised but also understood by their fellow nuns. Just like there are many decent priests who do not condemn this type of choice. I can also tell you too that this is not the first time that I have married two nuns.” 
 
 Along the long and winding road to a civil union, Federica and Isabel have had to undergo the slow and awkward Vatican process of being laicised. For Federica, however, that hurdle is as nothing compared to one which still awaits her. 
 
 Born in a small town in southern Italy, she still has to tell her family of her decision. “It is not just that I have to tell my dad that I am no longer a nun, but I have to tell him how happy I am to marry Isabel.” 
 
 Both former nuns said this week that even “if we have left the convent, we haven’t left the church, we haven’t forgotten our faith”.
– Two former nuns were joined in a civil union in Italy on Wednesday in a ceremony coming only four months after the heavily Catholic country approved same-sex partnerships. Identified only as Isabel and Federica, they met three years ago doing charitable work with drug addicts and gradually fell in love, reports the Guardian. Already "wed" to the church, there was only one option: the Franciscan nuns renounced their vocation so they could be together. Since then, they have spoken out against the church's anti-gay stance. "God wants people happy, to live the love in the light of the sun,” Isabel told the newspaper La Stampa, per the Guardian. The pair tied the knot in a civil ceremony at town hall in Pinerolo on the edge of the Alps. After the legal ceremony, the ex-nuns' union was blessed by the Don Franco Barbero, a former priest and longtime supporter of gay marriage who was excommunicated in 2003, reports the Irish Times. Isabel and Federica are " two lovely people, of intense faith and with serious studies behind them," Barbero said. "They prayed a lot about this and ... in the end, they took their decision knowing that not many would approve." The nuns weren't the first to leave the church to be together. Last year, Vatican official Krzysztof Charamsa was defrocked after he left the church, declaring he was gay and wanted to be with the man he loved, per the Guardian. (Pope Francis has urged followers to ease up on anti-gay sentiment.)