By Lian Parsons, June 27, 2019, The Harvard Gazette
Israel Buffardi, M.Div. ’19, walked a long and winding path before finding his calling.
The Rhode Island native was raised Catholic and from an early age felt a strong draw to spirituality and ritual. At age 14, he decided he wanted to become a priest. This plan changed when he realized he was queer. Coming out precipitated many questions about his faith, such as the acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ people.
“I felt like I had a deep calling within myself, but it suddenly became inaccessible to me because of who I was and what was important to me,” he said.
During his struggle over faith and spirituality, Buffardi took the first name Israel, a figure in the Old Testament who represents “the one who wrestled with God.”
Buffardi attended culinary school at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, R.I., where he worked on food justice, taught children how to garden, and hosted dinner parties for foreign exchange students with his roommate.
“There was something really joyful about it,” he recalled. “I was creating community right in front of my eyes.”
Still searching for a religion to connect with, Buffardi returned to a Unitarian Universalist (UU) church, and “it clicked instantly.”
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