From: rich <
richarra@gmail.com>
September 23rd =E2=80=93 St. Padre Pio
Our so-called =E2=80=9Cprogressive=E2=80=9D 1900s may go down in history as=
the
bloodiest of centuries. Nevertheless, this will still rank as a
century of great saints.
One of those saints was declared =E2=80=9Cblessed=E2=80=9D on May 2, 1999. =
He is
Father Pio of Pietrelcina, a Capuchin Franciscan friar. Most
well-informed Catholics had heard of him when he was alive. Now that
the full story of his life is better known, he will become even more
deeply appreciated.
Pio's proper name was Francesco Forgione. His native village,
Pietrelcina, is not far from Benevento in south central Italy. His
parents, Orazio and Maria Giuseppa De Nunzio Forgione, were
subsistence farmers who had to struggle mightily to support their five children.
Although poor, the Forgiones were very devout. One of the daughters
became a Brigittine nun. Francesco, born in 1887, was, by the age of
five, a gentle, uniquely prayerful child already aspiring towards the
religious life. His father positively encouraged him in the vocation.
As a matter of fact, Orazio spent two periods in Jamaica, Long Island,
earning enough extra money to make his son's dream come true. As a
result, the boy was able to enter the Capuchin friars in 1903, take
his first vows as =E2=80=9CFra Pio Forgione=E2=80=9D in 1904, and be ordain=
ed a priest
in 1910.
His road to the priesthood had not been easy thus far. Constant
illness had been his companion, and his soul had been a battle ground
for good and bad angels. Furthermore, after ordination, he had to
recuperate at home for six years before being able to take any fixed assignment. Finally, in 1916, he was sent by his superiors to the
Capuchin monastery of San Rotondo, on the rocky slopes of the great
Gargano Promontory that juts out into the Adriatic Sea. San Rotondo
would remain his residence for life.
In 1918 two unusual events occurred that did much to shape Padre Pio=E2=80= =99s
future apostolate. On August 5, 1918, by now far advanced in
contemplative prayer, Pio had the experience of being pierced by a
lance as Christ had been pierced. Then on September 20, 1918, the
Feast of the Stigmata of St. Francis of Assisi, while praying in the
church choir, he was stunned by a great pain in his hands and feet.
Coming to, he found that he now bore the wounds of Christ crucified.
He was the first known priest to receive that puzzling =E2=80=9Cgift=E2=80= =9D, and it
was to be his longer than any other stigmatist's: until his death 5=
0
years later. As time passed, he became somewhat accustomed to the
stigmata, but they never ceased to bleed (although they never
festered), and they were the source of persistent pain and
inconvenience.
Thenceforth, Pio embarked on what was to be his characteristic
apostolate. Moved by deep concern for all people in need, he aimed at
serving all mankind compassionately. The afflicted of body and soul
soon began to appeal for his prayers and come to him as pilgrims. His
superiors had forbade him to preach or write or correspond, but
visitors to San Rotondo could attend his crowded daybreak Masses and
talk to him in the confessional. Padre Pio's Masses lasted 70 minut=
es.
So reverent were they that they were like a retreat in themselves.
After Mass, he would hear confessions for 10-12 hours daily. It was
estimated that he heard as many as 25,000 confessions per year. With
the aid of several secretaries he was able to keep more or less
personal contact with his thousands of disciples. He also had them
organize into hundreds of prayer groups in their own localities.
God gave the Capuchin stigmatist many charismatic gifts to help him
the better to serve his flock. He had the ability to read hearts, for
example, and even to foretell specific events. He could heal bodies as
well as souls; thanks to a divine privilege, he performed a variety of
physical miracles in an off-handed way. One of many, by way of
illustration, was his cure in 1947 of the blindness of a little
Sicilian girl named Gemma Di Giorgi. Gemma was born blind: there were
no pupils in her eyes. When her grandmother asked Forgione to heal
her, he said that she must first go to confession and receive her
first Holy Communion. Once he had attended to that, he gently rubbed
her eyes. A few minutes later she was able to see. The cure remained
permanent, although her eyes still had no pupils!
Equally marvelous was the Padre's ability to bilocate =E2=80=93 tha=
t is, to
remain at Monte Rotondo and yet be elsewhere at the same time. Thanks
to this supernatural faculty there were no limits on his emergency
travel. One day he might go to Genoa to heal a sick woman. The next
day could find him in Milwaukee for the funeral of a fellow Capuchin=E2=80= =99s
father. Once he went to Hawaii to visit a man in jail, at the urgent
request of the prisoner's wife. At least five times while he was in
his monastery, he was observed in St. Peter's, Rome, praying at the
tomb of Pope Pius X. Nor was his full corporal presence necessary. He
could, if need be, insert himself into people's dreams. Likewise, h=
is
disembodied voice could give a necessary command. And quite often, he
could indicate his presence by a sudden waft of fragrance, usually
floral and always refreshing. (Communication by perfume must have been something like communication by radio or television, but broadcast not
to ears or eyes but noses!)
Pope John Paul II has commented on the =E2=80=9Cmysterious fruitfulness=E2= =80=9D of
the apostolate of Pio Forgione. He had undertaken to bear in love, it
seems, not only the cross of Christ but the crosses of everybody else.
It was an impossible task, of course, but God's special assistance
made it at least partly feasible.
Surely the most distressing of his personal crosses was the =E2=80=9Ccalvar=
y
of persecutions=E2=80=9D that Father Pio experienced at the hands of fellow churchmen.
It is understandable that he should have become controversial. Called
by God to be a sign of contradiction and marked with what seemed to be
heavenly credentials, he marched to a different drum within a
religious order accustomed to its own way of life. As his undertaking
became more wide-ranging, his fellow Capuchins found them more and
more unsettling. Fostered by hearsay, the debate about his status
spread outside the Capuchin order as well. Father Pio's own
archbishop, for instance, publicly questioned the Friar's stigmata,
(which he was entitled to do); but he also showed, as he should not
have, a vicious personal hostility towards him. When the Friar began
to lay plans for his splendid 1200-room hospital in the remote
countryside, those who found fault with him discovered a new charge to
raise: he was mismanaging funds! Eventually, his adversaries even
called into question his personal morality.
At length the Vatican's Holy Office decided that only a thorough
investigation could calm a tempest that threatened the Friar's whol=
e
apostolate. During the process, the Padre himself was suspended from
his pastoral work. In the end, however, the Vatican department reached
the conclusion that the charges had no firm basis. Indeed, the
antagonistic archbishop was himself subjected to church discipline.
Basically, Pio Forgione was a man of utter simplicity, completely
obedient to his very particular calling. His =E2=80=9Cfaults=E2=80=9D were = those of
his peasant background: a bit gruff at times, (but in voice, not in
glance); a bit ironic; but with an enchanting smile and a saving sense
of humor. Sheer humanness, in fact, was one of the most appealing
traits of this profound mystic.
Father Pio, despite his perennially frail constitution, lived to be
81. When he died on September 23, 1968, there were 100,000 mourners at
his funeral. His devotees have increased remarkably ever since. Six to
=C2 millions of pilgrims come to Monte Rotondo yearly. That's far=
more
than to Assisi, and even more than to Lourdes. The hospital he built
for the poor continues its charitable work. The prayer groups he
established around the world continue to multiply.
Padre Pio was accepted as a saint even before his death. When another
year had passed and no public announcement had been made of a movement
for his canonization, the press began to ask if the Church had once
again turned against him. This was not at all the case. Church law at
that time ruled that no cause for canonization could be opened until
three decades after the candidate's death. The rule was often waive=
d,
however. It is significant that his procedure was initiated as early
as 1969.
At the same time, no shortcuts were allowed in the investigation,
especially because of the controversial aspects of Pio's life. The
process of beatification/canonization for a non-martyr focuses on his
or her practice of the Christian virtues to a heroic degree. Such
phenomena as stigmata are not entered into in depth. Super natural
gifts of this sort do not sanctify the recipient but help him to
sanctify others. Between 1969 and 1991 the Vatican Congregation on the
Causes of Saints collected and analyzed 106 volumes of relevant
documents, which presumably eliminated any lingering doubts About the Capuchin's real holiness. The Pope proclaimed his heroic virtue by =
a
decree of December 18, 1991, which accorded him the title =E2=80=9Cvenerabl= e=E2=80=9D.
The miracle required for beatification was accepted as verified on
December 21,1998.
The Holy See knew that the beatification of Padre Pio would be a major
church event, and planned accordingly. St. Peter's Square in Rome c=
an
accommodate, at best, 200,000 congregants. Provision was therefore
also made in the square before St. John Lateran Basilica, Rome's
official cathedral church across the City, for 100,000 more, and huge
TV screens were set up so that they could view the whole ceremony.
(After the Mass at St. Peter's, Pope John Paul II would fly to St.
John Lateran's by helicopter and give this second audience a specia=
l
blessing!) It is likely that attendance that day set an all-time Roman
record. While Italians doubtless predominated among the participants,
the Padre Pio prayer groups were represented by many delegations from
as far away as Japan, Korea and Indonesia.
In his homily, the Pope, a personal friend of the new Beatus, did not
hesitate to mention the long-term harassment he had suffered. The
important thing, said the Holy Father, was that he had accepted that
trial constructively in the spirit of obedience. What the episode
demonstrated, said the Pope, was that saints can be =E2=80=9Cmisunderstood= =E2=80=9D
even by their own superiors. The impact of BI. Pio of Pietrelcina, he
was sure, would be great: =E2=80=9CBy his life wholly given to prayer and t=
o
listening to his brothers and sisters, this humble Capuchin friar
astonished the world.=E2=80=9D
Padre Pio was canonized on June 16, 2002. His name was solemnly added
to the litany of those holy persons whose many virtues mirror the
perfections of the Holy Trinity itself.
--- NewsGate v1.0 gamma 2
* Origin: News Gate @ Net396 -Huntsville, AL - USA (1:396/4)