Pilgrims flock to see Padre Pio, the saint whose piety overcame Vatican doubters.Nearly a million have booked to view the saint and thousands more are expected to queue for hours.
Paul Bompard in Rome
Paul Bompard in Rome
An excerpt.
Padre Pio, who was born in 1887 and died in 1968, is Catholicism’s most widely and fervently worshipped saint.
During his lifetime he was believed to have borne the stigmata – the wounds of the crucified Jesus – on his body, to have performed many miracles of healing, to have had the capacity of being in two places at the same time (bi-location) and to have emitted a strong aroma of wild flowers.
He was made a saint by John Paul II in 2001. But the Catholic hierarchy has not always warmed to him and he was accused of fraud throughout his life. In the 1960s John XXIII called him “a cloth idol” and he was at one point investigated by the Holy Office of the Vatican, which suspected him of “abuse of popular gullibility”. For a time Padre Pio was even forbidden to say Mass in public.
A senior Jesuit academic, who preferred to remain anonymous, told The Times: “This is a very tactile form of spirituality. It is not pagan, but it is not very important to my faith.”
Nevertheless, any objections in Rome were swept aside by the force of his veneration by millions of believers. A survey in 2006 by the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana found that more Italians prayed to Padre Pio than to Jesus or the Virgin Mary.
Link (here)
This what the Summa Theologica has to say about the divine nature of saints (here)
3 comments:
I'm italian woman and I know many people that pray Padre Pio and are going to visit his body and never attend any mass. Instead of to pray Christ they pray Padre Pio.
It is superstition.
Italian women are great!
Here is an excerpt of what the Summa Theologica says,
Question 72.
Prayers with regard to the saints in heaven
http://www.newadvent.org/summa/5072.htm
Although the greater saints are more acceptable to God than the lesser, it is sometimes profitable to pray to the lesser; and this for five reasons. First, because sometimes one has greater devotion for a lesser saint than for a greater, and the effect of prayer depends very much on one's devotion. Secondly, in order to avoid tediousness, for continual attention to one thing makes a person weary; whereas by praying to different saints, the fervor of our devotion is aroused anew as it were. Thirdly, because it is granted to some saints to exercise their patronage in certain special cases, for instance to Saint Anthony against the fire of hell. Fourthly, that due honor be given by us to all. Fifthly, because the prayers of several sometimes obtain that which would not have been obtained by the prayers of one.
I believe Jesus throws us many life preservers and Padre Pio is one of them.
JMJ
Joe
"Although the greater saints are more acceptable to God than the lesser, it is sometimes profitable to pray to the lesser"
But is it profitable pray a saint and NEVER pray God? and never go to Mass?
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