Another example of media misreporting. Catholics do not pray to saints.
I recently read the new biography of Padre Pio. There was a tremendous, long-running feud between Padre Pio and his supporters and others (going all the way up to the Vatican) who believed he was a fraud. Charges and counter-charges flew all over the place.
This was all hashed out in the cause for sainthood. It's not so much that the canonization closes the issue permanently, but that this was already dealt with.
I think there are people who really hate this man. I have no idea why. And I don't see why this information about carbolic acid amounts to anything at all.
I know how Mr. Luzzatto feels!
Pietro Siffi, the president of the League, said: "We would like to remind Mr Luzzatto that according to Catholic doctrine, canonisation carries with it papal infallibility.
When my late pastor was in the seminary in the 1930’s he served Mass for Padre Pio and personally witnessed his bandaged hands begin bleeding at the Consecration. He told me this himself.
Padre Pio, like Josemaria Escriva, will always be a polarizing figure. I know in the case of Josemaria, however, the charges are largely ludicrous (”Opus Dei runs the banks!”), to the out and out laughable (such as the “tell all” book by Josemaria’s secretary that accused him of using “foul language” from time to time).
Carbolic acid is a very weak acid. It might cause chapped hands, but it will not induce bleeding.
OTOH it IS used for sterilization.
Rufus T. Firefly???
Sorry; couldn't resist!
**Italy’s Padre Pio ‘faked his stigmata with acid’ **
What a lunatic article.
The book I finished reading about Padre Pio by Ruffin speaks of observation of him on long intervals. I don’t remember the exact hours right now.
Sometimes people were with him constantly.
Another thing...........as he got closer and closer to death, the stigmata disappeared slowly. When he did die, he had no traces of any stigmata, any scars — nothing was there.
Acid would have left indications of burning.
Like I said above, what a lunatic story.
I’m not big on Pio or stigmatas, but a document from 1919? Paint me skeptical of that too...
Presumably the church would have investigated him back then...they essentially locked him up in the monastery for fifty years.
And why carbolic acid? That cauterizes wounds,i.e. stops bleeding?
That canonization carries infallible papal authority is not clear. A few theologians have asserted it does, but the Church has never ruled one way or the other.
I did a lot of things with acid in my time, but it never occurred to me to fake stigmata with it. How does that work exactly?Okay. I feel better now.
I thought this was another Christopher Hitchens “Whack the Saints” piece.
"That they may do evil with both hands earnestly, the prince asketh, and the judge asketh for a reward; and the great man, he uttereth his mischievous desire: so they wrap it up.The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge: the day of thy watchmen and thy visitation cometh; now shall be their perplexity.
Trust ye not in a friend, put ye not confidence in a guide: keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom.
For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother, the daughter in law against her mother in law; a man's enemies are the men of his own house.
Therefore I will look unto the LORD; I will wait for the God of my salvation: my God will hear me.
Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD shall be a light unto me.
I will bear the indignation of the LORD, because I have sinned against him, until he plead my cause, and execute judgment for me: he will bring me forth to the light, and I shall behold his righteousness.
Then she that is mine enemy shall see it, and shame shall cover her which said unto me, Where is the LORD thy God? mine eyes shall behold her: now shall she be trodden down as the mire of the streets.
In the day that thy walls are to be built, in that day shall the decree be far removed.
In that day also he shall come even to thee from Assyria, and from the fortified cities, and from the fortress even to the river, and from sea to sea, and from mountain to mountain.
Notwithstanding the land shall be desolate because of them that dwell therein, for the fruit of their doings.
Feed thy people with thy rod, the flock of thine heritage, which dwell solitarily in the wood, in the midst of Carmel: let them feed in Bashan and Gilead, as in the days of old.
According to the days of thy coming out of the land of Egypt will I shew unto him marvellous things.
The nations shall see and be confounded at all their might: they shall lay their hand upon their mouth, their ears shall be deaf.
They shall lick the dust like a serpent, they shall move out of their holes like worms of the earth: they shall be afraid of the LORD our God, and shall fear because of thee.
Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? he retaineth not his anger for ever, because he delighteth in mercy.
He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham, which thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old." — Micah 7:3-20
"And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true, and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen." — 1 John 5:20-21