Padre Pio's body to be exhumed, venerated

Catholic World News ^ | 1/7/07 | staff

[Soliton]

The body of Padre Pio will be exhumed and exposed for public veneration during the coming year, the local archbishop has announced.

[Salvation]

Padre Pio's Body to be Exhumed, Venerated -- More details for all

Padre Pio's body to be exhumed, venerated

San Giovanni Rotondo, Jan. 7, 2008 (CWNews.com) - The body of Padre Pio will be exhumed and exposed for public veneration during the coming year, the local archbishop has announced.

The plan to exhume the body of the beloved Capuchin saint has already encountered stiff resistance from some of Padre Pio's living relatives, who denounced the plan as "uncivilized."

Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio said that the body of Padre Pio would be available for public veneration in 2008, for the 40th anniversary of his death. Each year close to 1 million pilgrims travel to the shrine of the saint at San Giovanni Rotondo.

The timing of the public veneration has not yet been established. Church officials are apparently waiting for expert advice on the exhumation of the saint's remains and the preservation of his body.

But Pia Forgione, a niece of Padre Pio, has initiated legal action to stop the exhumation. In an appeal to an Italian court she argued that the archbishop does not have proper authority to put the saint's remains on public display.

Archbishop D'Ambrosio said that his plan has the approval of the Vatican's Congregation for the Causes of Saints. He explained that he saw a "duty to allow future generations the chance to venerate the mortal remains of St. Pio of Pietrelcina." Part of the reason for the exhumation, he said, is to ensure proper preservation of those remains. Padre Pio, who lived from 1887 to 1968, gained an international reputation for holiness during his lifetime. Thousands of people reported miracles after meeting with the famous monk, who apparently enjoyed extraordinary spiritual gifts including the stigmata and discernment of souls. The reports of miracles attributed to his intercession multiplied after his death, and devotion to Padre Pio continued to spread.

Padre Pio was canonized by Pope John Paul II (bio - news) in 2002, with an estimated 2 million people attending the Vatican ceremony.

[Tax-chick]

The plan to exhume the body of the beloved Capuchin saint has already encountered stiff resistance from some of Padre Pio's living relatives, who denounced the plan as "uncivilized." I agree.

[stfassisi]

Blessed Saint Padre Pio.

Pray for us.

[8mmMauser]

We have been to Nevers and have seen for ourselves this stunning sight.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Referring to a Saint as “dude” is quite profane.

[Lee N. Field]

Would that be latria or dulia? I can’t keep them straight.

[Soliton]

Dulia is the honour paid to the saints, while latria means worship given to God alone.

By the way, I am restoring a Lee Enfield and an 8mm mauser right now. Somebody called 8mm mauser was two posts before you. It’s a miracle. (my LE is a 1965 Ishy in 7.62 NATO, not .303)

[Iscool]

Just don’t get her too close to the fire...You don’t want her to melt...

[Iscool]

He explained that he saw a "duty to allow future generations the chance to venerate the mortal remains of St. Pio of Pietrelcina."

Should be nothing there but bones...Then what happens???

Part of the reason for the exhumation, he said, is to ensure proper preservation of those remains.

Seems a little late for that...How do you preserve rotted flesh???

[stfassisi]

Dear God, You generously blessed Your servant, St. Pio of Pietrelcina, with the gifts of the Spirit. You marked his body with the five wounds of Christ Crucified, as a powerful witness to the saving Passion and Death of Your Son. Endowed with the gift of discernment, St. Pio labored endlessly in the confessional for the salvation of souls. With reverence and intense devotion in the celebration of Mass, he invited countless men and women to a greater union with Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Holy Eucharist.

Through the intercession of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, I confidently beseech You to grant me the grace of (here state your petition). Amen.

Glory be to the Father... (three times).

[nanetteclaret]

You are on my prayer list.

[steve86]

Does anyone happen to know a definitive answer (not just an opinion) as to whether the blessed Padre Pio accepted the apparitions of Garabandal as heavenly? I have read conflicting things.

[STARWISE]

Padre Pio files: ‘My pregnant wife was clinically brain dead, then we brought in Padre Pio’s glove’

~~~~~~

Doctors told Londonderry man Sean Mulrine there was nothing more they could do for his wife. But, he says, Padre Pio brought them a miracle

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

One Sunday morning, 26 years ago, my wife and I were planning to go on a picnic to a local beauty spot. After we finished our dinner, Ann went into the sitting- room with a cup of coffee. The two older children, Michael and Nichola, and I started to prepare a picnic hamper.

At this point Ann was pregnant with twins. While we were making the picnic hamper we heard a scream from the sitting-room. I ran in to find Ann lying on the floor.

A few years before that, Ann had miscarried a child. I thought it was something to do with this happening again. We called a doctor. By the time the doctor came Ann was completely stiff, her eyes were rolling in her head and her mouth was twisted up to her ear. The doctor got a pair of scissors to cut the clothes off Ann and gave her several injections. The ambulance came and took her to the local hospital.

A team of doctors and nurses examined her while I sat in the waiting-room. They came to me and said: “Mr Mulrine, your wife has no more than half an hour to live. She either had a massive brain haemorrhage or has a tumour of the brain. We just don’t know but we feel that’s most probably what it is. “ They said: “If you wish, we can keep your wife alive by ventilator until the unborn children reach the age of 38 weeks, which is about two-and-a- half months away. If you don’t sign the forms, then your wife and two unborn children will die within the next half-hour.”

I signed the forms and they told me to go in and say goodbye, she might or might not hear me. I went in but she was just like an animal, there was blood coming from everywhere; she was completely distorted. Then they took her away and put her on the life-support machine. She looked as if she was lying peacefully after that.

That night I went down to visit my mother and my mother- in- law and I was handed a little relic leaflet of Padre Pio by my mother. That was the first time I ever heard of him. I shoved it in my top pocket. I then went back up to our house to make arrangements for the children to be looked after. I went, after that, to arrange for time off work. The man we had bought our house off had roses everywhere in the front garden and when I was passing them I thought, ‘I will take those roses to Our Lady’s altar.’ But I sort of laughed at it and walked away.

Eventually I was walking through a place called William Street where there’s a beautiful flower shop. The window was full of roses. Once again I got this feeling that I should take flowers to Our Lady’s altar. So I went in and bought some and took them up to the chapel.

As I was putting the roses on the altar, the stems of the flowers caught the little leaflet I had been given. It was sticking out of my pocket and it fell to the ground. I lifted it up and knelt down and said the prayer on it, which was a prayer Padre Pio would have said for people looking for his intercession. It said everything you would have liked to have said but didn’t know how to say. From that time on I had a great prayerfulness about me, which I never had before.

Ten or 12 days passed and Ann was still the same. One night I was sitting down beside her with the little leaflet and I said: “Look, if you’re going to do something for me, give me a sign.” I asked Ann to squeeze my hand and I swore she did. I sent for the nurse and the doctor but they told me I was clutching at straws, there was no chance at all. They said she was clinically brain dead. But they said there was a specialist coming down in a few days and he would talk to me and put me more clearly in the picture.

Eventually this doctor came down and told me what I had been told before. He said: “Your wife either had a massive brain haemorrhage or has a tumour and we have no intention of doing anything at all because your wife is clinically dead, only the machine is keeping the children going.” Another five or six weeks passed. All this time I was going to Our Lady’s altar with roses and praying to Padre Pio. They then asked me could they move my wife to hospital in Belfast and I said: “Yes.”

One night in Belfast I was sitting beside my wife’s bed when one of the nurses said: “Mr Mulrine, would you mind leaving for a while?” It was about half past one or two o’clock in the morning. I went down to the end of the corridor and I started saying the Rosary. I got up after the first decade and walked towards Ann’s bed but something pulled me back.

On the last decade of the Rosary I looked up the corridor and I saw this figure coming around the corner and I ran towards it and said: “Excuse me, you’re looking for me.”

I had never met the man in my life, I didn’t know who the man was; don’t ask me why I said that. He said: “I’m looking for a man called Mulrine.” I said: “That’s me.” The man’s name was Michael Murray and he and his wife ran the Padre Pio Centre for Northern Ireland. He said: “I got a phone call about half-an- hour ago from a lady who said for me to take the glove of Padre Pio to Sean and Ann Mulrine in the Royal Hospital.”

This was a brown mitt that Padre Pio would have had over the bandages, over the stigmata on his hands. We went up to Ann and he said to me: “She might hear you talking, tell her what it is.” So I told her. We put the glove of Padre Pio on Ann’s head. Despite all the tubes, she moved her hand, she grabbed the glove, she brought the glove to her face, blessed herself three times, brought it to her stomach and blessed her stomach with it.

She then just fell back into the bed again. This was the first movement we had seen. After that, Michael and I sat and he told me some things about Padre Pio. Then we left. I went to my room. Next morning I went to Ann’s bed again but she was moved and the bed was gone. I thought they had taken her to take the children out. The nurse came to me and said: “The doctors have read the reports from last night and they’ve taken her down to surgery for exploratory examination.”

They removed part of the crown of her head and put a camera in to see what was there. They came to me after the operation and said they had seen several of the major vessels in the brain and they had burst. There was a large amount of congealed blood in the centre of the brain and it could not be sucked out. They said: “We don’t know how the event last night happened, we can’t understand it, she’s clinically dead.”

That night I went into my room and I couldn’t go through the door for the overpowering smell of roses. It was years later that I was told that this was the invisible presence of Padre Pio.

To cut a long story short, Ann came out of the recovery room, they put her in bed and she opened her eyes and started to talk and move. They took her off the ventilator to see how she would do. They called it a fluke. They said: “We don’t know how this has happened.”

Ann got so well that she was eventually brought back to Derry, where the babies were born just a week after she arrived. She just went from strength to strength. She never looked back and she and the two boys were released from hospital on 23 September, which was the anniversary of the death of Padre Pio.

Eventually we went out to San Giovanni in thanksgiving and we met Father Alessio who was Padre Pio’s secretary and nurse. He is dead since. He asked could he investigate Ann’s story as part of the cause of Padre Pio. They investigated for four or five years or more. When they asked for the doctors’ personal opinions, they all said it was beyond medical science how she is today.

As a result, for the beatification we were asked to meet the Pope and present flowers from the people of Ireland. And for the canonisation I was also invited to go up to the Pope with the presentations. We take the trips out now in thanksgiving. We never make any fuss about it. We don’t say it was a miracle. We say it was a grace given by God through the intercession of Padre Pio.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/features/daily-features/article3112986.ece

[STARWISE]

This seems to indicate he did.

http://www.garabandal.us/padre_test.html

[steve86]

That link would, of course. We will have to see if Joey gets his eyesight back.

[mountainbunny]

I wasn't saying that Augustine was incorruptible. I was saying that he is a 1000+ year old saint in answer to the question posed, Why don't we have any 1000 year old saints?

"There are plenty of 1000 year old saints" was my basic point. I just pointed up a couple of my favorites :)

[Rutles4Ever]

Seems a little late for that...How do you preserve rotted flesh???

Many saints are incorrupt - i.e., their flesh has not rotted for the centuries they've been dead. The eyelids of St. Bernadette are still moistened, for example. And forensic discovery found that her organs were totally intact despite some mild molding on her skin (i.e., she was not mummified - she was exposed to oxygen in her tomb)

That doesn't guarantee that St. Pio is incorrupt, but it wouldn't surprise me if he is. It's not about St. Pio, but God's will, should He choose to perform this miracle through His faithful servant.

Should be nothing there but bones...Then what happens???

The remains can still be venerated and/or relics collected.

Frankly, I'm much more interested in what will happen when the body of St. Paul is exhumed - which was being planned as of last year, if I'm not mistaken.

[FourtySeven]

I must say, with all due respect to the Church and St. Pio, it would seem to me that as long as direct relatives are still alive, any exhumation or public display should be postponed.

JMO. I pray for a peaceful resolution where all parties feel blessed.

[Rutles4Ever]

Bishop's Verdict on Garabandal

non constat de supernaturalitate (it is not established supernatural)

This is not the slam dunk "constat de non supernaturalitate", but the Holy See determined that it would not usurp the Bishop's right to discern the matter. The bishop has said it will not be revisited. A future bishop could techinically re-open the matter, but that's highly unlikely. Given the time-sensitivity of the messages, it won't serve God's will to approve Garabandal when it's message is no longer timely. So at least in my opinion, Garabandal is not legitimate. Padre Pio is not infallible, so even if he opined that they are authentic, it means nothing.

FWIW, since the visionaries predicted John Paul II to be the last pope, there doesn't seem to be any credibility here.

[steve86]

I agree he is not infallible.

However, I read contradictory things about the local bishop from various sources with various agendas.

The Garabandal apparitions had some things that were definitely “out of line” compared to the approved apparitions.

It is possible the Blessed Virgin Mary was being impersonated by an evil force.

But my mind is still open on the subject.