Many people asked Padre Pio to pray for them while he was alive.
Catholics ask a saint to pray for them after they are a saint.
Basically it’s the same thing. Just asking someone to pray for you. The interesting thing, however, is that the saint has God’s ear, whereas, sometimes as humans, we don’t. (Or we don’t ask in the right way.)
There are those who enjoy muddying the distinction between the words “to” and “for us”.
Padre Pio continues to pray for us today.