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All Issues > Volume 33, Issue 2
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I am reminded of the true story of a woman who went to confession to Padre Pio. Before giving her absolution, said, ‘Try to remember the other sin.’ The woman said, ‘Padre, I think I gave you all the sins I know and I think this is it.’ Padre Pio said, ‘Then, for your penance, go to the cross to say fifteen Ave Marias and fifteen Our Fathers.’ Now the cross was at the top of the mountain. The penance was not the Aves or the Our Fathers, it was the journey to get there, as it was a very bad road... So she did that and said the prayers and went back to Padre Pio for a second confession and Padre Pio asked, ‘Do you remember all your sins?’ She said, ‘Padre Pio, I’ve confessed everything.’ Padre Pio said. ‘No, you still don’t remember all. You’ve got to go to the cross at the top of the mountain again.’
She went for the second time and when she still did not remember he sent her for the third time to the cross on the mountaintop. When she returned for the third time for confession, Padre Pio asked, ‘So, do you remember everything now?’ She replied, ‘No, Padre, I don’t have anything more to confess.’ Then Padre Pio said in a loud voice, ‘What do you mean, you don’t remember anything? Don’t you know he could have been a good priest, a bishop, even a cardinal?’ She started to think and then began to cry, ‘Father,’ she said, ‘I never knew abortion was a sin.’ ‘What do you mean,’ he said, ‘you didn’t know that this was a sin? That’s killing.’ Then she said, Nobody knows about this, only me and my mother. How could you say it would have been a priest or a cardinal?’ Padre Pio simply responded by saying, ‘But it’s a sin, a great sin.’ “