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"Cardinal: "What Sister Lucia told me: Final Confrontation between the Lord and Satan will be over Family and Marriage."" A Cardinal tells: Sister Lucia wrote me… On Feburary 16, 2008, Cardinal Carlo Caffara (Archbishop of Bologna), after a Mass celebrated at the tomb of St. Pio of Pietrelcina, granted an interview to Tele Radio Padre Pio, which was subsequently reported in the monthly magazine “Voce di Padre Pio” March, 2008 . Here are some significant excerpts. Q. Your Eminence, recently in Corriere della Sera you said that you had always had a great devotion to Padre Pio. Please tell us...

The Little Child Jesus statue from Bethlehem. San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy, Jan 29, 2010 / 02:49 am (CNA).- Marking the first time the statue has ever left its sanctuary in Bethlehem, the original wooden sculpture of the "Little Child" Jesus was brought by its guardian, Fr. Jerzy Kraj, to the Sanctuary of St. Giovanni Rotondo on Thursday. During its visit, the statue will be taken to the children's cancer ward of a hospital founded by St. Padre Pio. "With immense joy," announced the Capuchin Minor Friars among whom Saint Pio lived, "we will live here, in San Giovanni Rotondo,...

The main altar at the church where Padre Pio used to say Mass It was 1965.  My brother and sister-in-law (“sis” for short) had wanted to have a baby in the first five years of their married life but all attempts failed. Anxious and getting desperate, my sis agreed to travel to a then-sleepy town called San Giovanni Rotondo — about a four-hour drive from Rome, Italy — to meet Padre Pio, the Capuchin friar who bore the nail wounds of Jesus on the cross. She said, “I waited for three hours at the confessional room.  Finally, I saw Padre Pio motioning...

What Does It Means To Be Canonized. For many, even in the Church, the Catholic practice of beatifying and canonizing is an enigma. Why does the Church do it? How does the Church do it? What are the implications of being beatified, or, as is now the case of Padre Pio, canonized? General History. First it should be noted that according to the testimony of Sacred Scripture every Christian is a saint. The Greek New Testament speaks in many places of the hagios (Acts 9:32; Rom 15:25, 31; Eph 1:1; Col. 1:2; Jude 1:3 and others). The Latin Vulgate speaks...

September 23, 2006 Memorial of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, priest Psalm: Saturday 39 Reading 11 Cor 15:35-37, 42-49 Brothers and sisters:Someone may say, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come back?” You fool!What you sow is not brought to life unless it dies.And what you sow is not the body that is to bebut a bare kernel of wheat, perhaps, or of some other kind. So also is the resurrection of the dead.It is sown corruptible; it is raised incorruptible.It is sown dishonorable; it is raised glorious.It is sown weak; it is raised powerful.It...

September 23, 2005Memorial of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina Psalm: Friday 41 Reading IHg 2:1-9 In the second year of King Darius,on the twenty-first day of the seventh month,the word of the LORD came through the prophet Haggai:Tell this to the governor of Judah,Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel,and to the high priest Joshua, son of Jehozadak,and to the remnant of the people: Who is left among youthat saw this house in its former glory?And how do you see it now?Does it not seem like nothing in your eyes?But now take courage, Zerubbabel, says the LORD,and take courage, Joshua, high priest, son of...

September 23, 2004 Thursday of the Twenty-fifth Week in Ordinary Time Psalm: Thursday 41 Reading I Responsorial Psalm Gospel Reading IEcc 1:2-11 Vanity of vanities, says Qoheleth, vanity of vanities! All things are vanity! What profit has man from all the labor which he toils at under the sun? One generation passes and another comes, but the world forever stays. The sun rises and the sun goes down; then it presses on to the place where it rises. Blowing now toward the south, then toward the north, the wind turns again and again, resuming its rounds. All rivers go...

I have a question that has been nagging me for quite some time now concerning people throughout history bearing the stigmatic wounds of Christ. I am a firm believer that the Shroud of Turin is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, and based upon that belief, I pose the following observations for discussion and feedback. Concerning the location of the five wounds as shown on the Shroud of Turin, with regard to the placement of the nails (through the carpal bones in each wrist at what is anatomically known as "the open mesocarpal space of Destot"), why is it...

I have a question that has been nagging me for quite some time now concerning people throughout history bearing the stigmatic wounds of Christ. I am a firm believer that the Shroud of Turin is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, and based upon that belief, I pose the following observations for discussion and feedback. Concerning the location of the five wounds as shown on the Shroud of Turin, with regard to the placement of the nails (through the carpal bones in each wrist at what is anatomically known as "the open mesocarpal space of Destot"), why is it...

I have a question that has been nagging me for quite some time now concerning people throughout history bearing the stigmatic wounds of Christ. I am a firm believer that the Shroud of Turin is indeed the burial cloth of Jesus Christ, and based upon that belief, I pose the following observations for discussion and feedback. Concerning the location of the five wounds as shown on the Shroud of Turin, with regard to the placement of the nails (through the carpal bones in each wrist at what is anatomically known as "the open mesocarpal space of Destot"), why is it...