I am still reading away at Mary Regan's book on Padre Pio. It is pretty good although I think she goes a lot overboard on some of the things she says about him. I am a big, big fan but it is good to keep our feet on the ground.
"On September 22, 1968, just before dawn, Padre Pio celebrated his final Mass in the crowded church of Santa Maria delle Grazie in San Giovanni Rotondo. Only two days had passed since the fiftieth anniversary of his stigmata. Frail, exhausted, and barely able to speak, the Capuchin friar was wheeled to the altar to offer the Eucharist one last time. His gestures were slow and solemn. The church overflowed with faithful, many standing outside in tears. At the consecration, the moment seemed to stand still as the aging priest, marked by a lifetime of suffering, united himself completely to the sacrifice of Christ. When the Mass ended, Padre Pio tried to rise for the final blessing but collapsed under the weight of his weakness. Carried back to his cell, he whispered to those around him, “My children… my children…” Early the next morning, September 23, he breathed his last, his final words being “Jesus… Mary…” Padre Pio’s last Mass was not merely a farewell. It was the fulfillment of a life lived as both priest and victim—an offering poured out in love until the very end. Saint Padre Pio, pray for us! Source: padrepiopietrelcina.com
From Irish Centre for Padre Pio: "Blessings to you all on Padre Pio's Feast Day. We will remember all your intentions at the Mass for the Feast Day this evening in Capuchin Friary Church Street at the National Shrine at 7.30 p.m."
I am still reading the book by Mary Ryan about Padre Pio before I go to sleep at nights and thinking about what she wrote when I wake up. In all the saints especially those in Religious Orders Satan rose up his own children amongst the clergy and religious to strive against them. In the case of Padre Pio he appears to have been able to raise a perfect storm. Cardinals Bishops priests, laypeople even amongst his fellow Capuchins, may God forgive and pardon them. Padre Pio ,saint as he was forgave them all and did very little to defend himself. He trusted as did the psalmist in God to defend him and offered his sufferings up. But at one point one of his disciples gathered the dirt on his accusers in the form of a book and warned them that if they continued to wipe out his accusers by publishing this. Padre Pio did had nothing to do with this and disapproved of it. It was I suppose a form of blackmail. It would also have caused the most huge scandal. I don't know it would have caused a scandal, but I wonder about keeping things hidden. I wonder if it is not better to let things come out in the open. Anyway Padre Pio experienced the most incredible sufferings over all this.
I've also been reading the book daily and am almost finished. I've read a great many books on Padre Pio and this is one of the best! In particular, what has given me so much food for meditation and has grown my understanding of what God's love is like, is the way Padre Pio refused to condemn or complain about his spiritual daughters...even the ones who were kind of crazy and ended up throwing him under the bus because of their insane envy of the other spiritual daughters! The one in particular that falsely accused him of something that caused a lot of trouble for him...He was so kind and understanding about her, and defended her. He was so loyal and loving! It's kind of astonished me, because I know that God loves us even more than Padre Pio loves his spiritual children, and I struggle often with feeling like I'm not good enough for God to really love...but if Padre Pio could love so much a woman who accused him out of envy...then God must love me so much even when I act ridiculous and fail so badly! It's funny, because I've wondered in the past if I loved Padre Pio too much. If that love was taking away from the attention and love I should give Jesus. But the more I love Padre Pio, the more I love Jesus. I see that Padre Pio loved with Jesus' love, and that is what I'm responding to. I had wondered about it again recently, and then I read in that book that a woman actually told Padre Pio she was afraid she loved him more than she loved God...and he responded by ordering her to do something wrong. When she refused, he said, "See? You don't love me more than God." And he explained that when people loved him, they were really loving him because he was good, which is loving Jesus.
I suppose it is amazing that his Spiritual Daughters stayed Faithful to him even after the mountains of muck that were thrown against him especially as regards his behaviour especially as regards women. They don't seem to have bought into all the muck for a moment. It reminds me of the old Irish saying, 'If you believe all you here you'll believe all you see!'. Clearly these good holy women did not believe all they heard at all. They maintained a healthy scepticism about a lot of what they heard from places like the Vatican and the High clergy and the clergy generally. They did buy into it. I think Italians harbour a far higher healthy level of scepticism about the Church powers that be than we do elsewhere. This maybe is because they are a load closer to Rome than the rest of us are and so it kind of causes them to wake up and smell the coffee. They would have buried Padre Pio but the people of the little town of San Giovanni Rotoundo would not let them. They gathered and had good old Italian riots bless them, led by the town Mayor. So dramatic so Italian!! Threats to murder and burn places down. It reminds me of an Italian Opera. But it kind of reminds me that there is such a thing as Holy Disobedience. Of refusing to give into great evil, even when that evil came from within the Church itself. I was watching a video of folk pouring into the Church for his early morning mass. It was like a football crowd gone mad. Poor Padre Pio was shouting himself hoarse trying to keep them under some kind of control and just imagine this madness went on every day. But I find it funny and kind of moving. Perhaps there is one great takeaway regarding all this as regards the clergy. I think the clergy and religious generally can be afflicted by great jealousy and envy as regards spiritual success stories like Padre Pio. I suspect a lot of the persecution came from simple jealousy and envy.
Things were a lot different in Ireland than Italy when I was young. We regarded our clergy as kind of tin Gods. There was the most incredible respect and even awe of them. There was a good historic reason for this. During the centuries of intense persecution the clergy had lived and died with the ordinary people. The priests were in a sense all the people had. It was only when the clerical sexual abuse scandals came that the scales fell from our eyes so to speak. I think the Italians had a more sensible way of looking at things.
Padraig I tried to buy her book from Amazon but it's only on the American site and they don't ship to Ireland
