Mystic Monk Padre Pio Part 3

Today is the third and final part of my story about Padre Pio.

Accusations made against Padre Pio

As Padre Pio's fame grew, his ministry began to take the center-stage at the friary.

Many pilgrims flocked to see him and he spent around nineteen hours each day saying Mass, hearing confessions and corresponding, often sleeping not even two hours per day.

His fame had the negative side effect that accusations against him made their way to the Holy Office in Rome (since 1983, known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith), causing many restrictions to be placed on him.

His accusers included high-ranking archbishops, bishops, theologians and physicians.

Nature of the charges
They brought several accusations against him, including insanity, immoral attitude towards women - claims that he had intercourse with women in the confessional; misuse of funds, and deception - claims that the stigmata were induced with acid in order to gain fame, and that the reported odor of sanctity around him being the result of self-administered eau-de-cologne.

The founder of Rome's Catholic university hospital concluded Padre Pio was "an ignorant and self-mutilating psychopath who exploited people's credulity."

In short, he was accused of infractions against all three of his monastic vows: poverty, chastity and obedience.

In 1923, he was forbidden to teach teenage boys in the school attached to the monastery because he was considered "a noxious Socrates, capable of perverting the fragile lives and souls of boys."

Investigations
Padre Pio was subject to numerous investigations. Fearing local riots, a plan to transfer Padre Pio to another friary was dropped and a second plan was aborted when a riot almost happened.

In the period from 1924 to 1931 the Holy See made various statements denying that the happenings in the life of Padre Pio were due to any divine cause.

At one point, he was prevented from performing all his priestly duties (such as hearing confessions), except for saying Mass, and even that was to be done in private.

Scandalous right? Evidently not.

For years the Vatican opposed the cult which grew up around Padre Pio, but then changed its attitude, granting him the highest honor possible after his death: full sainthood.

Pope John Paul II made him a saint in 2002 at a ceremony that drew one of the biggest crowds ever to the Vatican after the Church said it had found evidence that the miraculous cure of a sick woman was due to the dead monk's intercession.

No sign of stigmata as monk's body is exhumed after 40 years.

Neither his feet nor his hands showed any sign of the wounds expected of a man who the church says bled as Christ did on the cross – spontaneously and without cause, on and off for more than 50 years.

Domenico D'Ambrosio was forced to say, after examining the body again in daylight on Monday: "The signs of the stigmata were not visible."

And so the strange case of Padre Pio, closed on the authority of the last Pope, has been reopened along with his tomb.

He still gets to be a saint because according to Catholic doctrine, canonization carries with it papal infallibility.

I hope you enjoyed the story, and I hope you have a great weekend.