New: "Padre Pio Under Investigation: The Secret Vatican Files"

Now available from Ignatius Press:

Padre Pio Under Investigation: The Secret Vatican Files

by Francesco Castelli (translated by Lee and Giulietta Bockhorn)

Preface by Vittorio Messori

On June 14, 1921, a priest knocks at the convent in San Giovanni Rotondo. He is in his early forties and wears a simple cassock, but he is no ordinary priest. He is Bishop Raffaello Carlo Rossi, future cardinal and the Apostolic Visitor sent by the Holy Office to investigate secretly Padre Pio.

The Bishop Inquisitor remains with the Capuchin Brothers for eight days, interrogating and recording depositions. He also interviews Padre Pio himself and examins the mysterious wounds of Christ that he bears on his body.

After gathering all the evidence, the Inquisitor sketches his own evaluation of Padre Pio, which includes his reasons for believing that the stigmata are of divine origin. He sends his report and the depositions to Rome, where they stay buried for nearly a century. Now, forty years after the saint's death, these exceptional documents are published in their entirety, thanks to the skillful research of Father Francesco Castelli.

The documents in this book reveal every aspect of Padre Pio's life from his amazing supernatural gifts to his health. In his depositions, he admits, under oath, to the phenomenon of bi-location and to other supernatural charisms, and for the first time tells the detailed story of his stigmatization. Also included are letters from his spiritual father and a chronology of his life.

339 pages | Illustrated with black and white photos.

Father Francesco Castelli is the historian for the Cause of Beatification of Pope John Paul II and a Professor of Modern Church History at the Romano Guardini Institute of Religious Sciences in Taranto, Italy. He is a contributor to many publications, and has recently discovered and published Karol Wojtyla's third letter to Padre Pio.

Comments

[Brad]

Bilocation is surely related to Christ's risen body's abilities. Even among the faithful, physics is quoted to preclude its possibility: not feasibility but even possibility! Well, God is outside of time and space and invented physics and he is not bound by any of his own rules. He is Lord of the sabbath and not the other way round! Or shall we say, something greater than Jonah is here.

[Charles E Flynn]

In some cases in which someone expects me to do too much, too fast, I use the fact that I do not possess the gift of bilocation as an excuse. ("I'm sorry, but I do not possess the gift of bilocation.")

It is always interesting to see which people understand the reference.

[LJ]

I'll have to try that one Charles.

[Dr John James]

Padre Pio is a great saint, but I fear that the wider public think he is canonised because of these extraordinary events, and I am also concerned that the ordinary faithful come to the same conclusion, and so determine that "holiness is not for me, as I'm just an ordinary guy!"
But that "ordinariness" is what has to be made holy...going to work each day, negotiating traffic jams, watching the kids play sport, making love to your wife, paying your mortgage, getting involved in politics...
I guess my prayer would be that God, through Padre Pio, will show us how, and give us the strength to carry it out.

[Charles E Flynn]

Dr John James,

We can only hope that St. Thérèse of Lisieux has covered the subject of making the ordinary life holy:

http://www.icspublications.org/bookstore/lisieux/b_lisieux10.html

[Lynne Newington]

I didn't think this was ever going to happen. The trouble is he has been promulgated for so many years there will definately be an uproar, the same as Medjugorje.