Posted on 01/26/2008 7:47:14 AM PST by Ottofire
SAN GIOVANNI ROTONDO, Italy (CNS) -- The body of St. Padre Pio will be exhumed, studied and displayed for public veneration from mid-April to late September, said the archbishop who oversees the shrine where the saint is buried.
Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio, papal delegate for the shrine in San Giovanni Rotondo, announced Jan. 6 that he and the Capuchin friars of Padre Pio's community had decided it was important to verify the condition of the saint's body and find a way to ensure its preservation.
"It is my personal conviction and that of the confreres of St. Pio that we have an obligation to give the generations that will come after us the possibility of venerating and preserving in the best possible way the mortal remains of St. Pio," Archbishop D'Ambrosio said.
"A further motive for rejoicing," he said, stems from the fact that the Capuchins, with Vatican approval, "have authorized the exposition and public veneration of the saint's body for several months beginning in mid-April."
In addition to marking the 40th anniversary of Padre Pio's death Sept. 23, 1968, the public veneration of his remains also will coincide with the 90th anniversary of the day on which he was believed to have received the stigmata, bloody wounds recalling the crucifixion wounds of Jesus.
According to the Capuchins, Padre Pio received the stigmata Sept. 20, 1918.
Immediately after Archbishop D'Ambrosio announced the exhumation of Padre Pio's body, Italian newspapers and television stations began reporting that members of his family were opposed to the move and were threatening to sue the archbishop and the Capuchins.
But a spokesman for the family denied the rumors and Archbishop D'Ambrosio told Avvenire, the Italian Catholic daily newspaper, that he had been in contact with the family and they raised no objections.
Padre Pio was born Francesco Forgione May 25, 1887, in Pietrelcina, Italy. As a Capuchin, he was a famed confessor and preacher and had a widespread reputation as one whose prayers were effective in procuring miraculous cures. Pope John Paul II beatified him in 1999 and canonized him in 2002.
“to verify the condition of the saint’s body and find a way to ensure its preservation.”
Why? If the soul has left, isn’t it a useless shell?
Indeed.
Historically speaking, the incorruptibility of the mortal remains is looked at as one of the many signs of sainthood. St. Bernadette of Lourdes body is incorrupt as are many other bodies of saints throughout the ages.
many of the saints bodies are incorrupt, defying so-call science....just another sign of God’s power to his people.
An attack on the blessed memory of St. Padre Pio was attempted not long ago in the press. A so-called journalist insinuated that Padre Pio’s purchase of carbolic acid was evidence of deliberately inducing his stigmata.
The fact that the first step for anyone with stigmatic wounds is supposed to be a attempt to cure them naturally, — and therefore to disinfect them — was not mentioned by the “journalist”.
People should be able to venerate Padre Pio’s relics; he is among the most popular modern saints.
**..incorruptibility of mortal remains..**
Isn’t that an oxymoron????????
They are dead, right, they’re organs useless? Life is in the blood, and the blood in these corpses is dead!
Put any one of these bodies out in the sunshine, in the tropical heat of the equatorial regions, then come back a week later.
Going around digging up long dead bodies? You folks are morbid.
That’s right. This rabbit’s foot lucky charm didn’t do much for the rabbit. LOL
Digging up the dead to worship a corpse ?
When Padre Pio is displayed, we’ll send you a picture.
If I dug up a 40 year old corpse to display to the public, I have a hunch I’d be arrested.
Catholic saints are not dead and their bodies are often an object of public veneration, and always have been.
And you are ignorant.
Good thing you are not attributing motives to someone never met. Jump to assumptions much?
I did a search and nothing came up.
What support do you have from Elohim's Word to support the veneration of the dead ? Or is it paganism ? If he is not alive then he is dead !
b'SHEM Yah'shua
I read somewhere that Padre’s family did not want his body exhumed.
“Why? If the soul has left, isn’t it a useless shell?”
Veneration of relics (most often body parts) of saints is nearly as old as The Church. If I recall correctly, and Alex can if I am wrong, such veneration began in 155 AD after the martyrdom of +Polycarp.
It’s funny you mention St. Polycarp, since today was his feast day on the pre-Vatican II sanctoral calendar. :-)
The Chinese and Japanese engage in "ancestor worship," but even they cremated their dead, if memory serves.
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