Padre Pio - Padre Fake-o?

Heard it first over at Gashwin's. Apparently the Times and Telegraph both have pieces online today calling to question whether Padre Pio really suffered the true Stigmata, or inflicted the wounds himself. Ruth Gledhill gives a presentation of the allegations, while Fr. Dwight Longnecker defends the Sainted Priest:



Nobody went around saying, "I know, let's have some saints bear the open wounds of Christ in order to make the faithful believe more." Instead, everyone (the saint included) is rather embarrassed by the miraculous phenomena. They try to keep it quiet and cover it up because, well, they're humble. When the news gets out the church looks for every logical, natural and sensible explanation first. Then she shrugs her ancient shoulders and says, "Well what do I know. What I see is what I see. This old friar has the wounds of Christ on his body, and didn't St Paul say that he 'bears the marks of Christ on his body? Maybe it's so."



and reminds us about Miracles that in the end



unlike crazy arm waving sweating Evangelical fundamentalist charismatic television preachers the church more or less forgets about the miracle. The Church doesn't go around bragging and promoting the miracle and shouting it from the rooftops. Instead, she tells us to focus instead on the fruits of the saints righteousness. Yes, sometimes, like the liquefaction of the blood of St Januarius or some other marvel, the miracle is proclaimed, but it is never proclaimed as proof of anything, except maybe the fact that this physical world is more rubbery than we thought, that things are open ended, that anything can happen and we oughtn't be too sure that we're sure. [Emphasis added]



Thanks Fr. Dwight.

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