Saint Pio of Pietreclina, or Padre Pio, became a saint in 2002 after a 20-year journey toward canonization. One of the signs of his “holiness” were the stigmata that appeared on his hands and feet for much of his adult life until his death in 1968. During the long process of moving the good Padre toward sainthood, testimony from a pharmacist implied that there was more to the stigmata than meets the eye:
She claimed to have spent a month with the priest in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo, seeing him often.
“Padre Pio called me to him in complete secrecy and telling me not to tell his fellow brothers, he gave me personally an empty bottle, and asked if I would act as a chauffeur to transport it back from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo with four grams of pure carbolic acid.
“He explained that the acid was for disinfecting syringes for injections. He also asked for other things, such as Valda pastilles.”
The testimony was originally presented to the Vatican by the Archbishop of Manfredonia, Pasquale Gagliardi, as proof that Padre Pio caused his own stigmata with acid.
The testimony was dismissed and filed away in the Vatican archives. There it lay until discovered by historian Sergio Luzzato, who accuses Pio of having been a fraud in a new book.
Supporters of Padre Pio, of course, claim that it’s a lie. Besides, it’s not possible for a saint to be a fraud, according to the president of the Catholic Anti-Defamation League:
We would like to remind Mr Luzzatto that according to Catholic doctrine, canonisation carries with it papal infallibility.
We would like to suggest to Mr Luzzatto that he dedicates his energies to studying religion properly.
Papal infallibility. That has a nice ring to it. I suppose it’s something much like the Bush/Cheney version of Executive Privilege. Sheesh, and I thought only God was supposed to be perfect.
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