Padre Pio, Francesco Forgione, was born to parents Maria Giuseppa and Grazio Forgione in the small farming town of Pietrelcina, in the Campania region of Italy. In 1876 Italy went into an economic depression, which precipitated its diaspora event, the start of mass-emigration of Italians from Italy. It is estimated that between 1882-1901, nearly 2.2million(1) Italians had permanently emigrated from Italy. “For the entire kingdom [of Italy] the permanent emigration has in effect deprived the country of one man in the fullest years of life out of every eight; for Campania and Basilicata, one out of six, for Calabria and Sardinia, one out of five. (1)” It is against this backdrop of cultural and geopolitical change that young Francesco lived. Francesco’s childhood church was the Chiesa Sant’Anna, where he received all of the sacraments. He was baptised on May 26th 1887 by the curate bursar don Nicolantonio Orlando. On September 27th 1899 he was confirmed by Monsignor Donato Maria Dell’Olio, archbishop of Benevento.
Figure 1: Padre Pio celebrating Mass, receiving Holy Communion. Source: caccioppoli.com
At age 5, it is reported that Francesco had an apparition of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, where the Lord laid his hand on Francesco’s head and promised him that he would be a faithful follower. It is said that Padre Pio offered himself as a victim at this young age. This marked the start of his Marian apparitions, which continued throughout his life. In boyhood, Francesco was permitted into the church to spend time with the Eucharistic Lord, even when the church was closed. Padre Pio lived in the Capuchin Monastery in San Giovanni Rotondo from September 1916 - September 1968. The monastery was originally built in 1538. Beside the Monastery is the Old Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie (Our Lady of Grace), originally Our Lady of Angels, consecrated in 1629. It was in this small, 80 person capacity church where Padre Pio celebrated mass, heard confessions, and received the stigmata. Pilgrims seeking Padre Pio’s blessing increased so dramatically after news of his stigmata spread, that a new, larger church was commissioned next to Santa Maria delle Grazie, completed in 1959. On 5th August 1918, Padre Pio experienced a wounding of his soul, inflicted by an angel with a “weapon, like a long, sharp-pointed steel blade, which seemed to spew out fire.” Padre Pio was in agony for two days, and claimed to “always feel in the depths of my soul a wound that is always open… …that causes me continual agony (2).” 45 days later, on 18th September 1918, Padre Pio received the stigmata. After celebrating Mass, sitting in the monastery choir before an ancient crucifix, Pio fell into a deep, peaceful repose, and an angel with blood oozing from his hands, feet, and side appeared to him. “I felt like I was dying,” he said, “and I would have died if the Lord had not intervened to strengthen my heart, which was ready to burst out of my chest. When the mysterious creature left, I found that my hands, feet, and side had been pierced and were bleeding… The wound in my heart bleeds continuously, especially from Thursday evening until Saturday. I’m afraid that I will bleed to death if the Lord doesn’t hear my groans and take these wounds from me. He can even leave the anguish and the pain but let him take away these visible signs that are a source of embarrassment for me and an indescribable and unbearable humiliation (2).” Padre Pio’s stigmata, the five wounds of Christ’s passion, is the first recorded case of a stigmatized priest in the history of the Catholic Church. Padre Pio was beloved by those who knew him for his earthiness, compassion, gentleness, humour, and common sense. Yet he struggled with irritability, exasperated by lack of sleep and long hours spent in the confessional. His love for truth and no-nonsense attitude in the confessional provoked people to honestly confront the condition of their soul. He was able to read the hearts of many who came to him in confession, reminding them of unconfessed sins, and foretelling future occurrences in their lives and God’s will for them (3). He refused to hear the confession of a woman who was immodestly dressed, and refused to hear another after discerning that she had not faced up to her sinfulness. This latter woman claimed “[Padre Pio] is anything but holy, he’s rude and ill-mannered.” After being unable to shake Padre Pio from her mind, she turned back to God, returned to San Giovanni Rotondo and was graciously received by Padre Pio (2). In this way, his irritability was a tool to encourage and admonish people on their heavenly journey. Padre Pio was deeply moved by the suffering of other people, and this compassion inspired him to work to establish a world-class hospital at San Giovanni Rotondo at the service of the poor, a town with a population of 4,000 people. On 9th January 1940, Pio announced his plan (3). With prayer, faith, and the help of friends, money was raised to design and construct the buildings, and to hire the best medical staff. The 300-bed facility opened on 5th May 1956. Despite concerns that the hospital’s remote and impoverished location would cause it to fail, Padre Pio believed and prophesied that “now the House for the Relief of Suffering (Casa) is a small seed, but it will become a mighty oak, a hospital that is a small city and a centre for clinical studies of international importance.”
Figure 2: The Casa USA Model, the Three Pillar Program (3). The Casa CHI collaboration consists of three pillars: faithful Catholic medical school, the collaborative Casa USA Hospital, and Catholic Physician Practice Network. The three pillars rest on the foundations of Eucharistic Adoration and prayer, and loyalty to the Magisterium of the Church.
Padre Pio saw the Casa as his primary work on earth: a haven of relief from suffering for God’s children. The Casa has grown into a 1000-bed hospital, owned by the Holy See, which provides relief of suffering to those in need in one of the most remote, desolate, and poorest regions in Italy (3). Padre Pio’s model of healthcare is described as a “beacon of light” in a secular world (3).
In 2004, the non-profit corporation Catholic Healthcare International (CHI) was formed. CHI was envisioned by Dr Guglielmo Sanguinetti in 1950, a founder of the Casa, and handpicked by Padre Pio as the Casa’s Director of Implementation. CHI pursued a formal collaboration agreement with the Casa, to replicate it as a model of faithful Catholic healthcare in a secular world, to be emulated in other regions. In 2009, the formal collaboration agreement was executed, so the Casa and CHI work together to restore Catholic healthcare back to its roots in the charism of St. Pio and his model (fig. 2). CHI’s board of directors committed to incorporate perpetual Eucharistic Adoration in each Casa hospital developed by CHI.
Seven guiding elements for Catholic healthcare in a secular world, proposed by Cardinal Raymond Burke (3):
1. “An understanding of what it means to be Catholic, and of the importance of providing health care in accord with the teaching, worship, and governance of the Catholic Church.”
2. “The knowledge [of] and commitment to a distinct form of health care, namely the care of the sick and dying in the Church, as an integral part of the Church’s mission under the direction of the diocesan bishop and ultimately the Roman Pontiff.” Palazzolo – Home for the Relief of Suffering 461
3. “The personal commitment of the administration and staff of the Catholic healthcare institution to the Church’s teaching, to carrying out the care of the sick and dying after the mind of Christ alive for us in the Church.”
4. “A Catholic understanding of man which inspires the care of the whole person … [which] must see the physical and emotional difficulties of the person within the context of his moral and spiritual life.”
5. “The priority of ethical and religious standards over professional standing and position within the larger medical community. The desire to have the approval of prominent secular institutions can never justify the compromise of ethical and religious principles. The Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services must be viewed as the binding norms.”
6. “Freedom from financial support and assistance which is given under conditions which obscure or even betray the Catholic identity of the Catholic healthcare institution.”
7. “The discipline of the desire for credibility or prestige which would lead the Catholic institution into relationships with large, non-Catholic healthcare institutions by way of mergers, partnerships, or joint ventures” (Burke 2012, 7–10).
Famous Quotes
“Bring God to all those who are sick. This will help them more than any other remedy.”
“Pray, hope, and don’t worry”
“Have courage and do not fear the assaults of the Devil. Remember this forever; it is a healthy sign if the devil shouts and roars around your conscience since this shows that he is not inside your will.”
[1] Robert F. Foerster, “A Statistical Survey of Italian Emigration.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics , Nov., 1908, Vol. 23, No. 1 (Nov., 1908), pp. 66-103
[2] https://www.loyolapress.com/catholic-resources/saints/saints-stories-for-all- ages/blessed-padre-pio-of-pietrelcina-1887-1968/
[3] Jere D Palazzolo, “St. (Padre) Pio Home for the Relief of Suffering in the USA: Responding to the call.” The Linacre Quarterly, 83 (4) 2016, 455-464
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