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Contents
Headline Hopscotch ..... 2
News 3
Commentary 4-5
Around the Diocese .... 6-7
Faith Alive I 8-9
Notices 10-11
Last But Not Least 12
Vol. 79, No. 18
Thursday, May 6,1999
$.50 PER ISSUE
Pope beatifies Padre Pio, says his life
“astonished the world”
By John Thavis
Vatican City (CNS)
n one of the biggest religious ceremonies in
Rome’s history, Pope John Paul II beatified Padre
Pio da Pietrelcina and said the Capuchin friar
“astonished the world” with his simple life of
prayer.
The Mass May 2 was attended by some 200,000
people who overflowed Saint Peter’s Square and
another 100,000 who watched on giant TV screens
in an open area across the city. Many were devoted
followers of Padre Pio, a southern Italian priest
known for his direct style of hearing confessions.
“By his life wholly given to prayer and to listening
to his brothers and sisters, this humble Capuchin friar
astonished the world,” the pope said in a homily.
The pope, who personally knew and admired
Padre Pio, praised him for the long hours he spent
with penitents, for his charity works on behalf of the
poor and sick, and for his ascetic practices undertak
en in imitation of Christ. Padre Pio’s reputed “stig
mata”— the appearance of bleeding wounds like
those of the crucified Christ — showed the priest’s
intense sharing in the Lord’s Passion, the pope said.
Referring to years of suspicion by church offi
cials, who investigated and temporarily suspended
Padre Pio from his priestly ministry, the pope said it
showed that saints are sometimes “misunderstood”
even by their own superiors.
Padre Pio was exonerated from the allegations of
impropriety and fraudulent conduct, but these accu
sations represented a painful and distressing trial for
the priest, the pope said. He said Padre Pio endured
it all with a spirit of obedience which itself became
a path of purification. The priest died in 1968 at the
age of 81.
At the beginning of the three-hour liturgy, the
pope read the beatification decree and set Septem
ber 23 as a day for special devotion to Padre Pio.
A drape was lifted on the facade of Saint Peter’s
Basilica to reveal a giant portrait of the smiling
Capuchin, and a wave of applause flowed through a
massive assembly that stretched from Saint Peter’s
Square more than half a mile down a wide avenue
to the Tiber River. Many people wiped tears from
their eyes.
Rome authorities blocked traffic for the event, and
many had predicted a day of chaos in the Eternal
City, but most residents seemed to have followed
officials’ advice to either leave town for the week
end or watch the ceremony at home.
More than 1,000 tour buses began unloading pil
grims at 6:00 a.m. near the Vatican. Wearing Padre
Pio scarves and hats, many carried framed portraits
of the Capuchin confessor and held them aloft as
the pope declared him blessed, meaning worthy of
imitation by the whole church.
Flags and placards identified groups of Padre Pio
followers from as far away as Indonesia and Singa
pore, while sizable delegations came from Poland,
(Continued on page 3)
Pope John Paul II, above a large tapestry of
Padre Pio, waves to pilgrims in Saint John
Lateran Square following the beatification of
the Italian Capuchin friar May 2 in Rome.
Blessed Sacrament Church, Savannah, blesses new organ
Above: Abbot Francis Kline,
OCSO, of Mepkin, SC, and
Father Jeremiah J. McCarthy,
pastor, before the dedicatory
concert April 25. Center: Father
McCarthy incenses the organ.
Above: Abbot Kline at the three-
manual Allen organ. The abbot
has a music degree from the Jul-
liard School in New York.
Photos by Barbara D. King.