# 43 of 45 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

# 43 OF 45 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

JUSTICE IS TRUTH IN ACTION - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - SUN. APRIL 19, 2020

PADRE PIO - THE TRUE STORY BY C. BERNARD RUFFIN

CHAPTER 20 - THE IMPRISONMENT P. 228-232 of 421 pages - SELECTED EXCERPTS

Preface:

    Update on this book about Saint Padre Pio. About 40 more pages; completion at the  end of 2021.

 

  "During the night of May 5, 1929, Padre Pio had a dream to which some of his confreres attached a prophetic significance. Referring to the 16th century pope, Pius V, Padre Pio recounted, "I had a dream about St. Pius. He clearly told me that Archbishop Gagliardi will be deposed and Bishop Cuccarello will come in his place.

    The first part of the prophecy was fulfilled Oct. 1. Following a second apostolic visitation, this time to investigate the archbishop himself, Gagliardi, in the wake of a report that held him guilty of serious "mismanagement" of his archdiocese, retired.... The second part of the prophecy of St. Pius was not fulfilled, owing , Agostino rationalized, to "fault of men."....

 

    Gagliardi was replace by another Capuchin bishop, Andrea Cesarano, an ascetic-looking man of fifty ...and generally friendly toward Padre Pio...

    The tribulation of the priestly mystic were by no means at an end with the retirement of Gagliardi. Pio still had powerful enemies in Rome, chief among them Gemelli, who continued to him in an unfavorable light to Pope Pius. Both Morcaldi and Brunatto were bitterly unhappy that the partial discrediting of Gagliardi had not served to remove what they felt were undo restriction on Padre Pio.

 

    Thereupon they wrote a book called Letters to the Church, which contained many juicy expose of the private lives of prominent Churchmen as well as a defense of Padre Pio ... When Padre Pio, however, learned of the forthcoming book, he seized Morcaldi by the throat, "You devil, you!" he roared. "Go, throw yourself at the foot of the Church instead of writing this garbage! Don't you set yourself up against your Mother!"...

 

    When the crowd still continued to howl for the guest's blood - quite literally --- Moraldi boomed, "Do you love Padre Pio?" When cries of "Yes! Yea!" burst from the darkness, he shouted back, "Then what he says! Do what he told you! Obey him! Go back to you homes! The guest will leave for Foggia at five this morning....

 

    Thus began two years that Padre Pio called his "imprisonment," a trial he offered as a sacrifice to

God for the needs of the unsaved. He began his day with the rest of the community. After saying the Office with his colleagues in the choir, he prepared for Mass, the went to a small oratory within the enclosure and celebrated the Eucharist in the company of one server. Because he had no congregation, no limit was set on the length of his Mass, which at times lasted for almost four hours. According to Agostino though,ninety minutes was more usual.

 

    Now, at least, he was free to spend as much time as he wished in mystic communion with his God.What protracted Pio's Mass to such lengths, Agostino observed, were the Remembrances of the Living and the Remembrances of the Dead. Pio often said that during the Mass he saw all the souls whom God was entrusting to his concern. Now, prohibited from any other contact with the faithful, he spent much time in intercession for them.

 

    The rest of his day Padre Pio spent in study and prayer. He managed to go through volume after volume of Church history as well as pore over Scripture and the Church Fathers. The Capuchin lifestyle had relaxed somewhat from the days when Pio was a very young man, and the friars no longer had as many restrictions on their fellowship. Once when Agostino asked him how he passed his time. Pio replied, "I pray and I study as much as I can, then I annoy my Brothers."...

 

    Frequently alone with his thoughts, Padre Pio was troubled more than ever by his habitual uncertainty as to whether he was pleasing God. He told Padre Agostino, "I would prefer a thousand crosses ... to this ordeal of never feeling certain as to whether I am pleasing the Lord in what I am doing..

George H. Kubeck 89