# 51 OF 80 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

# 51 OF 80 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONE.BLOGSPOT.COM - SUN. JUNE 21, 2020

 

CHAPTER 24 - THE WORLD FOR A PARISH - P. 270 - 273

 

    "Padre Pio's immediate family were now all at San Giovanni. His elder father, as we have seen, lived at the home of Maria Pyle, as he had done since 1938, ... he had become a fixture at the Pyle home, which he had brightened with his joy and serenity with his piety....he insisted that the household eat on their knees during Lent ...Whenever when anyone complimented Gra on being the father of Padre Pio, tears welled up in the old man's eyes as he insisted, " I didn't make him, Jesus Christ did."... Finally, one day Gra mustered the courage to seize his son's hand and kill it, announcing, "I am not kissing your hand. I am kissing the wound of Jesus Christ."...

 

    " .. On the third of October, Padre Pio began spending most of his time with his father, who would eat only when spoon-fed by his favorite child. At 9:30 in the evening of Oct. 7,
Grazio Maria Forgione entered into rest at the age of nearly eighty-six... I'm going to call the angels and tell to take me to heaven because I can say, "I'm Padre Pio's father!'"...

 

    "During his father's last illness Padre Pio was involved in politics more than at any time in his life. Now that the fascist peril was past, he was concerned about the growing strength of Communism. With Europe in ruins, the Reds were making alarming gains in Italy and other countries. But before a decision was made about the future of Communism in Italy, voters went to the polls to decide the fate of the monarchy, ...

     When the monarchy was abolished by popular vote, Pio expressed satisfaction. He remarked privately that the royal family were lacking in religious faith . When the time came for the election of delegates to the Italian assembly Padre Pio urged his disciples to vote for the Christian Democrats, who won an absolute majority over the Communists. Many Marxists blamed Padre io for their defeat, claiming that his very presence took votes from them.

    Two years later there was still a danger of a Communist victory in the elections. This time Padre Pio wrote to Premier Alcide De Gasperi, expressing his support for the Christian Democratic Party. With elections few weeks away, Padre Agostino noted in his diary that Pio "lining up victory on the side of law and order" by urging all pilgrims to Vote Christina Democrat.

 

    The Communists, of course, took a dim view of such priestly interference in the political arena. A few days before the elections, a Communist from the nearby town of San Marco in Lamis was campaigning from the back of a truck. As he passed near the friary, he shouted, 'Down with Padre Pio!" Moving toward the center of town, he was suddenly stricken with pains so severe that he had to be rushed to the nearest hospital (probably in Foggia), where surgeons opened him, determined that he was incurable, and sewed him up again. The pious attributed the man's fatal illness to divine retribution, for opposing Padre Pio. 

 

    There was the usual pandemonium as Padre Pio arrived at the polls on April 18. As he was emerging from his car, a woman ran into the street, shrieking obscene imprecations at him. In doing so, however, she stumbled and fell breaking her leg so badly that she had to be taken to a hospital without voting for her Communists. The Christian Democrats were victorious, and Padre Pio was hailed by many in southern Italy, where he was now arguably the region's best-known personality, as instrumental in keeping Italy from Communism. As they had in an earlier election, many Communists blamed Padre Pio for their defeat.

 

    The threat of Marxism made Padre Pio all the more concerned with the future of the Holy Family friary in Pietrelcina, which had been completed years before but had never been occupied by Capuchins because the archbishop of Benevento refused to grant the necessary authorization. During the war the building had been requisitioned for the billeting of Italian, then of German, then, finally, of allied soldiers. It was a wreck, its walls covered with obscene graffiti in Italian, German, English, and Polish...

George H. Kubeck, Happy Father's Day

P.S. Our nation needs the intercession of Saint Padre Pio.