# 52 OF 80 THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

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

IN PURSUIT OF THE TRUTH - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - THURS. JUNE 25,2020

 

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

 

    The "enemies of God" were neither Marxists nor Fascists but Jehovah's Witnesses, who, under the leadership of a man named Cavaluzzo, were active in Padre Pio's hometown, holding meetings, distributing their literature, and even handing out money to the peasants. A number of Pietrelcinese had been re-baptized into the cult - in a nearby river. Now Cavaluzzo wanted to buy the vacant friary and turn it into a "Kingdom Hall."...

 

After some time Orlando managed to arrange a meeting with Mancinell, in which the archbishop stated frankly the reason for his opposition: "Capuchins cannot come to Pietrelcina because it would raise the question of their interest against those of the parish clergy .... Everyone would give their .... offerings to the Capuchins, because they are Padre Pio's monks, and [would] no longer [contribute] to the secular clergy, and I have to defend and the secular clergy because they are my dependents...

 

Thus, in April 1947, the first Capuchin friars arrived in Pietrelcina. Many Pietrelcinese hoped that the opening of the friary would be the occasion of Padre Pio's transfer to his hometown. Even though he knew this would not be the case, Padre Pio hoped, after three decades, to return to Pietrelcina for the consecration of the friary church in May 1951....

 

Meanwhile, Padre Pio was becoming an international celebrity. Before Bill Carrigan, the Red Cross Director, returned to America, he wrote a story about Padre Pio, relating the pilgrimages of soldiers during the war and a great number of them whose lives lives have been changed dramatically. Within months practically every Catholic periodical in America carried the story. Padre Pio was made known in America also by Maria Maria Pyle, who returned in 1948 to visit friends near Pittsburgh, settle the estate of her aunt,Sadie Pyle McAlpin, and solicit funds for the Casa...

 

The volume of mail addressed to Padre Pio increased enormously. In 1947 when Father Clement Neubauer, minister general o the Capuchin Order, visited San Giovanni Rotondo, he noted that Padre Pio was getting two hundred fifty letters a day, many of them from America. Almost all of the foreign mail was handled by Maria Pyle. A great number of people were writing their confessions in the letters, requesting penance and absolution. Clement decided that Pio needed an English-speaking priest for a secretary and the next year sent for his old friend and fellow-American Father Dominic Meyer....

 

Dominic's job was to talk with and advise English-and German-speaking pilgrims and, if possible, arrange brief meetings with Padre Pio. He noted that "most of them came out of devotion ... Some came out of mere curiosity, not so many." ...

 

Writing to his family in July 1949, Dominic recounted: "Often when I lay such questions before him from the letters which I  must answer , he says: "Tell them to be resigned and trust in the mercy of God" and "there is no answer to that question." Many continue to ask whether their boy or husband, missing in action, is still alive or not. Sometimes he answers definitely, " He is dead," but more often he merely gives an evasive answer to show that God did not reveal this to him." ... Maria Pyle also received a huge volume of mail, not only asking her to forward their intentions to Padre Pio, but often containing money for the CASA and their charities...

 

May, June and September were the busiest months for the friars, for it was then, Father Dominic observed, that "Italians get the wanderlust and go on pilgrimages. A group hires a bus or truck ... and travel from one sanctuary to another. It is not seldom that there are six to ten buses and four to eight trucks here on a day...

 

During the years following the war, the most significant development in San Giovanni was not change of superiors, nor the increase in mail, ... The most striking event was the construction of La Casa Solievo della Soffeerenza.

George H. Kubeck,  Pray for the Intercession of Padre Pio to heal our divided nation.