# 62 of 70 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO!

 # 62 OF 70 - THIS HAPPY BOOK REPORT ON PADRE PIO

JUSTICE IS TRUTH IN ACTION - HTTP://WWW.CINOPSBEGONEBLOGSPOT.COM - FRI. AUG. 7, 2020

 

Chapter 31 - 'Just in Time for My Golden Jubilee'  p. 352 - 357

 

    "Padre Pio had been plunged into "terrible grief" when "the beautiful little pope," Pius XII, departed the world on October 9, 1958, but consoled, (according to Padre Agostino) by a vision of the former pontiff in his heavenly home. Pio had been pleased, however, at the election of Angelo Roncalli the aged patriarch of Venice, who became Pope John XXIII. 

    Although some who were in a position to know insisted that the new pope respected and admired Padre Pio, this was not evident to many of the Capuchin's followers, who were appalled when, on the eve of the fiftieth anniversary of Pio's ordination, the pope ordered an investigation of his life and ministry in the summer of 1960.

 

    When Monsignor Carlo Maccari, the pope's representative, arrived with his secretary, Don Giovanni Bargerini, at San Giovanni on July 29, Padre Pio was dismayed. "They will make my life impossible. They will put me to an unfavorable light and they will force me to surrender to various obediences." ... thus began an episode which proved one of the most traumatic of Padre Pio's life...

    There seem to have been several concerns that prompted Pope John to send Monsignor Maccari to San Giovanni. Some who were on intimate terms with the pontiff at the time insisted that the Pope was disturbed by disagreeable rumors and acted to protect Padre Pio' life.

 

The pope was reportedly troubled by the Pious Ladies of San Giovanni when word reached him of the obscene spectacle of dozens of women fighting over the best places in church,an of the chains and locks that many of them placed on the pews nearest the altar... There were other problems. The aged Padre Agostino, who had the year before finished his third tenure as minister provincial, was becoming part of the confusion as he habitually stood in the choir overlooking the nave and shouted at the women as they fought over the seats...

 

... It is claimed that 36 tapes were made during a three month period. The Capuchins at San Giovanni Rotondo admitted in 1989 that the guest room was in fact, bugged but denied any attempt was made to record Padre Pio's confessions... There was evidently some dispute over the handling of the offerings. Some of the Capuchins complained that the money sent to the Casa was intended for the Church and the friary but was not handed over for the purpose designed by the donor.  Liikewise, the hospital administration complained just the opposite...

 

    One prelate who, in fact, expressed a measured and moderate criticism of Padre Pio was Albino Luciani, bishop of Vittorio Veneto (and afterward patriarch of Venice and then Pope John Paul I). In his diocesan bulletin of February 4, 1960, Luciani wrote that Padre Pio's ministry was like "an indigestible dainty" and he was concerned that the padre appealed to people with an "exaggerated craving for the supernatural and the unusual." He went on to say that "the faithful have need for solid bread (the Mass, the catechism, the Sacraments), which nourishes them, not chocolates, pastries, and sweetmeats that burgeon and beguile." Luciani was especially troubled by the pilgrimages to San Giovanni Rotondo to see Padre Pio, especially those organized by mail...

 

    Maccari lodged at the Casa. On the first day he went to the friary, assembled the community, including Padre Pio, to whom he was to whom he was introduced and read the decree naming him the apostolic visitor and representative of Pope John XXIII. He announced he will be interviewing ever member of the community, but, according to Padre Raffaele, "He called a pair of religious, and no more. The others waited in vain"...

 

    After interviewing the diocesan clergy, Maccari interviewed the spiritual daughters, both stable and otherwise. Several were horrified because they were asked about Padre Pio's sexual life. One of them ran to Padre Raffaele, complaining,"Only a devil from hell would ask the questions that he did!"...

Raffaele was alarmed at Maccari's attitude, "From the way he talked, he seemed to want to let me understand that he thought that everything connected with Padre Pio was a show and foolery."Meanwhile, according to Padre Raffaele, Maccari's secretary, Giovanni Barberini, was, "acting more like a police detective than a priest," visiting restaurants, pubs, and shops, trying, far into the night, to wheedle out of the people with whom he talked their opinions of Padre Pio...

George H. Kubeck