Looking around, a staggering share of restaurants, bars, taxis, and private homes up and down the country feature images of Padre Pio, the famed Capuchin stigmatic who died in 1968 and who's now formally "St. Pio of Pietrelcina" after his canonization in 2002 under St. John Paul II.

Almost 50 years after his death, Padre Pio's face remains easily the most recognized and cherished visage of any Italian cleric of his time.

In 2001, a poll asked Italians what person or institution they would turn to in a moment of need. The No. 1 answer, dwarfing every other candidate, was Padre Pio with 53 percent.

So powerful is Padre Pio's hold on the Italian imagination that many handicappers believe part of what made Cardinal Sean P. O'Malley of Boston a crowd favorite for pope three years ago, in the conclave that eventually produced Pope Francis, is that the American cardinal looks and sounds a great deal like his Capuchin confrere.

This week, Padre Pio takes center stage as part of Francis' jubilee Holy Year of Mercy.

On Wednesday, his remains, along with those of Croatian Capuchin St. Leopold Mandić, were moved from their locations in San Giovanni Rotondo and Padova, respectively, for a week-long exposition in Rome.

They arrived at the basilica of St. Lawrence Outside the Walls, where a liturgy of welcome was led by the local superior of the Capuchin order, and then a Mass was celebrated by Cardinal Agostino Vallini, the pope's vicar for Rome. Continue reading

Sources

• Crux, from an article by John L. Allen Jr., associate editor of Crux
• Image: The Catholic Sun

A "Jubilee for Padre Pio's prayer group" will take place on February 13, 2016, as the body of the Capuchin saint will be exposed in St Peter's from February 8-14, at Pope Francis's request.

Twelve other prominent events involving the Pope have also been planned for the Jubilee Year of Mercy, reported the Catholic News Agency.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation, reportedly started in a letter to another bishop that on February 13, the Pope will send out missionaries of Mercy, giving them a special mandate to preach and hear confessions.

The Jubilee Year of Mercy will open on December 8 this year and will run until November 20, 2016.

Continue reading

Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi responded to reports in Italian media that she would be canonised before the end of the Holy Year of Mercy.

"It is a working hypothesis, therefore no official confirmation can be given," Fr Lombardi said.

"The cause for Mother Teresa is still underway and it is therefore premature to speak of an already established date for the canonisation," Fr Lombardi said.

Italian media reported that Archbishop Rino Fisichella had told Rome municipal officials that Mother Teresa's canonisation had been set for September 4, 2016.

Archbishop Fisichella is president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelisation.

His office is responsible for organising the Holy Year of Mercy declared by Pope Francis which will begin on December 8 this year.

In India, a day before Fr Lombardi's statement, a spokesman for the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church said Mother Teresa would be canonised in September next year.

"As a Christian, I am eagerly waiting for the canonisation of Mother Teresa," church spokesman Paul Thelekat said.

"She has been a mother to millions of Indian especially the poorest of the poor and the underprivileged," he said.

According to an Italian media report, Archbishop Fisichella also told Rome city officials that the relics of St Padre Pio would be brought to Rome from southern Italy for veneration by the faithful, but no date had been set.

This event, plus a canonisation of Mother Teresa, and the Holy Year, would draw massive crowds to Rome, hence the need for municipal planning.

Usually, a second miracle would be needed for Mother Teresa's canonisation to proceed, but Pope Francis has waived this requirement in other cases.

St John Paul II allowed her cause for beatification to proceed without waiting for the usual five years after a candidate's death to elapse.

Mother Teresa, who died in 1997, was beatified in 2003.

The founder of the Missionaries of Charity, she received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979.

Sources

• Catholic Courier
• IB Times
• Image: Catholic News Agency

The book "Padre Pio: Miracle and Politics in a Secular Age," by Italian historian, Professor Sergio Luzzatto, has discovered documents including a letter from a pharmacist who arranged carbolic acid for Pio.

A report in the Telegraph says Luzzatto suggests that the it was the corrosive acid caused the bleeding on Pio's hands, that the Saint claimed were replicas of Christ.

He also said many Popes had expressed doubts and suggested the Vatican only canonised Pio - real name Francesco Forgione - because of public pressure.

"Human beings - and particularly the most fragile among them - will still need to look at figures such as Padre Pio to get, if not miracles, then at least consolation and hope," Professor Luzzatto said, according the the Sun.

Professor Luzzatto previously referred to the documents, found in the Vatican's archive, in The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19th Century Italy.

His claims were dismissed by the Catholic Anti-Defamation League in 2007.

Pietro Siffi, the president of the League, said at the time: "We would like to remind Mr Luzzatto that according to Catholic doctrine, canonisation carries with it papal infallibility."

"We would like to suggest to Mr Luzzatto that he dedicates his energies to studying religion properly."

Pio, a former monk who died in 1968 aged 81, wore gloves because his hands bled constantly for 50 years in what were revered as stigmata wounds.

He became Italy's most loved saint after he was canonised by Pope John Paul II in 2002.

Source

• The Telegraph