Mick Hartley

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Padre Pio

From the Telegraph (via b&w), a

Padre Pio, Italy’s most-loved saint, faked his stigmata by pouring carbolic acid on his hands, according to a new book.

The Other Christ: Padre Pio and 19th Century Italy, by the historian Sergio Luzzatto, draws on a document found in the Vatican’s archive.

The document reveals the testimony of a pharmacist who said that the young Padre Pio bought four grams of carbolic acid in 1919.

“I was an admirer of Padre Pio and I met him for the first time on 31 July 1919,” wrote Maria De Vito.

She claimed to have spent a month with the priest in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo, seeing him often.

“Padre Pio called me to him in complete secrecy and telling me not to tell his fellow brothers, he gave me personally an empty bottle, and asked if I would act as a chauffeur to transport it back from Foggia to San Giovanni Rotondo with four grams of pure carbolic acid.

“He explained that the acid was for disinfecting syringes for injections. He also asked for other things, such as Valda pastilles.”

Thankfully the Catholic Anti-Defamation League have the perfect answer:

Pietro Siffi, the president of the League, said: “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.”

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7 responses to “Padre Pio”

  1. tolkein Avatar
    tolkein

    Wow!
    So Padre Pio bought carbolic acid. In secret! Must have used it to cause the stigmata, proves he’s a fake and the Catholic Church are accessories to a fraud! Golly. No other explanations needed. Don’t need any of this difficult stuff like evidence, when it’s the Catholic Church under suspicion. Case solved Sherlock.

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  2. Mick H Avatar
    Mick H

    The main point of the post is the reaction of the Catholic Anti-Defamation League, but yes, as per David Hume, given the choice between a miraculous suspension of the laws of science or a cheap scam perpetrated on a gullible public, I’d certainly go for the latter.

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  3. DaninVan Avatar
    DaninVan

    Religion IS hucksterism.

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  4. Jerry Beckett Avatar
    Jerry Beckett

    Hmmmm….one problem, though. Only concentrated doses of carbolic acid would burn tissue; less concentrated doses are used as an antiseptic and/or anesthetic (for example, it is the active ingredient in Chlorasceptic spray). If one were to want to fake a stigmata, I can hardly think of a less efficient way than to repeatedly pour concentrated doses of carbolic acid on your hands and feet. Which is more likely, that Pio used small doses (a few grams mixed with a lot of water) of it for antiseptic and/or anesthetic reasons, as he claimed, or that he poured concentrated doses on his hands and feet for 50 years?
    Another problem: This pharmacist’s testimony was procured and submitted to the Vatican by the Archbishop of Manfredonia, Pasquale Gagliardi. Gagliardi made many accusations against Pio, including monetary malfeasance and having sexual intercourse with female penitents. Pio’s confessional and quarters at his monastery were bugged, but no evidence was found to support the sexual charges. Nor was any evidence of financial misdoings. However, Gagliardi would soon become a center of controversy, as public accusations were made against him of sexual molestation and faulty accounting errors, in addition to pederasty as well as acts of cleric sodomy. For Gagliardi, there was enough actual evidence that he was arrested by civil authorities 3 times and removed from his diocese. It was later discovered that numerous letters submitted by Gagliardi to the Vatican in regard to Padre Pio contained falsified accounts.
    Though I have no opinion on Padre Pio, it would be nice if those so quick to dismiss him actually did a little research and weighed all the evidence carefully, instead of latching on to whatever scrap of evidence they can misconstrue in order to validate their preconceived prejudice. Nice, but not likely.

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  5. dearieme Avatar
    dearieme

    “The allegations are not new: two successive popes regarded Padre Pio as a fraud.” Says the Independent. Meantime,
    “Archbishop of Manfredonia…Gagliardi would soon become a center of controversy, as public accusations were made against him of sexual molestation and faulty accounting errors, in addition to pederasty as well as acts of cleric sodomy.” Yup, that certainly raises my opinion of the RC church.

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  6. Adrian Stanley Avatar
    Adrian Stanley

    Given that all the evidence shows that victims were crucified through the wrists and not the hands, Padre Pio’s stigmata were at best psychosomatic.

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  7. Frank Avatar
    Frank

    Here is a quote from the book “Padre Pio and America” which explains what
    the carbolic acid was actually used for in his friary at that time:
    “The boys in the Seraphic College could not understand why their
    instructor seemed to be hiding his hands under his garments during the
    classes that he was teaching. The Father Guardian, Padre Paolino, noticed
    that Pio appeared to be covering up red spots on his hands with the
    sleeves of his habit. However, he was not too concerned since he and Padre
    Pio had recently received burns on their hands from carbolic acid. The
    boys had needed injections to fight the Spanish Flu which was raging at
    that time. Due to a shortage of doctors, Padres Paolino and Pio
    administered the shots, using carbolic acid as a sterilizing agent.”
    Peace,
    Frank Rega, author of “Padre Pio and America” p. 55, TAN Books 2005.

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