The Padre Pio Foundation of
America
463 Main Street
Cromwell, Connecticut 06416
Dear Friend of Blessed Padre
Pio,
We thought we would
pass along to you the following information regarding the Canonization of Padre
Pio taken from Zenit, an international news agency based in Rome (www.zenit.org)
________________________________________
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 12, 2000 (ZENIT.org).- Blessed
Padre Pio of Pietrelcina
could be proclaimed a saint next year.
The Roman newspaper Il Messagero reported that a
study is under way of the
scientifically inexplicable cure of a child, who
reported seeing Padre Pio in
a dream.
Padre Pio (1887-1968) was beatified by John Paul II
in May 1999.
The canonization might now be possible thanks to the
cure of 8-year-old
Matteo Pio (his surname was not given for reasons of
privacy) of San
Giovanni Rotondo, the town where the Capuchin friar
lived for more than 50
years.
Matteo was stricken with meningitis Jan. 20. His
father, a doctor,
immediately put him in the House for the Relief of
Suffering, the hospital
founded by Padre Pio. The doctors' initial diagnosis
left no room for hope:
Matteo's death was imminent.
Dr. Paolo De Vivo, head of the hospital's
resuscitation department,
recalled: "His condition was desperate, due to
cardio-circulatory collapse,
breathing and renal deficiency."
However, 12 days later, Matteo woke up as if nothing
had happened. No
doctor has been able to explain this phenomenon. The
boy said that while he
was in a coma he dreamed of Padre Pio, who smiled at
him.
Five doctors of the medical commission of the
Vatican Congregation for the
Causes of Saints are studying the case to confirm
the inexplicability of the
cure. If the commission makes a favorable judgment,
the case will then be
studied by a theological commission and, later, by a
commission of cardinals
and bishops of the congregation. If these two bodies
confirm the direct
relation between the cure and Padre Pio's
intercession, then a miracle will
be presumed.
Matteo's cure has already passed the examination of
the Diocese of
Manfredonia.
The postulator of the cause of Padre Pio's
canonization has already
received two other cases of inexplicable cures that
could be presented to
request his canonization.
The first has to do with Giorgio Rinzivillo, 22,
from Modica, Italy, who came
out of what seemed an irreversible coma, suffered as
the result of a traffic
accident in April 1999. The second is the case of
Antonio Trabucco, who is
retired and lives in Naples. Trabucco was cured from
partial paralysis in
June 1999.
San Giovanni Rotondo, the town where Padre Pio's
monastery is located,
receives more than 6 million pilgrims a year, even
more than Lourdes, France.