Padre Pio on Salvation Outside the Church Part Three 'Julius Fine is saved...'


“Julius Fine is saved . . .”
Fr. Alessio Parente, O.F.M. Cap., lived and worked alongside Padre Pio for many years in Our Lady of Grace Friary at San Giovanni Rotondo. He wrote numerous books about his confrere, and his works provide reliable source material for the saint. The following information is from Fr. Alessio’s book The Holy Souls, 19 and was related by a “very good friend” of his, Mrs. Florence Fine Ehrman, the daughter of the person in question.
 In 1965 her father, Julius Fine, who had practiced the Jewish faith all his life and believed firmly in God, was stricken with what is commonly called “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” Mrs. Ehrman wrote to Padre Pio beseeching a cure for her father from this fatal illness. A short time later she received the reply that Padre Pio would pray for her father and would take him under his protection.
When her father passed away in February of the next year, she was able to accept his death peacefully. However after some time, she began to worry about whether or not he was saved, even though he had been a very loving and kind husband and father. “This fear came about because I began to hear many people, Protestants and Catholics alike, say that unless person had been baptized they could not be saved.”
 On a visit to the friary at San Giovanni Rotondo in the fall of 1967, she was told by a personal friend (quite possibly Fr. Alessio himself) to write down whatever she wished to ask Padre Pio, and this friend would present the letter to him. She of course wrote down her concerns about the eternal state of her father’s soul – this good and gentle Jewish man who had never been baptized. The reply from Padre Pio, which she received in writing, was this: “Julius Fine is saved, but it is necessary to pray much for him.” Her mind was put at ease by such a “sure and definite” statement,” since she understood that her father was in Purgatory, his salvation guaranteed.
 Whether Padre Pio was enlightened by his Guardian Angel, the Holy Spirit, interior locution, or some other means is not known. What is known, however, is his ability to make such determinations after intense prayer, nourished by his mystical union with Christ during his Mass and Holy Communion, and by the offering up of his sufferings, especially the painful bloody wounds of his stigmata. In this instance, Padre Pio committed himself to assuring a grieving daughter that her father, who was not baptized, and was not a Roman Catholic, was saved.
This is from an exceptionally important article by Frank M. Rega, S.F.O. It was found here.

Comments

  1. Catholics accept the possibility of a non Catholic being saved and this would of course be known only to God.However in general all non Catholics need Catholic faith and the baptism of water for salvation (Vatican Council II, Ad Gentes 7) and there are known exceptions.Those saved in invincible ignorance or a good conscience (Lumen Gentium 16, Vatican Council II) are known only to God and so are not exceptions to Ad Gentes 7 or the dogma extra ecclesiam nulla salus.

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  2. Gosh, you mean theres a chance a non catholic might go to heaven? Thats hard to believe. I mean heaven is the strict domain of the catholic church. Ah, how wonderful. We will get to meet Tomas Torquemada and Pope Sixtus, some of my faves, but theres others.

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  3. Hi Bos,

    Sorry that you find it hard to believe. St Pio didn't tell everyone that they were going to Heaven, he told one man that he was on the way to hell, to which the man replied, 'I don't believe in hell'. Padre Pio retorted, 'you will when you get there.'

    Best to you Bos,

    Mary

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  4. @ st bosco
    I reckon that whoever has faith in Jesus Christ goes to Heaven, only if they're not Catholic when they die, they will be in Heaven, you see. Simple!

    Ian in England

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