PADRE PIO WAS NEVER STRIPPED OF ALL HIS FACULTIES

 

Over at Goodreads, a lovely lady, Emily who is passionate about Catholicism has left me a thorough and detailed review. I am indebted to her for reading Padre Pio and You with such care that she gave her time to leaving a generous 748 word assessment, giving future readers a real taste of the book, which includes, "This book also presents the very real and human side of Padre Pio. He endured terrible dark nights, was ruthlessly attacked by the devil".

I, however, left her a note underneath asking for a few things to be amended, including the old canard that "Sometimes Pio’s faculties were stripped completely".  In the 1931 - 1933 time frame known as "the imprisonment" Pio was confined to the monastery and only had the faculty of offering Holy Mass. But to offer Mass privately as Pio did means he had the faculty to do so.

Since I was in my 20s (so long and far away), I was told by people who despised him that Pio was stripped of all faculties. All attempts to reason with them would fail. I'd ask reviewer Emily that she not put herself in the camp of his enemies.

Pio is a polarizing figure, people either love or hate him. People who hate Pio cannot understand those who love him, and those who love him can't understand people who hate him.  Love or hate him, the fact remains Pio could offer Mass in private, and just because he could not be seen by the general public did not mean he was stripped of such a faculty. 

Then the conman who Pio converted is noted. Emanuele Brunato who looked like an English gentleman and was astonishingly clever, but who had been ripping people off before his meeting with Pio. Emily says he was an "assassin". No, Emanuele did not murder anyone. Yes, he had been living among prostitutes, and had left his wife when he traveled to see Pio. But Emanuele mended his ways utterly. He became Pio's most diehard and influential defender. And as I detail as best I can Emanuele even took the Vatican to task. 

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This post relies on research I did for Padre Pio and You, available also at my friend Michael Brown's store.