The relic of the heart of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina will be exhibited for the first time in Abruzzo, in Pescara, on Saturday 15 October and the sacred icon will remain for nine days, until Sunday 23 October, inside the basilica of the Madonna del Sette Dolori ai Colli. An event that arouses great anticipation and emotion in the faithful, and will bring up to 50 thousand pilgrims to Pescara not only from all over Abruzzo but also from outside the region, especially from central Italy.
Because Padre Pio remains the most loved saint. Of course, in an era of resounding scientific and technological advances, the era of genome mapping and computer networks that unite the planet, a poor little friar who had a simple and unadorned faith, an almost banal faith in its simplicity, followed by millions of people are perplexing. A simple man, shy, repetitive, who has never traveled, with little culture, gruff, who moves masses of people never seen before, leaves us dumbfounded. If, more than 50 years after his death, more than 50 thousand websites talk about him, every broadcast, drama, newspaper, book that talks about him becomes a case for audience and sales records, we should ask ourselves some questions. Did God want to give us a saint for the web age? Yet, his was a simple faith, almost of other times, made up of a few essential things: prayers, masses, rosaries. At least two million people from every continent knelt in his confessional. That of Francesco Forgione was a faith that to many seemed outdated, retrograde. Yet even today, in the millennium of the “Great Network”, the faith of this friar fascinates and moves people from the five continents. Whatever race or culture they belong to. And he is the Saint most loved by young people after St. Francis of Assisi. But why do so many people and so many young people follow him? And if deepening a little, just a little, we discover a person completely different from the image proposed by the mass media. A friar in love with Christ who knew that God was concretely present next to him, and with whom he spoke face to face, with confidence. And if reading a little of him, just a little, we were surprised by the tenderness he had towards everyone, other than that surly and rude character. And if the young people – who suckle their balls in the rites of a dull, dull, gray, melancholy church – really liked that way of living the faith, as something concrete, intense, joyful, true, and not abstract? How come his faith, the humble and simple faith that he had maintained through very hard trials, 50 years after his death is still shown today as an example to Christians. And no other saint is comparable for followers? His holiness, which was so cruelly questioned and opposed during his life, often also by his confreres and by the ecclesiastical authorities, is now solemnly recognized and indicated as a model for the whole Church. Is simple. Because her life was a response to a vocation. It was a mission. A gesture of love for the Lord. In him young people find a reflection of God’s beauty. Mercy. But also penance. After Don Milani and Don Mazzolari, and before Don Tonino Bello, who anticipated the Council with their preaching and their disruptive lessons, prophets of a Church in reform, Padre Pio represents a particular type of priest. dedicated to listening and confession, close to many sick and in need of comfort. He understood that people should also be given the concrete possibility of experiencing listening and relief. People went to him to ask him for miracles, thaumaturgical gestures, and he always replied: “I’m not doing the miracles, I’m just a humble friar who prays”. I am not fondly surprised by the success because many are attracted to Padre Pio because he was a saint of the essential, of the things that really matter. Despite having the world at his feet – politicians, singers, actors, exponents of the world of finance came to San Giovanni Rotondo – he continually mocked behind the figure of a simple friar, who found peace only by celebrating the Eucharist, only by embracing Christ on the cross and risen, listening to Confessions and staying close to the sick in the House for Relief of Suffering. I am not surprised, because Padre Pio was the man of the essential, of the lived Gospel: young people look for this type of witnesses, who not only speak of Christ, but show Christ in their eloquent gestures. Exactly how Padre Pio did and how Pope Francis is doing. This didn’t surprise me at all. Because around the human and spiritual itinerary of Padre Pio, la truer, popular and engaging experience of religious devotion of the Catholic Church. For fifty years, from 1918 to 1968, without ever moving from the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie to San Giovanni Rotondo, Padre Pio attracted generations of Italians and foreigners, who went to the Gargano to meet the one who loved to call himself “a poor friar who pray ”, convinced that“ prayer is the best weapon we have, a key to open the heart of God ”. Those who have visited the small Apulian town tell of having come across a Capuchin priest whose existence is marked by simplicity, and in some ways by repetition. Prayer, celebration of Mass, confession of pilgrims have in fact constituted the saint’s daily life for fifty years. However, the simplicity of his life was accompanied by spiritual gifts and mystical experiences, all of a supernatural character. Well before the Church proclaimed him a saint, the friar of Pietrelcina already enjoyed an immense popular devotion that still makes him one of the most loved and venerated saints of the contemporary age. Many rivers of ink have been written around his figure in recent years. The thing did not surprise me at all “I will make more noise dead than alive”, he had predicted with his usual wit. And once again it was a prophecy.