Can you believe Italy's famous & sainted stigmatist Father Padre Pio was a fraud?

Question

A fraud who apparently used carbolic acid to create his stigmata... what do you think of that?
I will provide link to story shortly.

Link to story here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/24/wpio124.xml

Please excuse the redundant Father I slipped in there.

Anybody want to try to reconstruct Padre Pio's fraud by burning their palms with carbolic acid and seeing how the wounds match the description of the wounds that Padre Pio had?

Answer 1

Hard to believe, huh? lmao

Answer 2

No. I don't believe it.

I think this article, though short, says something better.

"Mystery of Padre Pio´s Stigmata Analyzed by Scientist" http://www.pdtsigns.com/pioscientific.html

Here are some bits and pieces of it:

"Critics who claim that the stigmata of the likes of Padre Pio are not authentic, have a tough opponent to contend with: MODERN SCIENCE."

"From the medical point of view, the stigmata cannot be considered as wounds or sores, because they do not heal even when treated," Dr. Silvestri explained. "They neither become infected nor do they decompose; they do not degenerate in necrosis, and do not exude a bad odor. They bleed and remain constant and unaltered for years, against all laws of nature."

"The Church is strict when it comes to these phenomena," the scientist stressed. "It has pronounced itself in a rather limited number of cases only after rigorous studies and controls by doctors and theologians."

Saint Padre Pio, Ora pro nobis!

Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam

Answer 3

Okay, I am not even Catholic, and it is clear to me that this story is not a confirmation of fraudulent behavior. Rather it is the report of a book which makes that claim.
Also included in the article is the reference that the padre and the stigmata were scrutinized before given credit by the papacy.
Which means that this article does not make the declaration you claim it makes. It does seem to be a fairly well balanced article in that at the very least it addresses the response, which is dismissal of such a claim. Not only is the dismissal of the claim of fraud based on papal inerrancy, but also it is based on the knowledge of the intense scrutiny which such phenomena must undergo before being called miraculous.

Answer 4

With all my experience with the Catholic church I truly believe that they would not dismiss such "evidence" without reason. There have been plenty of investigations where the end result was that the church did not approve a particular miracle. And the church has nothing to gain by falsely cannonizing Padre Pio.

I would recommend reading about Padre Pio's life and works and then tell me if you think he was anything but an extremely holy man.

Answer 5

THe church investigates people for many years before canonization. As the article you mention even states, this accusation was presented to those determining whether Padre Pio's miracles were real and was to be canonized.

Why is it that you accept one article mentioning one person's accusation as concrete proof that he was a fraud? If one person said you had cheated on an exam, would you be ok if everyone automatically presumed the accusation was true?

Answer 6

before reading it, all i can say is "i can't believe it, it's not true"


now to read it

so i read it and it looked a bit speculative, from what i've read the stigmata didn't look like burns or self-inflicting wounds. Apparently it smelled sweet. I don't think that acid would only cause bleeding, it would burn also right?




lost.eu/21618

Answer 7

No, I do not believe it. It is simply a reporter's opinion. I'm going to stick with the impartial scientists who repeatedly examined him.

For the next fifty years they would confound impartial science; their continuous and profuse effusion of blood, accompanied often by the sweetest fragrance, came to be regarded as a prolonged miracle, because, as the experts correctly state, blood for its production requires nourishment while this friar's extraordinary frugality was such as hardly to maintain the life of a small child.

Answer 8

But didn't you read the bit at the bottom of the article?

This falls under papal infallibility, so whatever evidence comes up, including a signed and witnessed confession, it all gets tossed away because the pope says that it must be so.


LOL

Answer 9

this is false. He is a Saint and the crap this guy spouts is just music to the Devil

Answer 10

Since all stigatists are psychotic or frauds it does not surprize me.