A devout young lady and spiritual daughter of Padre Pio’s was engaged to a fellow who had abandoned the Faith. She would not plan the wedding unless he returned to the sacraments. But he scoffed at her spiritual father, Pio, calling him a scam artist who was abusing gullible people with his supposed stigmata. The young woman, despite her fiancé’s cynical objections, continued to go to Pio’s Holy Mass, as she was following Pio’s 5-part plan for sanctification, which had daily Mass and reception of Holy Communion at its center. Once, she cajoled her chap into accompanying her to Holy Mass. During the Mass, her fiancé turned white and whispered, “Does this happen every day?” She said yes but didn’t understand the real reason for his question.
To the young lady’s amazement, her fiancé started assisting at Pio’s Masses, and one day he wept uncontrollably upon seeing three interwoven crowns of thorns set on Padre Pio’s head, piercing his skull and causing blood to stream down his face.
The young lady had not seen the crown and was conflicted; had her scoffing fiancé seen something that was invisible to everyone else? When next she confessed to Pio, she asked her spiritual father if this was true. Pio confirmed that he did bear the crown of thorns at Mass, borne by Christ especially for the expiation of sinful thoughts.
This supernatural sighting of supreme suffering was the catalyst for the young man’s conversion. The young couple married, and together they climbed the 5-step ladder that Pio gave all his spiritual children for their sanctification: reception of Holy Communion daily, weekly Confession, meditation, examination of conscience, and spiritual reading.
Pio advised such regular Confession because he said that the soul is like a house that needs to be cleaned once a week. He didn’t demand it; it was a recommendation.
There were occasions when Pio was bringing souls into his fold and, for a time, refused them absolution. He did so until they had the right disposition to confess and intention to turn their lives around. One of the most serious sins Pio would refuse to grant absolution for was the sin of sacrilege—receiving Holy Communion while in a state of mortal sin. According to Pio, only when a person is in receipt of “a very special grace obtained by souls who stand very close to God” can a soul who has committed sacrilege hope to be absolved. This special grace could be seen by Pio.
An English lady once came to Pio’s confessional, but he slid the door shut and sniped at her, “I have no time for you.” She persevered, and for twenty days she came back and was refused in the same severe way. On the twenty-first day, Padre Pio consented to hear her Confession, telling her she was a “poor, blind creature” and instructed her, “Instead of complaining of my severity, you should ask yourself how the Divine Compassion can receive you after so many years of sacrilege. Do you realise you have done a terrible thing? To keep up appearances of respectability, you have taken Communion for years at the side of your mother and husband in a state of mortal sin.”
Pio informed her, “He who commits a sacrilege brings about his own damnation.” To be cleansed of this most sordid of sins, a special grace must be awarded after souls who “stand very close to God” have offered prayer. Let us stress the specifics: It is not the prayer of one soul, but of souls—meaning more than one person’s prayers.
Let’s devoutly consider this as a strategy for saving souls. If we have a friend or a loved one who has committed sacrilege, enlist holy people to pray for them. There were twenty-one days between when the lady first sought Confession and when she was granted it, time which Pio likely used to pray for her. And when he did consent to hearing her Confession, he granted her absolution. The English lady’s soul was restored to a state of grace, and she utterly rejected her past ways.
Perhaps the most famous case of Pio refusing absolution was when a woman confessed an abortion. In my research of these types of cases, I’ve found time and time again that the reason Pio delayed giving absolution was because the post-abortion women were not “truly sorry.” In one instance, a woman had become hooked on pills after her abortion and was refused absolution because she was not genuinely repentant. She had to develop true contrition, which took her a whole year. But when she returned in a genuinely contrite state, Pio absolved her. Even though she had been a lapsed Catholic, she started going to Confession once a week. She was more joyful than ever and broke free from dependency on psychotropic drugs. So many who took up the practice of weekly Confession knew more peace than they thought possible.
In tandem with receiving the sacraments, Pio was adamant about the importance of meditation: “Meditation is the key to progress in the knowledge of self as well as the knowledge of God,” he taught, “and through it we achieve the goal of the spiritual life, which is transformation in Christ.” Meditation is “the key” to both self-knowledge and knowledge of the Almighty, as well as being the way to allow Christ to transform us. Perhaps we need to request the grace to take Pio’s words on meditation to heart and to put into practice the method he taught.
Pio’s teachings on meditation and examination of conscience were two sides of the same coin; according to him, meditation allows us a mirror to our souls, which informs us of our failings, while the humble, intentional examination of conscience allows us to acknowledge our sins and confront our consciences. We may then take this knowledge of the sin-scarred self to Confession and experience the cleansing of our souls.
Pio often did get mad when someone approached the confessional without adequate examination of conscience. It meant he had to spend extra time coaching them—time that was perhaps needed more badly by someone else. On many, many occasions, people approached Pio out of curiosity who had not properly examined their conscience. This angered Pio and contributed to his reputation for having a temper, but we need to see it from his point of view. Pio was often treated like a carnival attraction, an item on a bucket list and, worst of all, as a freak.
A thorough examination of conscience is a selfless, self-giving process that entails thinking of others, admitting how we have failed, and firmly resolving before the Lord not to repeat the times we’ve hurt ourselves or others. The examination of conscience is essential to stopping the pernicious cycle of confessing without the necessary and firm purpose of amendment.
I’d like to return to Pio’s exhortation to receive the Eucharist daily. Pio often said, “Unless you are positive you are in mortal sin, you ought to take Communion every day.” Pio once scolded a man harshly because he had overslept and not gone to Holy Mass. However, we need be wary of making Pio seem extreme, even fanatical, as though he could never make an exception. The following case shows that he was flexible, especially with people in the married state:
Pio’s spiritual daughter, Rosa, was bewildered. Pio had commanded her to stay home and not come to his Mass. Rosa and Pio had a long history; Rosa’s husband, Giovanni, had been blinded when a charge of dynamite blew up in his face, and Pio had interceded for his sight to return. So, on this occasion, Rosa, who was 8 months pregnant, obeyed Pio and stayed home from Mass, even though it went against the plan of daily Mass and reception of Holy Communion that Pio had given her. She was glad she had listened to him—because she went into labor and delivered a premature baby boy who was perfectly healthy. Had Rosa tried to go to Mass, she would have given birth on the bus getting there!
Author’s Note: In my book, Padre Pio and You, I research the saint’s numerous interactions with penitents and spiritual children, explaining the lessons in holiness which he made clear to them. We can all learn from this great saint the 5-Step Ladder to Heaven, as described in part in this article.
Photo from Wikimedia Commons
