Roy Abraham Varghese

Why did you venture into a biography of Padre Pio?

There were two primary reasons for my writing the book.

The first is that Padre Pio is an urgent spiritual resource for all those who live in the modern world. As you might know, Padre Pio (like St. Paul) adopted people as his spiritual children and promised that he would not enter Heaven till all his children had come in. Anyone can enrol as a spiritual child of Padre Pio by writing to his monastery. This is the address:

Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary

71013 San Giovanni Rotondo, FG

ITALY

Thousands of his spiritual children can testify to the many miracles they have experienced through his intercession. I hope the book spurs people to turn to Padre Pio in this fashion.

The second is this. Padre Pio personally manifested some of the profoundly puzzling ideas unveiled by modern science from the theories of Relativity and Quantum Physics to the ideas of parallel universes and the like.

Consider some of the phenomena for which he was known:

• He could bilocate, i.e., be in two places at the same time.
• He also seemed to travel to the future and back.
• He suffered the stigmata, the wounds of Christ on his body.
• He was known for the spiritual and physical healings attributed to his intercession.
• He could read minds.
• He used to physically wrestle with the Devil.
• He “flew” in the air as witnessed by various pilots including those he saved after being ejected without parachutes.
• Through his intercession, many souls were freed from the state of cleansing that comes before Heaven and came and conversed with him in gratitude.
• He had the gift of fragrance – you could know that he was near you from a scent of roses or something else associated with him.

Today’s scientists say that the laws of nature that apply in our universe do not apply in an adjoining parallel universe. In this context, the idea that Padre Pio was stepping in and out of a parallel universe of a different kind does not sound “unscientific” at least in terms of present-day science.

There were sceptics and antagonists against Padre Pio’s life and activities, what is your answer?

Despite the overwhelming data testifying to the authenticity of the Padre Pio phenomenon, there will still be those who remain sceptical. Padre Pio faced sceptics from the beginning. Some were the village atheists. Others were his antagonists in the Church. The first were the Sadducees and the second the Pharisees.

Where the Sadducees sought to expose the stigmata and miracles as fraudulent, the Pharisees sought to go further through a campaign of character assassination. Both groups used each others’ fabrications to further their own agenda.

In my book, I show why most of the critiques have long since been shown to be false.

For instance, some critics hypothesized that the stigmata were caused by chemical agents like carbolic acid. The carbolic acid charge was made by theologians and journalists who knew nothing about chemistry. Although carbolic acid had some use as a disinfectant, it is now known to be toxic in high doses. If indeed it had been applied to create wounds (as alleged), the effect would have been fatal.  The US Centres for Disease Control warns that if it “is left on the skin, it will penetrate rapidly and lead to cell death and gangrene.”

As for the charges made by Church officials, some of these same officials later confessed that they had fabricated them under pressure from their superiors who were jealous of the Padre’s popularity.

Your title of the book is “The Man who was in two places at once”- it is a claim of bilocation. In my philosophy classes years back in the 1960s there was talk of bilocation. But afterwards up to the present it is the first time someone speaks to me of it. It is never heard neither in theology nor in philosophy, why?

Consider this headline from a major scientific publication: “2,000 Atoms Exist in Two Places at Once in Unprecedented Quantum Experiment”

This headline concerns quantum fields which are present where they act. Bilocation is the ability for one person to be in two locations at the same time. Historically a few saints were reported to bilocate.  The famous bilocators included St Anthony of Padua, St. Martin de Porres and others. Although Padre Pio spent almost his entire life in one location, a remote monastery in the south of Italy, he somehow managed to be all over the world as and when required! He appeared in New York and Hawaii, in South America and all over Europe. I document several of these extraordinary cases. In all such cases, he was performing an urgent spiritual service such as performing the last rites for someone he knew.

What happens in bilocation is that the person to whom the body belongs is able to be present in a second location. This is possible because a human person cannot be reduced to a “physical” entity but is an agent who operates the unique union of spirit and matter that we call a human being.  Once you understand both the non-physical nature of the human person and its ability to bring about effects in the physical world, you implicitly grant the possibility that it can potentially exercise an effect in more than one physical location.

“Both persecution of the Church and the corruption of the clergy are equal and opposite ways in which the forces of darkness seek to destroy the Church.”

Here is a third-party description of one of Padre Pio’sbilocations:

Ellie Hunt’s family came from Padre Pio’s hometown of Pietrelcina and had known Padre Pio from his childhood. They eventually emigrated from Italy to New York. In 1960, when Ellie was 31 years old her grandfather, Jack Crafa became gravely ill. Ellie and her parents lived close to his home in Flushing, New York and during his grave illness, the family stayed by his side. When Jack eventually fell into a coma, they all knew that his life was soon passing.

One day while Ellie and her parents were at her grandfather’s bedside, a stranger knocked at the door. They were all surprised to see a Capuchin monk dressed in a dark brown habit, because there were no Capuchin monks in their Parish or in any other parish in the area for that matter. They were also surprised to see that he was wearing sandals without any socks, because it was a particularly cold day and snow covered the ground. The monk said that he had come to pray for her grandfather. Ellie was also a bit upset, because she thought that the parish priest should have come to pray for her grandfather, and not a complete stranger. However, she was soon impressed by the kindness and compassion of the young monk.

He then went straight into her grandfathers bedroom and blessed Jack Crafa. Then told the family to pray the Rosary suggesting that they sit at Jack’s side, praying the Hail Mary close to his ear, for he seemed to have the opinion that Jack was still able to hear. After the monk said that, Ellie was surprised to find that when she took her grandfather’s hand in hers, she felt a response from a very slight squeeze from his hand.

The young Capuchin then gave Ellie’s grandfather the Last Sacraments, then he blessed the family and bid them goodbye. As he walked out the front door, Ellie’s father, James noticed that there was no car waiting for him outside. James watched him as he walked up the street until he disappeared in the darkness. Jack Crafa died that very night. He had been in a coma for nine days.

After the unknown monk had left, Ellie’s father James became pale and appeared quite shaken. Ellie’s mother Lucy, asked him for the reason. ”Don’t you know who that was?” James replied, “It was Padre Pio. He came to give the Last Rites to your father and he looked exactly like I remember him when I used to deliver eggs to him in Pietrelcina.”

For Ellie’s grandfather Jack had been one of Padre Pio’s spiritual sons from Pietrelcina and through a special grace God Padre Pio had come to comfort and encourage him, and to administer the last Sacraments of the Church, for his death was only hours away.

As a writer and a Catholic how do you see his stigmata and the message of the wounds to us the believers and the world?

In 1910, Padre Pio said to God that he wanted offer himself as a penitential sacrifice for sinners and souls in Purgatory till the end of the world. God accepted his offer. From 1918 to his death in 1968, he underwent the terrible suffering of painful wounds that continuously bled from his hands and feet and side. He lost one to two cups of blood a day. He was embarrassed by the fact that others could see it and tried to hide the wounds. He barely slept two to three hours a day. He spent most of his time in the confessional. He was the man who loved too much. His message to the world is this: we should offer ourselves and our suffering in love for the salvation and sanctification of all our brothers and sisters.

The man Padre Pio was a controversial figure as to you estimation what he was and what his message to the world?

Anyone who does the work of God will be controversial. The Gospels make this clear. Padre Pio’s message to the world was this: focus on Jesus, go to confession regularly, receive the Eucharist as often as possible, turn to the Blessed Virgin as your Mother, examine your conscience daily, engage in spiritual reading and spend time in prayer and meditation every day. His focus was on drawing us to the eternal destiny for which we were created.

You are a person who embraced the Catholic faith, but the church is always stormed by scandalous leaders and scandals relating to authorities. What is ailing the church of Christ? There has been a conservative and progressive polarisation in the church? How do you cope up  with it as a catholic?

I tend to look at scandals and controversies from a historical standpoint. As you know, the Church has suffered through crises almost throughout its history. Christians have not been asked to place their faith in any individual Pope or bishop. Their faith is in Christ and therefore in the Church he established. All doctrine was already laid out in the first 100 years of the Church. Popes and Councils simply affirm what was professed at that time. Christians should accept only the constant teaching of the Church as articulated by the Councils and continuously taught by the magisterium.

The Church is called to preserve the truth through the Spirit but also to serve as a vehicle for sanctification and salvation by dispensing the sacraments and other gifts of God. The fundamental raison d’etre of the Church is to save our souls, to save us from damnation.  Every official teaching, action and ritual of the Church can only be understood in this context.

Furthermore, the Church is not “owned” by the Pope of the day or clergy or laity.  It is Christ’s Church.  He has appointed stewards but he also warned that there would be wolves in sheep’s clothing among them who would be judged by their actions.

Since the Church exists to bring us to salvation and since there are forces of evil that seek our damnation, it is only to be expected that their prime target would be the Church and its officials.  Both persecution of the Church and the corruption of the clergy are equal and opposite ways in which the forces of darkness seek to destroy the Church.  But for two thousand years they have not succeeded. Because of the promise of Christ, they never will – no matter how gloomy the prognosis.

As a Catholic living in the US and having good relations with many leaders of the church, what is the strength and the weakness of the Church of Kerala and India with its specific political and cultural background?

The preservation of Christianity over two thousand years in Kerala is truly a miracle – one for which we should be grateful. Grateful to God, of course, but also to our ancestors who preserved the faith and to the priests whose sacrifice and commitment preserved the sacraments. The great challenge we have always faced and will continue to face is interaction with the rest of society. This is the challenge faced by the Church across the world. We bear witness to a vision of human destiny revealed by God. What matters in the end is where we spend eternity and for this we have to remain true to this revealed vision. But we also have a duty to share this vision with all around us if we truly love them.