Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 190.  Wed 11-13-91 23:48  (NO KILL)  (RECV'D)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Mike Fudge
 Subject: Padre Pio

+-
| Dear Father:
|  
|     Is Padre Pio qualified to become a saint?  What wounds did he actually
| recieve?  How many times was he seen on the battle fields?  And how does
| one recieve the Wounds of Christ?
|  
|     Thank you much.
|  
|     Michael P. Fudge
|  
 
Dear Mike,
 
Padre Pio's beatification cause is presently "on hold".  There were
instances of public veneration in several places.  This is strictly
forbidden before the actual beatification.  But instead of dropping the
cause, authorities merely delayed it.  His writings are still being
examined.  It may be that the cause will be reinstated.
 
I have no idea how to answer your other questions, except to give you
this quotation from Attwater's Catholic Dictionary, article "Stigmata".
 
"Stigmata (Greek, marks) (are) wounds or scars corresponding to those
in the feet, hands, side, and brow of the crucified Christ, imprinted
in the flesh of a human being and accompanied by physical pain; they
may be recurrent or permanent; sometimes there is the local suffering
without visible marks.  This phenomenon has been recorded of over 300
persons from the 13th century until today ... about 50 of the cases are
well attested, some of them explainable on natural grounds. ... It
appears then that God singles out certain noble souls to be united more
closely with the suffering of His Son, souls who are willing in a
peculiarly fitting way to expiate the sins of others."
 
Thank you for using our service.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo