Answering the carbolic acid accusations
Published in the June 2012 issue of Catholic Family News
and scheduled for The Voice of Padre Pio, Sept-Oct. 2012, published by his Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo, Italy
by Frank M. Rega
When Canada’s McGill University conferred its $75,000 "Cundill Prize in History" to a book about Padre Pio (1), the Montreal Gazette reported on Nov. 15, 2011 that the book raised the possibility that the saint used carbolic acid to self-inflict the wounds of his stigmata (2). The carbolic acid canard was quickly seized by the press. The next day The Telegraph of Britain announced that "Italy's Padre Pio used carbolic acid to cause bleeding wounds on his hands that he claimed were replicas of Christ's, according to a new book." (3) The Huffington Post reported that the book suggests that "Italian saint Padre Pio reportedly used carbolic acid on his hands, feet and sides to ‘self-inflict’ the wounds…" (4)
A large spate of articles soon followed both in print and online, which cast doubt upon the authenticity of Padre Pio's stigmata. Even Catholic websites parroted the claim. The faith of many Catholics in the canonization process as well as in the sanctity of Padre Pio was shaken.
Of course it was also convenient fodder for opponents of the traditional Church, especially critics of her veneration of the saints (5). Concerned about possible distortions, British editor and columnist Damian Thompson wrote: "What bothers me about the claims about Pio – which I haven't studied closely enough to evaluate – is that they will be used by the secular world and its Catholic allies to pour scorn on the peasant and working-class devotions that Vatican II ideologues tried to eradicate." (6)
However, the charge that St. Padre Pio used chemicals to sustain the stigmata was shown to be baseless as far back as 1919, less than a year after their occurrence. In that year, a little-known attempt at a medical "cure" effectively ruled out chemical agents as the cause of the wounds on the saint's hands, feet and chest.
Read more here: http://www.sanpadrepio.com/StigmataTruth.htm
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