Padre Pio was once banned by the Vatican from celebrating Mass
Imagine you were part of the leadership of the Catholic Church, and you lived all the way in the Vatican. Far away from experiencing the holiness of a man like Padre Pio. You hear of his miraculous gifts, his bilocation, and his stigmata. Anyone with these gifts naturally rouses as much suspicion as they do admiration and hatred.
Church leadership tends to view miraculous matters with suspicion first before approval. Sometimes approval comes a really long time after an event or a person had passed.
So it is not surprising that many were skeptical of Padre Pio‘s stigmata, more so because of all the attention he was getting from the thousands who flocked around him. Even the Vatican believed he was lying about his stigmata and was worried people were following a false prophet.
They started many investigations and even listened in on his conversations. Many of the leadership’s skepticism drove them to lengths to prove he was a fraud but they failed to prove he led a doubt life. Eventually, they tried to move him to a different monastery altogether and to forbid him from performing his priestly ministry in public.
He responded by saying: “God’s will be done … The will of the superiors is the will of God.” I turn, therefore, as a son most humble and completely obedient to the Catholic Church … With profound humility I kiss your sacred ring and profess myself to your excellency your most humble and obedient son.
