Healer of Souls

This week the relic of the Incorrupt heart of St (Padre) Pio was at Manila Cathedral on its way around the country.  Crowds, too numerous to count braved the weather in long queues to venerate the relic.

He is very much loved; a saint for our times as he was such a contradiction to the ways of the world.  It seems that his incredible gift of being able to read souls was matched only by his capacity to suffer; with both the stigmata and enduring the constant attacks of the devil. Perhaps that was the price of such a gift in that he had to suffer in order to set his penitents free from bondage, to obtain for them the gift of conversion.

One wonderful story, told by a lady who confessed to him, was about a hidden sin she had. She went to confession to him and after she had finished he asked if she had anything else she wanted to tell. She said ‘no’ and he asked her to return the next day. She confessed other sins and was asked if there was anything else ; again she responded ‘no’ and was asked to return the next day. On the last day, he mentioned the date and time when she had an abortion, and then he told her what her aborted son would have been had he lived, the destiny that was lost when his life had been extinguished. That revelation showed her the gravity of the sin and she was repentant and reconciled with God.

St. Pio reveals to us the gentleness and mercy of a God so much offended but always willing to forgive at the slightest opening of a repentant heart.

The wonderful thing about our saints though is that their mission does not end in death, it is ramped up a notch; the miracles abound all the more when they are born into heaven.

The Wall

Occasionally, stories from the Underground Catholic Church in China make it through the bamboo curtain to give us a glimpse of their valour and devotion. One I heard years ago was about a missionary who visited China and stayed with a Catholic family in a rural area. In the middle of night, he heard everyone moving around and asked what was going on. “We are going to the Wall” they answered and he accompanied them as they crept out of the house and made off across the fields to a clearing in a forest.

Many other people had gathered there, coming from all directions, some climbed trees and kept watch in case anyone had been followed by the authorities. One person then approached an old wall (perhaps part of a derelict building) and removed a brick to reveal the Blessed Sacrament.

All knelt in silent adoration for a holy hour, replaced the brick and went home.

No one knows just how much they have suffered at the hands of the atheist Communist government over the last few decades; persecutions are varied, from economic sanctions like fines and loss of work, to harassment by Police and neighbours or torture, imprisonment and martyrdom. The regime has been quite consistent in its desire to control every aspect of the lives of its people and to single out the menace of religion for particularly brutal attention.

When Neville Chamberlain attempted to avoid conflict by signing the Munich agreement with Hitler, I imagine he was sincere, if a little naive as the full horror of Nazism had not yet been revealed but the recent agreement between the Vatican and the Chinese Government over the apointment of bishops is quite incomprehensible: their character is already known.

The faithfulness of the Underground church is an incredible witness to the rest of the Catholic world; let’s hope and pray that the church they love can prove worthy of their sacrifices for it and stand with them now.