In a veneration first for US-based Catholics, they will have the opportunity to visit and prayer before the friar's habit worn by St. Pio of Pietrelcina, more commonly known as Padre Pio.
The rare opportunity will take place from 11-14 October at the National Center for Padre Pio in Barto, Pennsylvania, located in the Diocese of Allentown, reports the Catholic News Agency (CNA).
It notes that a group of Italian Capuchin friars from the Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary in San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy – which was Padre Pio’s friary – are bringing the habit to be displayed at the centre and which has been designated a Jubilee site within the Allentown Diocese.
“We expect to have pilgrims visiting from throughout the United States, and we will be ready to make their visit a special time of veneration, prayer and reflection,” Vera Marie Calandra, the centre's vice-president, states on the organisation's website.
“This unprecedented visit from the friars of San Giovanni Rotondo is an amazing opportunity for us to be able to share a rare and intimate relic of Padre Pio with his devotees.”
The weekend of the display will open on Saturday, 11 October, with Mass celebrated by the visiting Capuchin friars, followed by a procession honouring Padre Pio. Mass will also be celebrated on Sunday, 12 October, followed by another procession.
On 13 October, Harrisburg Bishop Emeritus Ronald Gainer will celebrate Mass, which will be followed by a Mass celebrated in Italian by the friars. This will be repeated on 14 October, with Allentown Bishop Alfred Schlert celebrating Mass, followed by a Mass conducted in Italian by the friars.
The friars will also be taking the habit to the Padre Pio Foundation of America in Cromwell, Connecticut. There the habit will be available for veneration at St. Pius X Church in Middletown, from 15-18 October.
Padre Pio, whose tomb is in San Giovanni Rotondo, was a Capuchin Franciscan friar, priest and mystic in the 20th century. He is renowned for his deep wisdom about prayer and peace, receiving the stigmata, miraculous reports of his bilocation, being physically attacked by the devil and mastering the spiritual life, notes CNA.
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Photo: People take pictures of the mortal remains of St Pius of Pietrelcina (Padre Pio) arriving in procession in St Peter's Basilica as part of the Roman Catholic Church 2016 special jubilee celebrations, Vatican, 5 February 2016. (Photo credit should read ALBERTO PIZZOLI/AFP via Getty Images.)
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