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Digging Up the Saints

Italian Archbishop Wants to Exhume Padre Pio

One of Italy's most popular saints has become a topic of controversy among his own devotees: Some think he should be exhumed for pilgrims to venerate, while others think his body should stay right where it is.

There is one sure way to anger a devout Catholic: Insult his or her favorite saint. You'd think that Italian Archbishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio might be aware of such dangers. But you would be wrong.

D'Ambrosio has raised a storm of outrage with his latest suggestion. He would like to see the body of Padre Pio -- a canonized Franciscan friar and one of Italy's most popular saints -- be exhumed and placed on display.

"It is our duty to allow the generations that come after us the ability to venerate and best care for his mortal remains," he said in a sermon. D'Ambrosio, the local archbishop for San Giovanni Rotondo where Padre Pio is buried, said doctors could give advice on preserving the body should the saint be dug up.

Padre Pio died 40 years ago, in 1968, and was canonized by Pope John Paul II in 2002. He has thousands of followers in Italy, and Archbishop Domenico Umberto D'Ambrosio is one of them. D'Ambrosio has said Pio's body should be removed from its tomb this year -- probably in April -- and displayed near his former friary in the southern town of San Giovanni Rotondo, where pilgrims can venerate him.

But Pio's niece, Pia Forgione, will sue to prevent the saint's body from being "profaned," according to Francesco Traversi, the family lawyer and head of the Association Pro-Padre Pio.

Stigmata and Miracle Cures

Padre Pio is considered by his devotees to be a mystic picked out for stigmata, or miraculous bleeding hands and other wounds that imitate the wounds of Christ. He was credited with hundreds of miraculous cures, too, but for a period of his long life the Vatican tried to persecute him. He became a folk hero, and his image can be found in homes, shops and cars across Italy, as well as in countries like Ireland and Australia.

The family's objection to exhuming the body would seem to have nothing to do with the legend of Pio's stigmata, which cleared up -- according to a common story -- before he died.

Traversi, the lawyer, said Archbishop D'Ambrosio had no "specific mandate" to exhume the corpse, and "will not succeed in his attempt to re-crucify Padre Pio by putting his remains on display."

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