Poor Padre Pio. Vatican officials and leaders of the Capuchin order have given approval to the exhumation of his body in an effort to figure out how to best preserve his remains for veneration by future generations. The plan is to display his remains for public veneration from April through September. His remains would be studied prior to April to determine how best to preserve them.
Many Protestants, including my wife, question why Catholics make such a big deal of displaying remains. I can't argue with Protestants on this one. I saw the remains of two Popes in St. Peter's Basilica last summer. The remains of John XXIII look pretty good. However, the remains of the other Pope (I can't recall which one, but it wasn't a recent Pope) were not a pretty site. I don't know about you, but I don't have a problem venerating dead people without seeing the remains. I can just as easily pray for a deceased person in an open casket as I can for a person in a closed casket or even a picture of a person if it is a memorial service.
Rumor has it that Padre Pio's family opposes the exhumation. I can see why. The friar worked like a dog his entire life and had to put up with being a stigmatic. My guess is that he was pretty happy to meet his eternal reward. He should be given the opportunity enjoy that reward in peace.
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