BY BR. FRANCESCO COLACELLI
We would like this new year to be one above all of joy and that may inspire reflection, bring about a re-flowering of faith and inspire conversions. These are our wishes for 2008.
In the light of these ambitious wishes, we are preparing a programme of events for the year to commemorate in a fitting way the 40th anniversary of Padre Pio’s death and birth in heaven that took place on 23 September 1968, and the 90th anniversary of his receiving the visible stigmata, that took place in San Giovanni Rotondo on 20 September 1918.
We wish, once we have obtained the necessary canonical authorisation, to exhume the body of Padre Pio to carry out all the necessary treatment to guarantee its best preservation. This should take place in mid April and the body of Padre Pio will then be exposed for veneration for some months. When we have more information on the details of the exposition of his body we will notify you.
We wish this year to be a time of reflection on the teachings of this great Saint and on the reasons why Our Lord wished to send him to us in our times with the...