by fr. Mariano di Vito, OFM Cap.
There are so many things that I wish to say (or rather write!) to all of you.
First of all, to say goodbye and thank you to all of the readers who have faithfully supported this journal in these last six years. You who are the recipients of all our work and who permit us to enter your homes with the wisdom and teaching that hopefully we have gleaned from Saint Pio’s holiness.
I wish to say thank you to all the contributors (the journalists, graphic artists, proof readers, photographers and printers…) beginning with those, the very best from Italian journalism, who raised and enriched these pages with their insights, reflections and catechesis, those many windows they opened which permitted us to observe that ‘larger picture’ of the world, the Church, and society generally, but above all in the light of the always profound and relevant life and spirituality of Padre Pio. And all expressed always with courtesy and respect with the goal of informing and forming, drawing attention and discussing without any rancour or arrogance or futile admonishments.
I wish to say thank you, also to the assistants and technicians of that larger, captivating, almost magical and always growing world of the media of the radio and television: “Teleradio Padre Pio.” This is still a small tree but it is growing. It has deepened and strengthened its roots and can become a powerful and thriving tree. It aims to go still higher, and I am certain that with the Lord’s help, it will succeed.
I wish to recall these seven years of extraordinary, impassioned and fascinating work – sentiments these that were the norm – with the Voice of Padre Pio editorial work, the television and the no less important and necessary world of marketing on behalf of the pilgrims, and which were for me a special gift that enriched me humanly and spiritually and, forgive the self-reference, made me discover again that journalistic vein that I had believed buried for ever.
I wish to remember everyone and everything with affection and gratefulness. I wish from the heart, success to the new director Brother Francesco Scaramuzzi and all those called to continue these dreams and the still many unfulfilled plans. My wishes are that you may attain always higher and more ambitious goals. Padre Pio deserves this, as well as all of you who have, from the beginning followed us, supported us and continue to want to follow Our Lord Jesus with the example and protection of our fellow friar saint.
I wish, I wish… to write so many other things but I must leave them along with my inseparable and devoted pen in my memory chest, the keys of which I leave in Our Lord’s hands.
May Padre Pio bless you all. Please keep a place for me in your prayers!
Goodbye and thank you!
P.S. With this goodbye, I wish to leave you a small token of my affection and esteem, a book written with Eugenio Fini, a friend and assistant, entitled: “142 Questions and Answers. A First Encounter with Padre Pio of Pietrelcina” (available at present only in Italian). It was written to assist all Padre Pio devotees to an always more intimate friendship with him, something that I wish for you all with all my heart.