CATHOLIC faithful and devotees came to the Sacred Heart Shrine (Lupit Church) in Bacolod City Tuesday, August 14, to venerate on the relics of Saint Pio of Pietrilcina (Padre Pio).
Bacolod Bishop Emeritus Vicente Navarra and other priests officiated a mass with the presence of Italian priest Fr. Gianmaria Digiorgio who also had his interpreter, Sr. Antonieta Mae Cintura, Reparatrix Sisters of the Sacred Heart.
Navarra thanked the faithful for joining the Catholic Church in giving homage to the relics of Padre Pio.
“We have come to honor him. And many of us are wishing a miracle from Padre Pio to happen today. The only miracle I asked from the Lord is that all of us starting from our priests and to all of you people of Bacolod to become men of prayer. Whenever there is a miracle that would happen, a miracle for transformation to our souls and our spiritual lives because I believe that physical healing will only happen when there is a spiritual healing. This is the grace I asked from Padre Pio,” Navarra said.
Cintura explained that on the topmost circle of the reliquary contains a fingernail of Padre Pio which was taken off when his body was exhumed.
When the Bishops were there during the exhumation, they told the Friars to put it in the reliquary. On the same circle contains the hair of Padre Pio where the barbers and Friars would keep every time he has his hair cut as they felt that he would become a Saint. On the lower portion of that same circle is the scabs of skin from his wounds due to stigmata in his hands. Also on the circle, on the right side, contains the cloves he used to cover his stigmata on his hands and on the left circle is the white piece of cloth which he used to wipe his side of the body as bleed profusely every day. This cloth has blood stains of Padre Pio, the sister said.
Padre Pio, according to Digiorgio, is the Saint of the sufferings. People come to him to alleviate their sufferings.
“When you have a spiritual crisis in your heart - discouraged and had problems that are impossible to resolve, youth who cannot find his or her future - Padre Pio will always be there to pray for them to remain faithful to God. Just pray, hope and do not worry,” he echoed the words of Padre Pio.
The relics will be transferred to the chapel of Doctor’s Hospital at B.S. Aquino Drive Wednesday, August 15.