Church exhumes Padre Pio
Vatican accused of 'tampering with the dead'
Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio (centre) blesses the coffin of Saint Padre Pio during its exhumation in southern Italy
The Vatican has been accused of "tampering with the dead'' after the body of Italy's favourite saint was exhumed from its tomb.
Padre Pio, who exhibited stigmata on his hands and feet throughout his life, died in 1968 and was laid to rest in the Santa Maria delle Grazie church in Puglia.
The Vatican said the charismatic monk's corpse was taken from the church crypt on Sunday to conserve it "for generations of future worshippers'' as it was under threat from humidity.
However, the Pro Padre Pio Association has accused the Vatican of digging up the saint's body to put it in a larger church that could more easily handle its annual seven million visitors.
It said putting the corpse on show and moving it to the new church would "offend the sentiments of many believers''. A court appeal will begin on Thursday.
After a series of holy readings, eight monks lifted the casket, made from three layers of metal, wood and zinc, out of the crypt just before midnight.
"Right from the start we could see his beard,'' said Domenico D'Ambrosio, the archbishop of Manfredonia. "You could see his knees very well, his hands, his fingernails. If Padre Pio will allow me, I would say it was like he had been manicured.''
Disappeared
He added, however, that it was not possible to see Padre Pio's stigmata, which were said to have disappeared just before he died without leaving any scars.
The body is to be conserved and put in a part-glass coffin for at least several months from April 24.
A spokesman for the monastery at San Giovanni Rotondo said he believed morticians would be able to conserve the face of the bearded monk well enough for it to be recognisable.
The body, which had been buried under marble in a crypt, was exhumed during a three-hour service that ended after midnight.
A Catholic magazine once found that far more Italian Catholics prayed to Padre Pio than to any other icon of the faith, including the Virgin Mary or Jesus.
Some seven million people visit his tomb every year. There are some 3,000 "Padre Pio Prayer Groups" around the world, with a membership of around three million.
The friar, born Francesco Forgione, died in 1968 aged 81.
Among the stories that surround him is one that he wrestled with the devil in his monastery cell. Padre Pio is also said to have predicted future events, to have been seen in two places at once, and to have been able to tell people their sins before they confessed them to him.
Pope John Paul II made him a saint in 2002 at a ceremony that drew one of the biggest crowds ever to the Vatican after the Church said it had found evidence that the miraculous cure of a sick woman was due to the dead monk's intercession.
But Padre Pio was dogged during his life and even after his death by accusations that he was a fraud. A new book last year suggested he was a self-harming man. (© The Daily Telegraph, London)
- Malcolm Moore in Rome
