The Catholic News Service has recently reported that at San Giovanni Rotundo, Italy, the home of the late Capuchin friar and recently sainted Padre Pio, the remains of this holy man have been willfully and disrespectfully disturbed for a pretense of veneration.

In his homily of mass celebrated on April 24th, Cardinal Saraiva Martins, prefect of the Congregation for Saints' Causes, stated the following to those in attendance: "Facing the mystery of death, we are called to understand that which we see does not sum up everything about human existence. The body is here, but Padre Pio is not just a body. In fact, he who lived in full union with the crucified Jesus now lives in absolute communion with the risen Jesus." I don't get it. If seeing is not everything, then why exhume the body? What ever happened to respect for the dead?

Padre Pio died on September 26, 1968. He was later canonized by then Pope John Paul II on June 16, 2002. St. Padre Pio was beloved by untolled throngs of the faithful. He painfully bore the Stigmata of Christ, which was never explained by secular medical science. It was said that he could see into people's pasts and beyond this world. He would serve long hours daily hearing confessions, and was known to often remind people of sins they either forgot to mention or willfully withheld. At his urging, a 350-bed hospital on Mount Gargano in Italy was built beginning in 1946, and opened in 1956, called, "The House of Alleviation for the Suffering." (AKA: "Home for the Relief of Suffering.") One of the prerequisites for sainthood in the Church is to be associated with a miracle. Some years back, I adopted Padre Pio as my patron saint, even before he was actually sainted. I have prayed to him for his intercession to Jesus on several occasions and in several dire instances, including two different occasions in which a family member who was very terminally ill and then completely was healed to the utter amazement of her doctors, and again with no sufficient medical explanation. One of those instances is now being presented by one of her doctors as a case study. Padre Pio once said that once he takes a soul on, he prays for that person's entire family. I believe him. I've seen it first hand, and more than once.

There is a call among many traditionalists to bring back the Latin Mass. Pope Benedict XVI supports this cause and some churches have done so already. I was a wee one in the pre-Vatican II days, but I never grasped why Latin, which most people do not understand, is supposedly better than their given native regional language. I am told that the Latin Mass was more beautiful in many ways, but I also hear that it represented the mystery of the Church. OK, I get that. After all, Latin is pretty mysterious to me. In fact, you could even say that Latin is all "Greek" to me. But if mystery is such a staple of the Church, then why exhume the body of St. Padre Pio, and ordain a glass shrine with it, with posted visiting hours, and even reservations accepted, so that this ghoulish travesty can be viewed by visitors like a dinosaur relic in a museum? Even Jesus told "Doubting Thomas" that he only believed because he saw, but "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." (John: 20, 29) Isn't believing without seeing the very crux of true faith?

Why St. Padre Pio, because he lived during our (well, some of "our") time? How many other saints are we going to dig up for the benefit of those for whom seeing is believing? How about other historical figures? Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, etc.. For that matter, Hitler, Napoleon, Stalin, etc, after all, they made history, too. Where does this grave digging ghoulishness and long lines of shameless, wide-eyed, popcorn wielding tourists end? "Veneration?" Maybe on the surface, but I can't help but think that just a tad deeper under that pious surface, lots of these so-called "venerators" are same the ilk of drivers who typically clog up the opposite side of the highway to gawk and rubberneck at the mangled crash scene on the other side, lest they miss any up close and personal glimpses of splattered blood and guts on the pavement. This isn't about veneration. This is about competing for attention, even of the wandering faithful, in the era of reality TV, no matter how well intentioned this grossly ill-conceived brainstorm may be.

I am enraged and sickened by this insidious and needless escapade. The CNS article went on to spell out, in gratuitously graphic detail, the extent of decomposition of St. Padre Pio's body and how much of his face had to be synthetically but realistically recreated by a professional London-based company that does such work. The article went into far less detail to articulate specifically who was responsible for this ugly and sacrilegious debacle. It only inferred that this circus act was a combined effort between the Capuchins and Archbishop Domenico D'Ambrosio, the papal delegate for the shrine. Reading between the lines of such ambiguous writing, I can only deduct that by virtue of the existence of a position called "papal delegate," that this story has arms that reach further back to the Vatican and possibly, I dread, to even the Pope, himself. I would be oh, so happy to be wrong in that presumption.

I am in no way insinuating, nor do I believe, that there was any kind of malicious intent involved. But I do believe that horrifically bad judgment of the first order was implemented. Someone should be disciplined for this heinous act. Given my druthers, as those responsible are so keenly interested in disinterring the buried, I would like to see the "buried" act of flogging returned to proficient use. And I would gladly wield the whip and zealously carry out the sentence onto the guilty.

Let those who so naively wish to venerate the disinterred instead do so on their knees, with closed eyes, sincere hearts, and more active minds. In a prayer pamphlet from Human Life International, burying the dead is listed as one of the "Corporal Acts of Mercy." If that is true for all men and women, is that same basic standard of human respect for the dead not also applicable to the sainted?

This needless and freakish display that would likely even make P.T. Barnum blush is slated to continue until September and possibly longer. (I guess that depends on how hot box office sales are!) After a foiled plot to exhume President Lincoln's body and hold it for ransom, our beloved President was exhumed and then later reburied in his present tomb, encased in concrete and in a vault so that his remains will eternally and respectfully be left undisturbed. Having recently visited Lincoln's tomb myself, I can tell you that all you see is the tomb. Ditto with President Grant, whose tomb I also visited. Nobody needs to see an exhumed body, modified for more palatable public viewing or a'la natural. Again, why does this holy man of God deserve any less basic respect and common decency than old Honest Abe, or anyone else?

The Internet is a wonderful tool for communication. I hope this article reaches the eyes of someone of both authority and common sense in the Vatican. I thus hope that this utter abomination will be stopped forthwith, and that the human remains St. Padre Pio may be once again, laid to eternal rest and given their due and permanent respect. If this deplorable folly were carried out by a political leader instead of a religious leader, he or she would be denied my vote and I would be writing to someone of authority, demanding an impeachment. For better or for worse however, we Catholics are not allowed to elect our religious leaders. Then again, considering how many proponents of abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage we so frequently elect to political office, maybe it's just as well. Our judgment is far from stellar as well. That all aside however, let the so-called faithful work on their faith the old fashioned way, by believing without seeing.

In the Marian apparition to the children of Garabandal, Spain on June 18, 1965, our Blessed Mother, Mary warned that many priests, bishops and cardinals are on a road to perdition, and are taking many souls with them. This desecration, packaged as "veneration" is just one of many such illustrations. As for you sacrilegious cretins who have foolishly debased St. Padre Pio, and soiled your vocations and our Church, may God have mercy on you. But mercy is not justice. I hope you encounter justice before mercy, and not just for my own selfish gratification, but more importantly, to set an example for both clergy and laity alike to hopefully learn from in a post-Vatican II Church that has egregiously lost its way.

St. Padre Pio, please forgive us, and please pray for us. As our dying Savior on the cross said to Our Father in prayer, "They (we) know not what they (we) are doing." He was referring to the high priests and the citizenry who betrayed Him and blindly insisted on His crucifixion. Those misled fools thought they were doing God's work, too. Sadly, over 2,000 years later, we haven't changed much. And time is running out.

Doug Wrenn