Padre Pio on display - It’s too easy to sneer

PUTTING the body of Padre Pio on display 40 years after his death gives those who would deride such expressions of faith an opportunity to deride and sneer.

It is easy to suggest that commerce has at least as much to do with the venture as religion. The economy of the southern Italian town of San Giovanni Rotondo depends almost entirely on the followers of Padre Pio, who was canonised by Pope John Paul II six years ago.

The saint’s face was reconstructed with a life-like silicone mask because it was too decomposed to show when the body was exhumed for public viewing.

Despite the accusations of vulgarity and exploitation hundreds of thousands of people will visit the town while the saint’s body is on display declaring, by their very presence, that they still believe in a faith challenged by scandal and undermined by the mores of today.

There is a substance to their declaration that neither those who sneer at religion or the Catholic Church should take for granted or easily dismiss.