After the “purgation of the senses,” Raffaelina could expect “a much more severe purification which is known as the purgation of the spirit,” which would lift her soul to an even higher degree of perfection. “The trial will most certainly be a very severe one, but do not be frightened. The Lord, as always, will be with you and will console you. This new purification will consist entirely in detaching you from what is called accidental spiritual devotion and love of God” — in other words, from a love of God that is based on his gifts rather than on him, for his own sake. This would happen through a “spiritual aridity” that consisted of “absolute privation of all comfort of a purely spiritual nature.” This was to enable her to love God for himself alone and not for any pleasure or enjoyment. In this state, Padre Pio warned Raffaelina that she could expect to be “enveloped in deep darkness,” with all spiritual activity “difficult and repugnant.”24
“Did You Enter the Seraphic Order Only to Live and Stay Well?”
Even though pleased with Padre Pio’s work as a spiritual director, his superiors were not happy about his remaining away from the cloister for so long. In December 1913, Padre Benedetto, as minister provincial, began to insist once more that Padre Pio return to the friary. It had been two years since he had been forced to leave Venafro, and, at Pietrelcina, “breathing [his] native air,” his health had shown minimal improvement. “Return to community life, even though you are convinced that in doing so, you will grow worse,” Padre Benedetto insisted. “It seems to be contrary to God’s will … for you to stay outside the community so long for reasons of health. Did you enter the Seraphic Order to live and stay well and vow to remain in it only if you did not have to be ill and die?” He urged Padre Pio to accept an appointment as vice-master of novices at Morcone. This would involve very little work, just setting an example. “And if death comes, welcome it. It will mean that the fetters of the body will be broken all the sooner!” Padre Benedetto exhorted him.25
Padre Pio balked, saying that he would be only an encumbrance to any community where he might be sent. Instead, he requested that Padre Benedetto seek permission from the Vatican for him to remain in the Capuchin order while continuing to reside in Pietrelcina. In doing this, perhaps he was seeking a compromise between the demands of Padre Benedetto, who wanted him to return to community life immediately, and those of his mother and Archpriest Pannullo, who wanted him to leave the Capuchin order to become a secular priest.
When both Padres Benedetto and Agostino asked Padre Pio to inquire of Jesus why the divine will was for him to remain outside the friary, Pio reported that Jesus said to tell them that they should not ask. This did not satisfy Padre Benedetto, who, in June 1914, ordered Padre Pio to report to Morcone. “Have fear of nothing,” wrote Padre Agostino, who was to accompany him there. “Everything will result in God’s glory and your good. If you die, I am sure you will go to enjoy the beauty of our Divine Bridegroom…. If he asked your life, wouldn’t you content him? Then, let the Lord’s will be done.”26
Padre Pio obeyed his superiors and reported to Morcone, only to become so ill that he had to leave after five days. When he returned to Pietrelcina, he wrote Raffaelina, “I had hardly entered the town when they all came out to greet me, adding to their thanks to the Lord the cries, ‘Long life!’ and ‘Welcome back!’ I was moved to the point of tears.”27 To Padre Benedetto, describing his terrible asthma attacks, Padre Pio begged, “Good Father, don’t be angry with me. I just don’t know which way to turn. I would like to have spared you this new pain, to shoulder the weight of this cross by myself, but this I was not allowed to do.”28 Padre Benedetto was so enraged that he would not write to Padre Pio for six months. When Padre Pio once again sought dispensation from Rome to remain at Pietrelcina as a Capuchin, Padre Benedetto wrote Padre Agostino, “I will obtain the brief, but I will not believe in his sanctity anymore!”29
Padre Agostino tried to explain the provincial’s position to Pio:
Like me, he is convinced that God is at work in your spirit, but he … does not believe that the Lord wants you there, out of the cloister … [Padre Benedetto asks:] “How could God, for the purpose of greater perfection, take a soul out of the cloister and place him forever in the secular world?” … [Padre Benedetto desires] that you might have the strength to come to the cloister to die, like every true son of St. Francis.”30
Padre Agostino took it upon himself to plead Padre Pio’s case with the minister general of the Capuchin order, Venantius Dodo (1862–1926) of Lisle-en-Rigault. Venantius was sympathetic and agreed to obtain the “brief” from Rome that would give Padre Pio permission to remain in Pietrelcina while retaining his Capuchin habit for as long as he remained ill. Permission was granted in March 1915.
Although he had requested the brief, Padre Pio was nevertheless upset. He wrote Padre Agostino: “What humiliation for me, my father, at seeing myself practically cut off from the Seraphic Order!” Padre Agostino wrote back, comforting him, “The minister general has seen God’s will and grants you the brief, but only on a temporary basis. Therefore you belong to us and even more to the Seraphic Father [Saint Francis].”31
War
As early as May 1914, Padre Pio had been sought for supernatural illumination on the deteriorating international situation. In response to a question from Padre Benedetto, Padre Pio related that Jesus didn’t want him to disclose the ultimate outcome of the world situation, and urged: “Let’s pray with true faith to our heavenly Father for a favorable outcome, because the situation is getting rather grave, and, if God does not bring about a solution, the outcome will be very grim. We do not deserve divine assistance, since we have willingly banished the most lovable Jesus from our hearts…. However, may we at least be permitted to hope in God’s infinite Providence.”32
On June 28, a Serbian terrorist assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and by early August most of the world’s major powers were at war, although Italy and the United States held back initially. Padre Pio saw the terrifying conflict as God’s punishment for man’s unbelief, and he feared that the wrath of God would soon break out upon his country, which, like its neighbors, had apostatized from God. He also was grieved deeply by the passing of Pope Pius X, who succumbed to a heart attack on August 20. Padre Pio characterized the pontiff as “a truly noble and holy soul whose equal has never been seen by Rome.”33
On September 7, Padre Pio wrote Padre Agostino, begging him to pray to “disarm the hand of divine justice, rightly inflamed against the nations who do not want to know the law of love. Above all, let us pray to disarm God’s wrath towards our country. She, too, has many accounts to settle with God. May she at least learn from the misfortune of others, especially from her sister France, how harmful it is for a nation to distance itself from God.”
When Italy entered the war on the side of the Allies in the spring of 1915, Padre Pio said: “Italy did not want to listen to the voice of love.” Writing to Raffaelina Cerase, he lamented:
Up to the present, nothing has worked to make our country repent and come back to God. Alas, because of our nation’s sin, since it has become abominable and detestable in God’s sight, I fear that the Lord in his furious anger will punish us according to strict justice. May it please this God of goodness, who is rightly enraged with our country, to behave as a loving father and not as a righteous judge, as we deserve only too well. In the excess of his love for his creatures, may he change the punishment itself into a wholesome cleansing for all of us.”34
Later he wrote Cerase:
The solemn moment through which our country is passing … does not mean that heaven has abandoned us. While heaven speaks, we are still loved. How wretched those countries are to whom the Lord doesn’t speak anymore, not even in quiet indignation, for this is a sign that he has