There is a wonderful meditation composed by Padre Pio in which he
states: “He [Jesus] sees the sacrileges with which priests and
faithful defile themselves, not caring about those sacraments
instituted for our salvation as necessary means for it - now, instead,
made an occasion of sin and damnation of souls.” From this it can be seen that Padre Pio viewed the sacraments as
the “necessary means” of salvation. However, in studying the
course of his life and ministry as a Catholic priest, evidence can be
found that he understood the sacraments as necessary for all in
general, but not for all in particular. Thus, while he believed that
the sacraments of the Church are necessary as the normative means of
salvation, Padre Pio was willing to admit of exceptions on an
individual basis. But these exceptions did not compromise his
conviction that the one true Church founded by Jesus Christ is the
Roman Catholic Church.
The following documented cases are presented as evidence that
Padre Pio believed that non-Catholics could be saved and even receive
the sacraments.
Adelaide McAlpin Pyle, a Baptized Protestant
“She will be saved because she has faith.”
Most of the information for this first account comes from the
English version of the book Mary Pyle, by Bonaventura Massa. This work
was diligently compiled from written documents and taped oral
testimonies, kept on file in the archives of Padre Pio’s friary in
anticipation of the process for Miss Pyle’s Cause for
Beatification.
The wealthy Presbyterian, Adelaide McAlpin Pyle, was the mother
of Mary Pyle, a well-known convert to Catholicism who renounced her
family fortune in order to spend her life near Padre Pio. The Pyle
family was related by marriage to the Rockefellers, and made their
fortune in the soap and hotel business. After Adelaide found out that
her daughter Mary had chosen to move to southern Italy to learn about
God from a saint, curiosity impelled her to travel from her plush New
York townhouse to medieval San Giovanni Rotondo, in order to meet
this holy man.
In spite of an unpleasant initial encounter, Adelaide eventually
became quite friendly with Padre Pio. She made numerous journeys from
America, beginning in the mid-1920s, to visit her daughter Mary, and
to meet with the Padre. Mary often tried to convince her mother to
convert to Catholicism as she herself had done, but Adelaide
reportedly said in Padre Pio’s presence, “I would rather allow
myself to be burned alive for my religion!” Padre Pio advised Mary
not to push her mother to convert: “Let her be! Don’t upset her
peace.” However, Mary continued to worry because her mother
was not a Catholic, and Padre Pio counseled, “Let’s not confuse
her. She will be saved because she has faith.”
In 1936, Adelaide, who had grown older and was nearing death,
made one last trip to San Giovanni Rotondo. As she said good-bye to
Padre Pio at the end of this visit, the saintly priest pointed
heavenward, saying to the Protestant Adelaide, “I hope we will see
each other again soon, but if we don’t see each other here, we will
see each other up there.” She passed away in the fall of 1937
at the age of seventy-seven. Her daughter Mary then became
pre-occupied about her mother’s salvation. After dreaming that her
mother was in Rome standing in front of the Vatican, she poured out
her anxiety to Padre Pio. He replied, "And who told you that
your mother could not be saved?”
Did Padre Pio receive a revelation that Adelaide Pyle had
secretly ‘in pectore” converted to the Catholic Faith? If that
were true, he most certainly would have told this to her daughter
Mary, who was obviously distraught from worrying over her mother’s
salvation. Further, it seems likely that if Adelaide had converted,
she would have shared this good news with her convert daughter. It is
reasonable to conclude then that Padre Pio believed that this
particular person who died outside the Church could be saved. In
addition, there is evidence that Padre Pio would have been willing to
hear Adelaide’s confession, and grant her sacramental absolution.
On one occasion, she had confided to her daughter her great desire to
kneel before Padre Pio in his confessional, but she lamented that her
inability to speak Italian made this impossible. When Padre Pio heard
of this, (apparently it was after her death), he bemoaned, “Oh! If
she had only done it! As for the language, I would have taken care of
that!”
King George V of England, a Baptized Protestant
“Let us pray for a soul . . .”
One evening in 1936 Padre Pio was conversing with some dear
friends in his cell. Among those present were Dr. Guglielmo
Sanguinetti and Angelo Lupi, who would respectively become the
medical director and the builder of Padre Pio’s hospital years
later. In the middle of their conversation, Padre Pio suddenly
interrupted the discourse with the words, “Let us pray for a soul
soon to appear before the tribunal of God.” With that he bowed his
head, and his guests, although astonished, kneeled and joined him in
prayer. When they had finished, Padre Pio announced that they had
been praying for the king of England. The next morning, the news
blared forth on the friary radio of the unexpected death of King
George V of England the previous evening. Two of the sources for this
story report that Padre Aurelio was also present in the room, while
another source states that Padre Pio went to the friary cell of Padre
Aurelio at midnight that evening and asked him to join him in prayers
for the king of England who “at that moment” was to appear before
God.
An Anglican and the son of the future King Edward VII, George was
baptized on July 7, 1865 in the private chapel of Windsor Castle.
Upon accession to the throne in 1910, the new king swore the
following required oath: "I, N., do solemnly and sincerely in
the presence of God, profess, testify and declare that I am a
faithful Protestant, and that I will, according to the true intent of
the enactments to secure the Protestant Succession to the Throne of
my realm, uphold and maintain such enactments to the best of my
power."
In all likelihood, the king was in his final agony or had already
died when Padre Pio requested prayers for him, since he was “at
that moment” to appear before God. If he believed that the soul of
this Protestant were doomed to the everlasting fire, why would he
pray for him, and also ask others including another priest to do
likewise, other than to ask for his conversion? However, it is not
recorded or implied that he asked his confreres to pray for the
deathbed conversion of the king – an important intention that Padre
Pio in all likelihood would have explicitly stated, if such were his
purpose. Although he mentioned the king to his priest colleague, he
did not tell the friends in his room that they were praying for a
non-Catholic until they had finished their prayers. One cannot
therefore say that it is to be assumed that as Catholics they were
praying for the king’s conversion.
Since as far as is known they were not specifically asked to pray
for his deathbed conversion, there are two alternatives. The first is
that they were simply praying for the salvation of a Protestant whom
Padre Pio did not consider doomed because of his non-Catholic
religion. Of course this scenario would not be acceptable to one who
holds that Padre Pio subscribed to a literal
extra ecclesiam nulla
salus position. Those who hold that position are left with the
unlikely alternative that they were praying for a Catholic, and that
Padre Pio had requested the prayers because he was given a private
revelation that King George V of England was secretly a Roman
Catholic, loyal to the Pope!
Julius Fine, an Unbaptized Devout Jew
“Julius Fine is saved . . .”
Fr. Alessio Parente, O.F.M. Cap., lived and worked alongside
Padre Pio for many years in Our Lady of Grace Friary at San Giovanni
Rotondo. He wrote numerous books about his confrere, and his works
provide reliable source material for the saint. The following
information is from Fr. Alessio’s book The Holy Souls, and
was related by a “very good friend” of his, Mrs. Florence Fine
Ehrman, the daughter of the person in question.
In 1965 her father, Julius Fine, who had practiced the Jewish
faith all his life and believed firmly in God, was stricken with what
is commonly called “Lou Gehrig’s disease.” Mrs. Ehrman wrote to
Padre Pio beseeching a cure for her father from this fatal illness. A
short time later she received the reply that Padre Pio would pray for
her father and would take him under his protection.
When her father passed away in February of the next year, she was
able to accept his death peacefully. However after some time, she
began to worry about whether or not he was saved, even though he had
been a very loving and kind husband and father. “This fear came
about because I began to hear many people, Protestants and Catholics
alike, say that unless person had been baptized they could not be
saved.”
On a visit to the friary at San Giovanni Rotondo in the fall of
1967, she was told by a personal friend (quite possibly Fr. Alessio
himself) to write down whatever she wished to ask Padre Pio, and this
friend would present the letter to him. She of course wrote down her
concerns about the eternal state of her father’s soul – this good
and gentle Jewish man who had never been baptized. The reply from
Padre Pio, which she received in writing, was this: “Julius Fine is
saved, but it is necessary to pray much for him.” Her mind was put
at ease by such a “sure and definite” statement,” since she
understood that her father was in Purgatory, his salvation
guaranteed.
Whether Padre Pio was enlightened by his Guardian Angel, the Holy
Spirit, interior locution, or some other means is not known. What is
known, however, is his ability to make such determinations after
intense prayer, nourished by his mystical union with Christ during
his Mass and Holy Communion, and by the offering up of his
sufferings, especially the painful bloody wounds of his stigmata. In
this instance, Padre Pio committed himself to assuring a grieving
daughter that her father, who was not baptized, and was not a Roman
Catholic, was saved. As in the case of King George V, someone who
wishes to force Padre Pio into the strict “absolutely no salvation
outside the Church” camp, is only left with this improbable
scenario: it was revealed to Padre Pio that the devout Jew, Julius
Fine, was secretly a baptized Roman Catholic!
Padre Pio a True Catholic
From the above examples it appears that Padre Pio did not blindly
adhere to the proposition that only baptized Catholics can be saved.
Yet, it would be difficult to find someone more committed to the
Catholic Church throughout his life than was Padre Pio. His obedience
to the hierarchy was legendary, and he humbly submitted to
Vatican-authorized suppression and even persecution without
resistance. The spirituality of his epistles astonished even
Carmelites, and his writings and teachings, born of the school of
suffering, are the basis of an effort to make him a Doctor of the
Church.
Padre Pio lived by the Spirit of God, not by the letter of the
law, except when his superiors in religion routinely commanded
obedience of him. His ingenuous openness to the plenitude of God’s
mercy anticipated the explicit declarations of the Church during and
after the Second Vatican Council on the possibility that non-Catholic
churches can be a “means of salvation,” and on the
reception by non-Catholics of the sacraments in certain cases. Padre
Pio actually believed that the gospel of Jesus Christ was Good News!
Posted 9/22/16, the eve of Padre Pio's feast day.
Much of this article was featured in the December 2006 edition of
“Christian Order.” A formal footnoted version comprises one of the chapters in my
book
The Truth about Padre Pio's Stigmata.
View all of my books.
