When people think of the Catholics, this usually doesn’t include Africans. As Africa becomes more evangelized, the number of Africans practicing Catholicism is growing at an expeditious rate. The number of Catholics in Africa went up from an estimated 2 million in 1900 to about 140 million in 2000.

Many Africans move to Rome to study Catholicism and the teachings of the church. Brandon Gates speaks with two Africans studying at Pontificia Università della Santa Croce about their experience as African Catholics.

Sister Maria Patricia. | Photo by Nathan Vickers.

Roman Catholics travel to the south of Italy to visit the shrine of a popular saint in San Giovanni Rotondo because they believe this journey will change their lives. It is the second-most visited Catholic shrine in the world and it centers on the tomb of Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, a Capuchin friar and priest known for his unwavering devotion to God, care for the sick and supernatural gifts.

During a pilgrimage to the quaint town of over 26,000 residents, it is customary to visit Padre Pio’s tomb — located in the basement of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie. Visitors touch the casket of the revered saint, asking for miracles. A touch so powerful, Sister Maria Patricia never left San Giovanni Rotondo after her brush with the saint.

“I’m very happy because Padre Pio is a great saint,” Patricia said with a slight smile. “I came from a poor family, but God brought me here.”

Patricia is from Tamil Nadu, India and became a nun a little over 20 years ago. She had always hoped to move to Italy after she first visited in 1999. She said that God allowed her to serve in Rome and the Philippines before her most recent journey to this city on the hill in 2004.

“I was thinking, how can I go to Italy,” said Patricia. “That location is the gift of God. God chooses, not you.”

Patricia said her faith in the power of Saint Pio stemmed from the Capuchin friar’s piety. She said his closeness with God was a model for all believers.

“Padre Pio was very prayerful,” she said. “If we are not prayerful we don’t have that experience with God. You can’t make that experience for yourself, you have to talk with God.”

Patricia, who comes from the Apostles of Jesus Crucified order, went on to say that she believed in Pio’s power as a second iteration of Christ.

“[Pio] saved many souls,” she said. “Christ is living, but Padre Pio is a symbol like that. Padre Pio is now in Christ.”

Patricia had just left the Saturday morning mass which she routinely attends to ponder the many miracles reported by Pio’s followers. She said she was particularly inspired by the saint’s ability to heal both the physically and spiritually ill, something she hopes to do in her own work as a nun. For that, Padre Pio is her inspiration.

“We must meditate on the saints,” she said as the noon bells rung in the church behind her. “Because we cannot help ourselves, especially for our soul.”

Holy water and miracle oil — some of the many Pio-related souvenirs for sale in San Giovanni Rotondo. | Photo by Andrea Palatnik.

My first-time visit to San Giovanni Rotondo is possibly one of the few things that have left me speechless. I hesitantly say the city is “where Catholicism and cult meet.” My reservation, you ask? The aforementioned phrase does not properly depict what I witnessed — yet I don’t know how to articulate this experience differently.

As a practicing catholic, many of my fellow believers may wonder why I am being overtly critical of this “mecca” that many pilgrims visit year-round. However, if I may loosely quote scripture, there should be no man or other god placed ahead of God. But in this town of nearly 27,000 people, you can’t help but feel that Padre Pio has been added to the Holy Trinity…

Hundreds of statues decorate the town in almost every color and size imaginable, including one I found in a souvenir shop that was just as tall as me. People who have traveled near and far to celebrate Pio, bow and kneel at just about every painting, pray the rosary and even leave pictures of relatives and varied sums of euros as they believe problems and worries will be reconciled because of their faithful visit to this southern Italian town. While I do have a clear understanding of what Padre Pio meant and continues to mean for some catholics — possibly because we conducted a thorough study of him in our Covering Religion class this semester — it would be remiss not to point out the striking (and borderline offensive, depending on who you ask) similarities in the reverence of this saint and the reverence of God.

Here is where christians and non-christians alike attack Catholicism and rightfully so. As one of only two catholics in the Covering Religion seminar, fully aware and fully accepting of the great miracles performed by this man, even I felt a little uneasy as I entered the colossal, modern church where Saint Pio’s tomb lies. There are more images of Padre Pio than Jesus, himself.

However, in the same eerie iridescent light, I cannot deny the amazing devotion I witnessed during my visit to this peculiar town. For many, Padre Pio is a great example of a modern man who devoted his life to God by helping as many people as he could, before his death in 1968, and this is seen by their willingness to travel all over for a few seconds to touch his tomb.

Whether you believe that Saint Pio bore the stigmata on his hands or not, doesn’t change the fact that this small town on a hill has helped thousands of people.

The Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza hospital — which literally translates as the Home for the Relief of Suffering — serves hundreds of patients yearly, of whom many do not have to pay for services. As we walked through the facilities, which included two chapels within the hospital, we saw much faith and hope in Padre Pio’s miracles. A nun walked down the hall praying aloud as she walked past the hospital beds of several patients — not a sight you’d notice in a regular hospital; but soothing nonetheless.

I still caution that Saint Pio’s pedestal may be too high, but if belief in a man can create this much good, then maybe there is some reason to revere him.