The Vatican turns away followers of the 'new Padre Pio'

[Pastor Dale Morgan]

*
Perilous Times and Lying Signs and Wonders

The Vatican turns away followers of the 'new Padre Pio'*

By Malcolm Moore in Naples
Last Updated: 2:07am GMT 26/02/2007

To his thousands of followers in Italy and around the world he is the
new Padre Pio.

Like the country's ever-popular 20th Century saint, who displayed
stigmata for the last 50 years of his life, Brother Elia is revered.

With his face, hands and feet appearing covered in blood each Easter,
he has earned celebrity status and his fans range from the country's
poorest to World Cup-winning footballer Francesco Totti.

Brother Elia, The Vatican turns away followers of the 'new Padre Pio'
The new Padre Pio? Brother Elia, who suffers stigmata every Easter, is
revered by 1000's

Yesterday was supposed to be a chance for as many as 10,000 people,
including visitors from Britain, to meet Brother Elia, 45, at the
headquarters of the Jesuit movement in Naples. Now that Lent has begun,
time is running out to see him before he takes to his bed over April to
undergo his annual torment.

Instead, his appearance was cancelled at the last minute by the Catholic
Church, which is growing increasingly fearful about the rapid spread of
Brother Elia's fame.

"We had to turn away 33 coaches of people," said a spokesman for the
Apostles of God, the religious movement established by Brother Elia in
2003. "The whole of the south of Italy wanted to see him, but an order
came down from the regional church that the permission for the meeting
had been withdrawn."

The Vatican is reported to have asked Brother Elia not to give
interviews or to hold any public religious services until it has made up
its mind on the veracity of his stigmata.

"For the last four years, the Vatican has sent doctors to his bedside
over Easter to find out whether he really does show stigmata. Some of
them said he did, others said he didn't so we still do not have a
conclusion," said the spokesman.

Doctor Carlo Marcelletti, one of Italy's foremost heart surgeons who
witnessed his suffering last year, said the phenomenon was
"scientifically inexplicable".

Officially, the Vatican has refused to comment, but one source said the
silence was "actually because we are not sceptical".

Fiorella Turolli, the author of a book on Brother Elia, said: "He
suffers the Passion in exactly the same sequence as Christ. On Wednesday
night he gets a crown of thorns pattern, and then he sheds tears of
blood, and then signs of beating on his back. Finally on Friday he is a
mask of blood and then the rebirth."

Brother Elia claims to have had his first vision of the Virgin Mary at
age seven and claims he can talk to angels.

He used to work as a postman, a grocer, a flower-seller and a prison
chef before he joined a Capuchin monastery in Calvi, Umbria.

His followers swear to his healing powers, and thousands queue outside
his monastery from 3am every weekend. "The number of visitors keeps
rising," said Silvano Lorenzoni, mayor of Calvi.

Cesare Prandelli, the manager of Fiorentina football club, says Brother
Elia healed his sick wife. "It only took one look to know he was an
extraordinary man," he said.