Become Who You Are
What’s the meaning and purpose of my life? What is my true identity? Why were we created male and female? How do I find happiness, joy and peace? How do I find love that lasts, forever? These are the timeless questions of the human heart. Join Jack Rigert and his guests for lively insights, reading the signs of our times through the lens of Catholic Teaching and the insights of Saint John Paul ll to guide us.
Saint Catherine of Siena said "Become who you are and you would set the world on fire".
Become Who You Are
#633 Padre Pio and You! An Epic Story of Spiritual Fatherhood: With Mary O'Regan
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Padre Pio: The Saint with a Special Love for Americans
When we think of Padre Pio, most Catholics immediately picture his stigmata – the visible wounds of Christ that marked his hands, feet, and side. But after speaking with Mary O'Regan, author of the newly released "Padre Pio and You: The Epic Story of Spiritual Fatherhood," I discovered there's a far deeper dimension to this beloved saint's suffering that few have ever heard about: the mystical sword that pierced his insides.
Mary, an Irish writer who now lives in Los Angeles, spent seven years researching and writing about Padre Pio. What makes her perspective unique is that Padre Pio appeared to her twice in her teenage years – first when she was 14, watching what she describes as "a pornographic horror movie," and again when she was 17. These supernatural encounters set her on a path to understand the man who looked at her with penetrating eyes and said, "I am waiting for you."
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Welcome to the Become who you Are podcast, a production of the John Paul II Renewal Center. I'm Jack Riggert, your host. For those of you who have been with us for a while, you know I have a devotion to Padre Pio that goes back to my childhood when my dad, a World War II vet, told my brothers and I wartime stories of GIs that he had encountered that had life-changing interactions with Padre Pio. At the time my dad was telling us stories. When we were young boys, padre Pio was still living. So for all the young people who are increasingly joining us who don't know a lot about Padre Pio except for the stories that I told, I'm very excited to have Mary O'Regan with us today to tell you a little bit about Padre Pio. She just wrote a new book, padre Pio and you, mary. It's so exciting to have you with us. Welcome.
Speaker 2:Thank you very much for the honor of being here, Jack. It means a great deal to me to speak forth on our spiritual father.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you, and your book is hot off the press. But before we get to that, I want to tell them a little bit about you, just a touch. Mary's a writer who was born and raised in County Cork, ireland. She now lives in LA, california. Her passion is to make accessible a synthesis of the teachings of saints, stigmatists and scholars, so that as many people as possible can inherit their wisdom and, hopefully, their holiness and charity. She has spent the last seven years working on this book about Padre Pio. Mary, you're born in Ireland and now you're in LA. We could easily spend the show talking about everything that's happening in those places right now. Ireland is also a hotbed of activity right now, isn't it?
Speaker 2:It is I mean. The thing is that I grew up in Ireland and Ireland had turned its back on Catholicism. I mean I was bullied very badly for having the name Mary.
Speaker 1:So tell us now. So they lost their Catholic faith, a lot of the people in Ireland. So this certainly seems like spiritual warfare all over the world, right, when we start to turn our back on God and faith. You just see these things interrupt. You know, is that kind of where you were going when you were saying that the Irish turned their back on Catholicism? Is that what you said?
Speaker 2:Well, the Irish were originally pagans, and it was.
Speaker 1:St.
Speaker 2:Patrick's Day, and that's why it's a very beautiful thing coming to America, where St Patrick's Day is a hallowed day, where St Patrick's Day is a hallowed day, where I don't have any qualms about saying that the Irish were pagans and that there was a rape and a murderous cult before St Patrick came, and we have to acknowledge that and we have to say that Patrick led us to the truth. He led us to the Lord, and that's a beautiful thing. But the island that I grew up in was re-embracing that paganism very very strongly.
Speaker 2:You know they were. You know it's a hard thing to acknowledge Jack, but my name is Mary and I was beaten up for being called Mary. There was. It was a salt brought to bear on me as an age of five.
Speaker 1:Because of the connection with our Blessed Mother. I mean, what was it when they heard Mary that set them off?
Speaker 2:Well, I have to be honest in that my mother did not want to call me Mary. My name when I was in utero was Abigail. My mother was Mary's Abby, she's going to be called Gail. And then, when I was in utero, was Abigail, my mother was Mary's Abby, she's going to be called Gail. And then when I was born, she's only Mary. People couldn't call me anything else but Mary. That was my name, but it was vicious when I was five. I mean I just remember these fists coming at me for being called Mary and unfortunately that's the way it went in Ireland. I mean, it's on the extinct list. No child is called Mary anymore. It's on the extinct list, isn't?
Speaker 1:it something. So there is a just to be clear and I don't want to spend too much time on this because I want to get into Padre Pio but there was a Protestant side, right? Was it half Protestant and half Catholic? They were always warring between the Protestants and the Catholics.
Speaker 2:It was. But guess what happened Jack to me. So I was being bullied very badly for having the name Mary, Very, very badly, and my parents had to send me to a Protestant town to get my final high school education. Because I wasn't bullied by the Protestants, I was safe in the Protestant town.
Speaker 1:So how old were you, Mary, when you left Ireland to come to the United States?
Speaker 2:Well, I've lived in Los Angeles for six years and, ok, it's a bit of a long story. So I was a high school teacher in France in my early 20s. That's what I did after I left university. I was a high school teacher in France and I was working in the South Bronx in my vacation time. So all I want I just all I wanted to do was be in America. It was just this deep calling to be here, and even sometimes when I go elsewhere and I'm not in Los Angeles, I feel the Lord calling me back to Los Angeles and saying here's where you're meant to be.
Speaker 1:We've got to plant some seeds, huh, because you know, unfortunately even in the United States, you know, which kept their Christian roots longer than the rest of Western civilization in general, certainly than Western Europe, but even the polls were starting to show that we were starting to slide down on upholding our Christian faith. Now I think that's starting to turn around now for young people. But we're really seeing the battle and I think some of the battles that we see in LA, across the country, some of these attacks on our freedoms, on the churches, so we're fighting all this right. So this is a great time to be talking about Padre Pio, because he knew about spiritual warfare, didn't he? Because he himself was attacked. He fought many battles himself. You know personal battles with Satan. So when we start to talk about these things, this was very real to him. So tell us a little bit about how you got involved in the book, why you decided to write the book and where this maybe love for Padre Pio came from.
Speaker 2:Yes, it's an overwhelming Cenk. It's an overwhelming passion and just on fire with love for Padre Pio. I love him very, very deeply and he appeared to me twice when I was a teenager. He came to me twice and how does one say this? He was just. He had this unquenchable desire to save my soul, to save me from the fires of hell, and I can only return that a little bit. But I remember when he appeared to me first, I was just a teenager, I was 14. I hate to say it, but my ambitions weren't lofty or they weren't holy. I just wanted a boyfriend, sorry Jack. I just wanted.
Speaker 1:I wanted you know, I know the feeling, but I know exactly what you mean, and so does our audience, trust me. These are beautiful things to talk about, and especially for young people today, because these passions and desires actually for love have gotten twisted and distorted, where love now has been reduced down to a feeling and even to sex for some of these young people, and they want to hear that we've all struggled with this and they want to know the truth. They want to know the truth. They want to know the truth. God gave us these passions and desires. Unfortunately, it's the twisted and distorted passions and desires that get us in trouble, and that's why I bet you, padre Pio, wanted to come in and untwist those desires, for you not to take them away. See, god doesn't want to take away our passions and desires. He just wants to reorientate them to where they're supposed to be. And that's the fun, right? That's the beauty of our faith.
Speaker 2:Yes, and it was very, very strange how he came into my life, because I was wanting a boyfriend.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:Wanting the obvious, you know.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 2:Sorry, but just I was okay. So I was watching a bad horror movie, a pornographic horror horror movie, and in ireland, especially when they just turn on the tv set, just it was just there and the lady who was watching it turned to me and she said she's bilocating, she's being in two places at once. The only person I've ever known who could actually bilocate was Padre Pio. And then that moment he was just there in front of me and I have to be honest that I don't quite understand everything that happened. I'm not the brightest, I'm not the smartest person, but he was just there in front of me, jack, and he was in a tiny cell and that's where later I knew that it couldn't have been my imagination or been invented, because he was there and he had pictures of his parents, of the Pope, mary Pyle, and I saw all this just there. And he was there and, okay, maybe I wasn't the best person at that time you know wanting a boyfriend and just you know, being a teenager watching a pornographic horror movie. And he was there and he said to me I am waiting for you.
Speaker 2:But where it comes difficult is that he didn't speak with his mouth in the same way that we're talking now. It was an interlocution. He told me I'm waiting for you and he didn't move. And there was just this stare, piercing stare that riveted me to the spot. I mean his eyes, they were like fire, they riveted me. Padre Pio's eyes riveted me.
Speaker 2:I couldn't understand it at the time and I can understand it now barely. That he it was an interlocution, because he said I am waiting for you, but he didn't move, his lips, you see. And he said I'm waiting for you. And then he appeared to me three years later, when I was 17, when I had decided to be chaste and to be good, and then he said I love you. Well, he just said to me that he will ask me to do something for him. And I said I mean, so what happened was that he appeared to me once and then I saw the biography of him and there was just a laundry list of all these different things he had, like the smells. We can talk about that if you want.
Speaker 2:If I may, jack, we talk about the fact that he gives us these smells, padre Pio by way of it, was absolutely, totally divine. We talk about that, but the stigmata and being able to fly during World War II, being actually able to go to the sky and fly that's the thing is that if we believe in our Lord and if we total dependence on our Lord, the Lord will give us these gifts. That's what I want in my book. I want people to acknowledge, in particular, americans, because Padre Pio had a special love of Americans. That's the means by which he became a friar to begin with.
Speaker 1:So where did that come from? His love for Americans, do you think?
Speaker 2:They had five acres of land that they farmed, but they worked to get the food on the table, his parents. So Padre Pio was born in 1887 and he was born to. You know how does one say? They didn't have any spare money, Jack. And when his mother was pregnant with Padre Pio, she also buried his older sister. So she buried two children before she had Padre Pio. If you're a parent, you know that that's harrowing pain. So she's six months pregnant with Padre Pio when she buries Amalia.
Speaker 2:So and this was something that was given to me when she birthed Padre Pio she said St Francis, I'm calling him after you. I will refuse you nothing, just let him live. Because Padre Pio's older brother was already five or six. And she said I will give you anything you want, st Francis, anything you want. But it was a private plea from her heart to St Francis. Forgive me, st Francis. And she said I will forgive, I will give you anything, I will give you my son.
Speaker 2:But Padre Pio does not know this because he's only a baby. So what happens is that he's born into this family and in southern Italy, and at age 10. So he knows nothing about Giuseppe's Giuseppe's, he knows nothing about her promise that I will St Francis, let him live. I've buried two children, let him live. He knows nothing about her promise that I will St Francis, let him live. I've buried two children, let him live. He knows nothing. But then what happens is that at age 10, brother Camillo. Brother Camillo comes to the village and he's begging on behalf of the Franciscans and he says Padre Pio looks at him and says I'm meant to be a Franciscan friar. And they ask him would you become a parish priest? Would you become a Benedictine? No, they don't have beards. He wants to be like Brother Camillo with a beard.
Speaker 1:Isn't that something?
Speaker 2:But his parents don't have the money to put him through school. They don't have the money to pay the tuition for high school and for the seminary. They don't have the money, so, Grazio. So Padre Pio's father, Grazio, goes to America to earn the money.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, I remember that.
Speaker 2:He goes to America and he doesn't speak English, but he knows an awful lot about husbandry and he knows an awful lot about crops. Okay, and the Americans are so good to him.
Speaker 1:That's right. I forgot about that. He spent a lot of time in the United States. This is Padre Pio's father, huh.
Speaker 2:Yes, and he has to send home money every week to pay for Padre Pio's high school. And yeah, the sacrifice, but Padre Pio never forgot that.
Speaker 1:Okay, wow, so did he work on farms. Is that what he did when he was here?
Speaker 2:He came here and he worked on farms and he sent the money home every week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah, wow, how fascinating. So as Padre Pio gets a little bit older, now, we move ahead just a little bit, right. As Padre Pio gets a little bit older, now, we move ahead just a little bit, right. As Padre Pio gets a little bit older, did he always have this feeling then, that he wanted to be a Franciscan friar? Yes, and he wasn't really thinking about another avenue. Huh, he wasn't dreaming about a girlfriend, right? He wanted to be a priest, didn't he?
Speaker 2:No, he was kind of the opposite of me, priest, didn't he? No, he was kind of the opposite of me, sorry, sorry, jag used kind of the opposite of me, yes, but he decided at age 10 that he wanted to be a franciscan friar with a beard, and he knew nothing about giuseppe's promise, because he did not know that she had already buried a child called francis.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:So she had I mean any parent, any parent knows exactly what I'm saying that she was an only child. His mother was an only child and she didn't want Michele, his older brother, to be an only child. She said to St Francis, I feel you're calling me to make a higher sacrifice. I feel you're calling me and I will refuse you nothing. And she said I won't, I will not refuse you anything. But what it basically means is that she has to have to let go her husband. Her husband has to go to America for years on end to earn the money, yeah, and he has to go back to Italy to pay for his tuition.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's not easy for any woman to give up their husband for a small time years on end.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and don't forget, we didn't have the telephones we have now either. It was not always easy to get ahold of people. Letters were very, very slow, telephones were few and far between. So these are difficult times.
Speaker 2:So, as Padre Pio now starts to get a little bit older and he gets called into the priesthood, and so he becomes a priest fairly young, about 23 years old or so, right, yes, because he was very, very sickly and, as he said himself, it wasn't actually a biological sickness, it was spiritual oppression, because he was being assaulted by the devil Even at that early age. He was being assaulted by the devil from the time he was in the womb.
Speaker 1:So this was really meant to be? Huh, padre Pio was 20. How old was he when he got the stigmata? And tell our audience. Look, most people will know what the stigmata is, but there are a lot of young people joining us, mary, that don't know exactly what the stigmata is. So tell us two things how old Padre Pio was when he received the stigmata and what that is exactly.
Speaker 2:So he was 23 when he was ordained a priest, and his priesthood and the stigmata. So, basically, the Lord came and he punctured his wound. He punctured Padre Pio's palms and his feet with the blazing blade and he says and that's where it becomes very hard, because Padre Pio wanted to be a stigmatist, but in private the wounds meant that he was known to everyone as being a stigmatist. He was totally the opposite of a narcissist. He was an empath. Padre Pio was an empath. Padre Pio, though, gives himself up.
Speaker 2:Jack, that's actually really the core of what we're talking about. The core is that Padre Pio was a victim soul and he said Lord, I will do whatever you want, I will do, I will, I will take on any suffering you want. That's very hard when you're writing about Padre Pio, because could I do that? I couldn't do that. No, I couldn't do that. I'm just basically a reporter, I just can talk about him. But he said Lord, I will do whatever you want, but for the victim's soul. And Jack, I think that there's a lot of people who are listening to this, who know what I mean. They will give what they want to the Lord. They say Lord, whatever you want with me, I will do Just like his mother. She says let him live. I will give you anything as long as you let him live.
Speaker 2:But when you're talking about victim soul, you're talking about the fact that the Lord might visit that suffering upon you that you absolutely do not want. So for Padre Pio, he absolutely does not want the stigmata to be known. He does not want his hands to be seen as being totally punctured, he doesn't want his feet to be totally punctured and, as he said, it can't correspond exactly with the Lord's because that would be cheating. He just came and our Lord put the sword into his feet and into his hands, but he also offers the sword. The sword comes down upon him, the stigmata is the sword. At the same time they're interlocked, can't separate the stigmata and the sword. So the sword. He says that I will take on the sword for priests who are bad.
Speaker 1:So the sword meaning Mary, the suffering and the pain. Is that what you mean when you say you cannot separate the sword from the stigmata? Yes, explain that just a little bit and the word empath that you used. You might want to just talk about that just a little bit, what that means. You said Padre Pio was the opposite of a narcissist, right? So he's one that's going to give himself totally away instead of grasping and taking, right? You know, we see these saints through the centuries that will do this, that will suffer for souls. It's amazing the pain that they take on, the sickness that they take on. Padre Pio, just again for our audience. That's wondering. He accepted the stigmata. He just didn't want people to see it in public. He wanted to suffer on his own, without any notoriety, right? And so when it appeared and it was outside, where everybody could see it, he was actually embarrassed to show people, people that he would try to cover it up, didn't he?
Speaker 2:Yes, so the sword happens pretty early on in his priesthood.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so tell us a bit. I got the sword back here, so I want to hear how does that work?
Speaker 2:Because that's something new to me, that's something new.
Speaker 2:Jack. It's very, very important because the thing is that with Padre Pio, what is invisible, what we don't see, is sometimes more important than what we actually see with our eyes. Because so his priesthood and the stigmata are like this they're totally interlinked. Just a few weeks after his ordination, jesus and Mary come and they pierce his hands and they pierce his feet. So he's feeling the pains of crucifixion and he says I will suffer everything, but you need to make these invisible, because it's hard for him. I mean, he's being compared to the Christ and that's where he's an empath. He wants to relieve suffering and he wants to give to other people. He doesn't want to be held up as the special person who's got the wounds. So it happens very early on. It doesn't even happen a month after he's ordained. He's ordained to the priesthood when he's 23. He's ordained because they don't think that he's going to live much longer and he's sickly. But they don't understand the sickness because it's demonic. The demons are attacking him, you see. And then he's not ordained that long.
Speaker 2:When there is a mystical vision with the Lord and the Lord says to him these priests are hurting me, they are desecrating the Eucharist. And those of us who know, I mean every tiny, tiny crumb of the Eucharist. It's, you know, it's the Lord himself who's giving himself in that Eucharist. And then he says to the sword so it's a mystical vision that Father Padre Agostino recorded, because Agostino was witness to Padre Pio having this vision. He says to the Lord, there's a sword that's meant to fall on the priests who are bad. I will take on that sword, let it fall on me, and it falls on Padre Pio.
Speaker 2:And this is where it gets very complicated, because, you know, that's when he's a young man, jack, that's when he's a young man Later in the 60s, he complains about the sword. He complains, you know, he has all these health problems, all these people coming to him, he's being persecuted, he's being accused of what, no, he's being. He really is, and people are complaining that he's grumpy and angry, and yet he's taking on the sword for the bad priests. So he does talk about the start of his priesthood and at the end he talks about the sword.
Speaker 1:And the sword is the sword, the pain that he's taken on. It's a real sword.
Speaker 2:It's a real sword that he took within himself and that was cutting his insides. It was actually tearing apart his insides and you have this in the book. I have this in the book and that's where there's aspects of the invisible stigmata that are very, very, very real. Because I couldn't do it, I can write about it. I'm just basically a reporter, but could I take on a sword like that? He says it's one thing when you're 23, going on 24 to take on a sword, take on this thing. But then later in his life he's talking about the fact that the sword is cutting his insides and it's very hard.
Speaker 1:So the sword is not something that is visible to anybody, including Padre Pio. This is an interior sword that's is visible to anybody, including Padre Pio. This is an interior sword that's doing damage to him, that's causing pain.
Speaker 2:That's cutting his insides and that's why he does get very upset with people who come towards him who do not have a genuine disposition. That's why people talk about him as being angry or being grumpy. I have never, ever, considered Padre Pio grumpy or angry, but he's offering up an intense amount of pain.
Speaker 1:People don't realize it. I mean, can you imagine when you don't feel good and people are coming up to you and they want to touch you, and especially when they don't have? You know your real concern for you inside just because you're famous or you know they heard about you and so he knows this. I remember John Paul talking about the same thing. You know that people sometimes would just they didn't really have a faith. You know, he was just the Pope. So they wanted to see the Pope, you know, and he would. That would really hurt. You know he would be there, he would, he would take it on, he would show up even when he had Parkinson's and he was really sick.
Speaker 1:John Paul II, he also suffered for people too, in his own way, and I remember how he said that. So you can understand right, I don't feel good, I'm taking on all this pain. Nobody understands it and people without a real concern for me or the faith or for Jesus Christ are coming up and making a spectacle of meeting me and I would get a little mad at that. You know you lose your patience, don't you, mary?
Speaker 2:You lose your patience and say and there's often there was times and I wanted to bring this out in the book is that there's times when he was accused of being angry or being irritable or losing his temper, when actually that's not what happened. Sometimes he had a hard truth to tell someone, not what happened. Sometimes he had a hard truth to tell someone and he wasn't angry. They were angry, but the sword he takes on when he's a young priest. He takes on that sword and he talks about it later in his life and that's why it was so important to me to bring forth everything he said as a priest and the sword that he took on and that was cutting his insides. I couldn't do that really.
Speaker 1:So where did you? I want you know I look I haven't read everything. I'm not an expert on Padre Pio. I pray to him and I wear his the wristband for forever around my. You know, pray, hope and don't worry, and I talk to him all the time, but I never heard about the sword. Worry and I talked to him all the time, but I never heard about the sword. So where did you first hear of that? I don't know if that's. Is that something that everybody knows about, mary, or is that something that you found? How did you come across that?
Speaker 2:So he had two spiritual fathers, agostino and Benedetto, and Agostino listened in on the ecstasy that he was having with the Lord and it was when I reviewed that Okay.
Speaker 1:I reviewed later, so that was his writings that came out in his writings.
Speaker 2:Yes, that's. The thing is that, look, jack, I'm from a poor background and it was basically just working very hard and getting the money and getting these books from Italy and then translating them.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, so they weren't even in English.
Speaker 2:No.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 2:Yes. So he talks about the sword and that he's offering up. So initially, when Padre Pio is ordained, he says I want to be a perfect victim and I want to offer it up for the souls in purgatory. Obviously, you know. But then the Lord leads him to offering it up for bad priests, for priests, and we both know. We both know what I'm talking about. We both know about the clerical abuse. We both know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, is it mostly sexual abuse that you're referring to, or all kinds of different things?
Speaker 2:I think it's all kinds of different things, but he's talking about the fact that there is liturgical abuse. So when he's having the ecstasy that he tells God, the Father, let the sword that's meant to go for the bad priest let that go on me. He's talking about the fact that they are abominations. There's liturgical abuses.
Speaker 1:So again for our, especially our young audience, when you say liturgical abuses, give them a little sense, Mary, of what that means.
Speaker 2:Well, in the ecstasy where Padre Pio takes on the sword for bad priests, he's talking about the fact that they don't treat the Holy Eucharist with Jew reverence, like our Lord has been so incredibly good to us in giving himself in this Eucharist. And if you do not eat my blood, if you do not eat my flesh and drink my blood, you have no life within you. But he was very, very hard on his fellow priests.
Speaker 1:Was it their lack of belief that was causing that liturgical abuse? Would you say, mary? Is that what it was for those priests? Again, I'm trying to get a sense of what that liturgical abuse would be. Is it their lack of belief that Jesus is in the Eucharist? Is that part of that?
Speaker 2:I have to say no, jack, I don't actually believe that, because I think that they do know, they know that they know.
Speaker 1:So it's just it was not being reverent. I mean, is that so? If they knew what they were doing, why wouldn't you know where does the liturgical abuse come from on their end that God was so angry about?
Speaker 2:Well, he gives himself to us in the host, and it's not just reverence, it's worship. It's lack of worship for the Lord, our God. Our Lord is giving himself to us, our Lord is giving himself to us and it's a sacrifice. Every mass is Calvary, every single mass. We're at the foot of the cross and I think, just relying on the ecstasy that Padre Pio had, where he says that I will take the sword, because he says that there were abominations within the sacristy, and that basically means, jack, that they weren't upholding the Lord, their God, in the host, and we have to say Lord, I am at your disposal, lord, and the thing is that just treating the host with carelessness, Isn't that something?
Speaker 1:I grew up in the 60s here in the United States. You know the late 50s something I grew up in the 60s here in the United States. You know the late 50s, 60s, 70s, and we had the priestly abuse, the sexual abuse cases here in the United States. It was terrible and you had it in Ireland. And those abuses many, many people lost their faith from that, many people, you know that, lost their faith and walked away from the church because thinking that you know, how could this be? You know Satan is alive and well in this world, isn't he? And even today.
Speaker 1:So when you are talking about Padre Pio and some of our younger viewers, you know how could they pray to Padre Pio? You know they're going to get your book. We're going to put your book. Hold your book up, because I don't have a copy. Mary Cenk, hold your book. Hold your book up because I don't have a copy. Mary Jank, hold your book, let's make sure we see it. Hold it, let's see. So, padre Pio and you, the Epic Story of Spiritual Fatherhood by Mary O'Regan. Thank you, and we'll make sure we put that in the show notes. So how can we learn, then, about praying to Padre Pio. You know, if they get your book, they're going to learn more about him.
Speaker 2:Yes, and especially for lay people, especially for people who are called to the married stage or who are not called to religious life, because unfortunately, with Padre Pio, people have taken some of his advice that was meant totally for the cloistered or totally for the priesthood, and they've like, for sake of argument, just about eating or dressing. If I may go there, jack, sure, so I wanted to. I could go anywhere with this, sorry, yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:My mind is just telling you know, I'm just so excited and I'm just so honored and so just very, very, very great honor. So thank you very much for this, for giving me this platform. But you know, when he sometimes okay. So about eating, he said to the lady who was from a very wealthy background and she had a sedentary lifestyle, and he said to her always try to eat less. She has no exercise. But then, correspondingly, with Mary Pyle Mary Pyle eats three dinners a day because she's doing the work of three people a day with Mary Pyle. Mary Pyle eats three dinners a day because she's doing the work of three people a day, mary Pyle.
Speaker 1:And again, for people that don't know, mary Pyle. She was an American who lived and built a house close by Padre Pio and became probably his, at least one of his very closest friends right and actually took care of him kind of like a sister, maybe a mother or a sister, certainly like a relative, and it was a beautiful, beautiful story.
Speaker 2:Yes, so Mary Pyle was born in Manhattan and she was born on Fifth Avenue and she was born into incredible wealth. So just an example where Padre Pio was kind of you know wealth. So just an example where Padre Pio was kind of you know. Her mother would send her these very elegant dresses and she had a very lavish gold watch and Padre Pio told her, you know what about that gold watch? But he might have also been doing it for her safety. We sometimes think that, you know, you see, the thing is that she had a heart of gold and she would give to anyone who asked her for anything. But Padre Pio wanted her to sort of make her wealth, her extremely lavish upbringing, just to kind of make that a little bit less, because unfortunately not everyone who came to San Giovanni Rotondo had good intentions. There was a lot of con artists.
Speaker 1:Yeah, there to rob people and pick pockets and all kinds of people. It's a real world out there, isn't it In this little place in?
Speaker 2:southern Italy that it wasn't. It's not always about attraction or about he did want her to kind of make her wealth a little bit under the radar, because she could have been easily taken advantage of yes, uh, you know, she helped, uh padre appeal with a lot of things, including I, I believe, to to help him get his hospital and stuff started down there.
Speaker 1:and my father sent a check after the war, sent a check for $5. And he always says, jack, don't tell him how much it is, because that's all the money he had at that time. And he sent Padre Pio a check for $5, and I was just looking to see if I had it here. Maybe I could find it. But anyways, the check came back and Padre Pio signed it, signed the check, and it came back and somewhere I have that check and if I could find it I'll put it in the show notes here. But anyways, we want to hear from you now. So you were talking about so he would get down on eating and dressing and stuff, but sometimes we take it out of context. Is that the point you're trying to make?
Speaker 2:That's the point I'm trying to make is that you know, it's just that for lay people he was just generally a little bit more I don't want to say liberal, but he was just a bit more forgiving. And you know, mary was doing the work of three people, so she loved her Italian meals and she was eating a lot. She was doing the work of three people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And sometimes it happens that, like a friend of mine got pregnant and she said Mary, I can't do this advice that Padre Pio is saying that they always have to eat less. You know, pregnant ladies like to eat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yes yes, you know. Yeah, we can't hold back then. We can't hold back then, but he meant that advice for someone who, yeah, we have to be careful not to take these things out of context, don't we? We have to be careful, we have to be careful.
Speaker 2:That's the thing is that, if anything, the book is about situating Padre Pio's advice in context.
Speaker 2:Because, there's certain things that he was absolutist. Absolutist about the Eucharist, our Lady, approaching confession with a sincere conscience. But you know, there was other things. I mean, I was told before the Padre Pio you have to wear black stockings all the time. Okay, but then I felt that this was a bit of an incongruity because he married women who were wearing a full bridal dress but they weren't wearing black stockings. Then I saw that was where the real work, jack. That's where the real work came in for the biography, because it was about what he meant for the lay people like me and people who were cloistered and people who were to the priestly state, and he was.
Speaker 1:He was harder on his priests and nuns yeah, yeah he was harder on them, yeah, but yet he, because he felt that they were given the love of the lord he still had a good sense of humor too, though I I know he liked to tell you know he had a good sense of humor too, though I know he liked to tell you know he had a good sense of humor also. He liked to tell some jokes once in a while and he'd sit down for dinner and some of the priests that were there and wrote about him and talked about him later on said, oh yeah, he liked to kid around a little bit, he liked to have some fun too. So it's good always to see, it's good to see. But you know, when he would celebrate Mass, it was really something. You could still watch some old videos of him celebrating Mass. It was something he would go into an almost like an ecstasy sometimes, and sometimes he would bleed. Wouldn't he Tell people about? When he was saying Mass Mary? He would.
Speaker 1:You know you mentioned earlier and I think this is important for young people when we walk into a Mass, we enter into and make present that one-time historical event. So we're walking, like you said, we're really walking to Calvary here. We're really watching Jesus give himself to the Father for our benefit. Well, padre Pio was a priest on the altar in Persona Christi in the person of Christ. But unlike these priests that weren't reverent enough, he was the opposite and he was taking on all that pain. I mean, people could see him suffering with Christ as he was celebrating Mass.
Speaker 2:Yes, and he also did, as you say, have a sense of humor about it. But, if I may, we need to connect here with John Paul II, st John Paul II.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:We need to connect here, yeah. And so people ask me an awful lot why he didn't tell him directly he was going to be Pope. And that's true. He didn't say to him you will be Pope. But, jack, he treated him as though he were already Pope, because Padre Pio could see the soul and he knew what the soul was going to be. And you know, when he's going through all the stigmata, he has all these high, high flown people from the Vatican who are you know one upmanship, and they're asking him to tell him about the stigmata. And he said, no, you don't have the documentation. I can't answer you. The only person who can ask and receive regarding the stigmata is the Pope. So when John Paul II asks him which wound causes the most pain, he doesn't ask for his letter of documentation, he just tells him directly he's the person who bears the wounds of Christ, talking to someone who's going to be the vicar of Christ. And he says he answers John Paul directly.
Speaker 1:And when you're actually getting in, you're reading Well, I was going to ask, I was going to say didn't John Paul have that conversation with Padre Pio when John Paul was a young priest initially?
Speaker 2:Yes, so John Paul II was in his 20s when he met, he stayed with Padre Pio, right?
Speaker 1:So, yeah, go ahead. I want people to hear that story a little bit. We're going to run out of time soon, but we got to tell it a little bit fast but I want people to hear that as a young priest, he went to visit Padre Pio and actually stayed with him. I don't know how long, but at least a few days, right, if not longer.
Speaker 2:Yes, so this was in the 1940s when it was very difficult to go to Padre Pio because everything was bombed. I mean you had to climb over streams, you had to climb over rivers. I mean it was just very difficult to go to Padre Pio at that time. He goes to Padre Pio as a young priest and he's in his 20s and he's talking to Padre Pio and Padre Pio hears his confession and everything else and he asks Padre Pio so just two things. First, padre Pio did not tell him directly you will be Pope, and John Paul II was actually adamant about that, that there would be no actual. How does one say it wasn't a direct you will be Pope? But Jack, he treated him as though he were already Pope.
Speaker 1:Because, even as a young priest, even as a young wow.
Speaker 2:Yes, he was a young handsome. I mean, come on, I mean, john Paul II was gorgeous, young handsome. I mean, come on, I mean, john Paul II was gorgeous, absolutely gorgeous. John Paul II was just a beautiful man and he asked Padre Pio what is the wound that causes you the most suffering?
Speaker 1:And without missing a beat. It was a surprise. It was a little surprise too, wasn't it? It wasn't the wound that you would think. So go ahead, mary, finish that. It wasn't the wound that you would think, so go ahead, mary, finish that.
Speaker 2:And people say, oh, with the crown of thorns, but that's plural. The crown of thorns is many wounds, it's plural. He asked Padre Pio a very specific question what is the wound that causes you the most? And Padre Pio said it was the shoulder wound because he has to bear the cross. And we know that from the fact that Padre Pio's tunic and we know that when they would change the bed, they would change the linen on the bed. The bed was completely covered with blood.
Speaker 1:See, and he said that shoulder wound not only gave him the most pain but it never really healed. He said, you know, it was always an open wound and never really even looked at. I don't think he even acknowledged that wound to doctors and stuff on a regular basis. Right, they would look at his other wounds, but that was not something that he made public to people at all.
Speaker 2:He didn't, and that's where we come in with John Paul II, because he treated him as though he were already Pope, because the only person who can ask and receive those answers without documentation the only person is the Pope.
Speaker 1:Wow, wow, wow.
Speaker 2:Because you know he's Jack and I know we're coming up to the time here. Patrick Peter's life could have been so much easier if he had schmoozed, if he had charmed the same bad priests who wanted to ask all sorts of questions. But he doesn't, because he knows certain people are coming after him asking all these questions about the stigmata and claiming and this is where the persecutions come in they're claiming that they have answers from Padre Pio and that they've examined the stigmata. No, they didn't. As Padre Pio said, you need the authorization from the Pope. I will not. You don't have the authorization to ask or to examine the stigmata.
Speaker 2:It's a standalone. And I'm a traditional catholic. I go to the latin mass and I'm totally devoted to our lady, as much as I can be as a poor sinner. But the only person who can ask and receive without authorization is the pope. And so when john saint john paul ii, asks him what is, he gives it unreservedly, just tells him, and he goes further than saying you will be Pope. He treats him as though he is actually Pope.
Speaker 1:Yes, how beautiful. That's a good way to start to wind down, mary. So tell us one more thing on your mind before we go, before we let you go, and again we'll get the book in the show notes. When I'm editing this, we'll put it up on the screen again. Is there one last thing you want to tell our audience about the book that's stuck in your mind, or something about? What does Padre Pio want you to tell us on your way out here, mary?
Speaker 2:I think it's just that for the American audience. I'm here, I'm in Los Angeles, I have a very deep calling to be here. I think that if you're an American, Padre Pio loves you. He did the last thing is that Padre Pio wanted all Americans as his spiritual children. So if you're an American, you have a special intro to him because because they gave his, they gave his father this amazing you know he was, he was beloved. His father didn't speak english and he came over here and he was earning money and padre pio never forgot that. He never forgot that his father was treated exceptionally well by the Americans and that he loved all Americans as his spiritual children and that he made a special request of God, the Father I want all Americans as my spiritual children and anyone, anyone who's an American who asks it, will be granted to you.
Speaker 2:So, especially if I mean I could go into a million different things, because I've read over 300 books, I've tried to learn Italian and the translation, as we discovered about the sword, it's very valuable, but you don't need that. I'm just. You know how does one say, I'm just the conveyor belt. But if you're an American, especially Jack, you're asking for this last thing. I need to address the problem of fatherlessness. Many people don't have a father.
Speaker 1:Yes, thank you. They've grown up without a dad. Forty-three percent of every child born in the United States is born out of wedlock. Today, I'm outside of Chicago. I child born in the United States is born out of wedlock. Today, I'm outside of Chicago. I was born in Chicago. 80% of the certain minority populations, 80% are born out of wedlock. Now, and you wonder why we have such a problem. It's unbelievable and it's almost impossible. We talk about it on this show often, mary, that it's almost impossible to put our spiritual feet back underneath us without an intact family, isn't it so? Finish that thought. You know what was on your mind when you say that. I just wanted to reiterate how important that point is to our audience.
Speaker 2:Yes, it is important, and the thing is that we're being taught, especially as millennials and more especially the Gen Z, that fatherhood is dispensable, that fatherhood is nothing that you know. They show up, they do, and especially with the porn culture. So that's what I wanted.
Speaker 1:That's a demonic culture, you know it's a demonic culture.
Speaker 1:It's a demonic culture. Take your father away. Here's the thing, right. Satan doesn't have his own clay. God creates and he creates good, and Satan doesn't have his own clay. He can only take what God has created good and twist and distort it, and that's what happens. That's what happens in all these pornographic, these gender ideologies, abortion. All of these things are twisting and distorting of what God has created good in, and it's really sick. It makes your stomach sick and that's why we need saints like Padre Pio to pray for, to watch over us.
Speaker 1:St Michael, as we mentioned, right before we came on the show, we prayed the St Michael prayer. We came on the show, we prayed the St Michael prayer. St Michael also had a big sword in many of his pictures, and so all of these things are very, very important to us. You know, I feel something, mary, with when you talk about Padre Pio and his love for America and Americans. I think something you know America has to lead us out of this carnage that we're in right now, this spiritual warfare right now. And I believe you know Donald Trump is not Jesus Christ. We don't believe that, but he is standing up against what we call this deep state.
Speaker 2:I'm a total trumper. I mean I'm totally, and I pray for him all the time yeah so do I. You know I pray for him all the time. Yeah, so do I, you know I pray for him all the time. But regarding Padre Pio, because he's the father that people didn't have- yeah, yeah, yeah, thank you for that. And now we have an.
Speaker 1:American pope too. And so, right, we have an American pope, so that's the other bookend right now. That's why I think, right now, what you're saying is special. Now we have Padre Pio. For those of you that are listening that don't have fathers, right, mary? They can pray to Padre Pio as their spiritual father. You have that on the cover of your book, don't you?
Speaker 2:Yes, because this is the thing is that we were a bit Jack, we're going to with Sophia Press, we're going to be a bit bold, we're going to be a bit bold, okay. And here in Los Angeles, I meet all these Gen Z and all these they've never met their dad and you know, they've never even met their father.
Speaker 1:Are these people that you just meet Because?
Speaker 2:I do the same thing I do the same thing.
Speaker 1:I mean we meet them in our apostolate. You know, people, that.
Speaker 2:I'm out there, jack, I'm out there. I mean we have to go to the parish and we have to meet people and bring them to the church. I mean, I just have this big heart that, especially for these Gen Z people who have no idea that they even have a dad, they have no idea that they actually are created by way of the fact that they had a father. They have no idea about this, and that's where I hate to say it. Okay, I would have to be a bit blunt about this, but that's where this whole gender thing comes in, because they don't know that they have a father and then they want to become, you see, a girl, they want to become a man because they know that they were created by way of a woman and a man.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, you know, you have situations like you know we've talked I just had somebody on talking about IVF and you're right. There are young people today that were born in, you know, through IVF, that grow up, say, with two mothers and have no idea that they have a father. You know, and this is really sad. Now, later on, they have to understand that they have a father. But can you?
Speaker 1:You know, john Paul wrote in a familiaris consortio and also letter to families and other places. He said when you come into situations like this, he said, the pain can often stay with you for your whole life. Right, and so our heart has to go out to these young people. You're right, and that's why, again, we get back to Claymore and Miletus Christi. This is an apostolate for young people. This is Gen Z men who are waking up and saying you know, there has to be something more. There has to be something more. They voted for Donald Trump not because he's Jesus, but because they saw a hero in their life, right, somebody that's standing up against some of this evil. Right, and again, they're not looking at him as a savior. We have a savior already.
Speaker 2:I pray for him all the time. I'm praying for Donald Trump all the time.
Speaker 1:But here's my last point on that. So what's happening? This is a wonderful time, mary, to evangelize, because these young people are waking up. They're understanding that something is terribly wrong. Right, they've been exposed to pornography, they've been lied to about all these things, and now this is a great time to invite them into the church right, to invite them into and expose them and introduce them to saints like Padre Pio, to our Blessed Mother and, of course, to Jesus Christ himself, who will lead us to the Father and fill us with the Holy Spirit. So this is a good time to be alive, but it's a battle out there, isn't it, mary?
Speaker 2:It is but Sophia Press who gave me this great honor of publishing my book.
Speaker 1:Okay, Jack, hold it up a little bit right in the middle so I can see this again the story of spiritual, an epic story of spiritual fatherhood, yeah thank you, mary.
Speaker 2:So we're being Jack, we're going to be bold and we're going to say we're going to be bold and we're going to say look, it wasn't fair what happened to you. You were conceived like so many. I just love them. That's why I said to the Lord I want to be in Los Angeles.
Speaker 2:There was a deep calling here and I helped many young, these Gen Z, and they don't know their dad and he was basically just okay. We have to say he was just. You know, he was good for what he was good for. I hear that a lot. He was good for what he was good for. We won't know what we're talking about. We don't have to get graphic, but we're being bold and it's an epic story of spiritual fatherhood, because some of these people, they'll never be able to find their father. Maybe their father is dead, but Padre Pio will look after them and he'll care for them. And that's why we have to shout it from the rooftops Jack, we have to just say we're here for you and we're only flesh and bone. We're only flesh and bone, but Padre Pio as the spiritual father will look after them, and that's the thing is that we have to.
Speaker 2:I don't like this. Yes, this lack of hope in the millennials and the Gen Z. Because guess what, jack, the minute I mention Padre Pio, the minute they see it, they see that he has a heart for them and they gravitate and they lock on to him so, so much.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, yes, john Paul wrote in Dilecti Amici. He wrote this Dilecti Amici before World Youth Days 1985. And it means, dear friends, dilecti Amici. And so he wrote it to young people. And one of the first things in there he goes where is the hope Question mark? He goes you are the hope, you are the hope. So you're speaking exactly to what we're writing about and what we're talking about. So thank you for that. We're going to get your book. We're going to see if we can get everybody to get a copy Mary right and copy Mary right.
Speaker 1:And I'm just going to show you one thing real fast. So I wrote about this little check that my dad wrote right. And so in those days, if you wrote a check for those of you who only know this digital age, and when I was a kid, if I wrote a check, you would get all those checks back. In a month or so After somebody cashed a check, they would sign it, they would bring it to the bank. The bank then would sign, would send it back to my bank, who would give it to us every month. We would get all our checks back, all our canceled checks they're called so. Anyways, my dad got the canceled check. So I'm going to show you the back of this check with Padre Pio's signature. So this is a, this is a check, and here it says Padre Pio.
Speaker 2:And it says Reverend Padre Pio.
Speaker 1:It says and, and so I. It's like I think it's what they call a second class relic and or third class relic, one of them. But for for us and our family it's a big deal, and so that's from my. My father sent in a five5 check to help Padre Pio build his hospital.
Speaker 2:And, as Padre Pio said, anyone who gave that gave small donation. It was the most handsome, most handsome. He always said that, the most handsome. But, jack, if I may ask you, so many things are on my mind at this moment in time. Forgive me, but what's your father's name?
Speaker 1:His name is, we call him Jack, so he's always gone by Jack, but his real name is Adolf Riggard, but he goes by Jack. Also, he never knew his name was Adolf Mary. Here's why. So my grandfather, his dad, was Adolf, but during World War II, you know, we had Adolf Hitler right, and so nobody wanted to be called Adolf, you know. So he was in the—actually, he learned that his name was Adolf in the army because they were saying—they were calling out mail. People had mail and they were overseas, in the Philippines, getting ready for the invasion of Japan. And they said Adolf Riggert, which my last name is Riggert, and my dad said well, my last name is Riggert. And my dad said well, my last name is Riggert, but my name is Jack Riggert. And he goes. Well, we only have Adolph Riggert here. And so my dad went up and it was from his mom, you know and so he found out his name was Adolph Riggert, you know.
Speaker 2:But he went by, jack.
Speaker 1:He went by Jack, so yes, he's nearly 100.
Speaker 2:May I ask his birthday?
Speaker 1:His birthday is November 19th.
Speaker 2:So the month of the Holy Souls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the month of the Holy Souls.
Speaker 2:Yeah, November is very important to me, the Holy Souls, they're the love of my life really, and especially with Padre Pio. He said that you know, more souls from purgatory come to my mass than living. Isn't that wonderful. It's very great.
Speaker 1:Well, thank you so much, Mary. It's been such a pleasure to have you here. Stay safe there in LA. I used to live there many, many years ago.
Speaker 2:You did? What point did you live in?
Speaker 1:I lived in Marina del Rey.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I used to ride my bicycle up in the Palisades all the time, so I haven't been out there since all that burned down. What a tragedy. I had an office I would work in Santa Monica in those days so yeah, I used to cover the coast from San Diego up into Seattle and I would come up and down the coast and we had a good time, you know doing doing doing business, mary, you know.
Speaker 1:So if I I don't, I don't get out. At that time, I was in the financial service business. We were launching what was called what are called exchange traded funds, and so I worked for a financial service company.
Speaker 2:That was a lot of fun Because, jack, you and me have something in common, guess what? You're a professional chef, and your parents tried the restaurant business.
Speaker 1:My parents were both professional chefs, and so were my grandparents.
Speaker 2:My parents tried the restaurant business too. I don't mention that often, but my parents tried the restaurant business too. It's bloody hard man.
Speaker 1:I would never do it again. It was a lot of work. You know we work. You know like we're like slaves. You know like slaves, you know very, very tough. You have to. It has to be in your blood in order to do it. You know to do it well, it has to be in your blood, you know. And because it's a big sacrifice, yes, yes. Well, god bless you. We'll talk again. Goodbye everyone. Hey, thanks for joining us today. Go out and take a look at Mary's book in the show notes. Bye-bye.