STATUS – No
proof it is from St. Pio. This attribution is obviously a forgery / hoax.
In March
1962, Conchita of Garabandal received an anonymous typed letter dated
March 3, 1962 from the Capuchin monastery of San Giovanni in Italy.
It has been
automatically assumed St. Padre Pio sent the letter, but other than
the fact it was typed using one (or two) of the typewriters and bears
all the proper stamps from San. Giovanni, there is absolutely NO
PROOF St. Pio sent this. It has just been assumed. Even the "Garabandal News" page admits in so may words they don't have proof he sent it when they are asking people to please try and find other copies of this 'Fatima rosary letter' in the Padre Pio prayer groups so they finally have proof!
First of all, since it was
typed after 1924, we automatically know it was not from St. Pio.
St. Padre Pio
was ordered by his superiors in 1924 he was not to write to anyone,
and he obeyed his superior, never writing a letter after that date as
Fr. Charles Mortimer Carty writes:
“Letters
supposed to have been written by him after 1924 are AUTOMATICALLY
SPURIOUS (i.e automatically known as a
fake) by the very fact that Fr. Pio
scrupulously and reverently obeyed his superiors who forbade him to
write after that year.” (Source:
Rev. Fr. Charles Mortimer Carty, “Padre Pio: The Stigmatist”,
TAN, 1973).
St.
Pio would never have sent even an anonymous letter as this would
still be disobeying his superiors.
And for argument's sake, if this was a verified apparition of Our Lady to St. Pio and the superior knew about it and permitted St. Pio to send this letter out, we certainly would have thousands of copies of it spreading in all the various prayer groups, which there is no proof yet.
Also,
the letter is very strange – the first part with the message is in
Italian as would be expected, but the second part is with smudged
lettering / ink and in Spanish – which looks like an addition typed
on a different typewriter. If the writer could get a Spanish
translator for the benefit of the Spanish-speaking seers of Garabandal, why do the first part of the letter in Italian in the
first place?
Also,
the letter attempts to promote new mysteries tacked on to the Rosary
that are based on the visions of Fatima. This is a major red flag as
these 'new mysteries' are not doctrinal or Biblical based, as the
true mysteries of the Rosary are, and therefore sounds like an
attempt to distract from the real Church approved mysteries of the
Rosary.
For
instance, in the 'Fourth Mystery' we're supposed to mediate on Our
Lady giving the “Secret of Fatima” - the meditation is: “In
this fourth mystery we see how the secret of Fatima is the greatest
secret of all that she has said” - which is not doctrinal. We are
not even required to believe in the visions of Fatima for salvation.
And,
why would this 'anonymous' person send Conchita this 'Rosary of Fatima' - when
Garabandal is a completely different apparition event, unless someone
was trying to force Garabandal into acceptance by linking it to
Fatima? If Our Lady wanted new 'Fatima mysteries', why not reveal
them at Fatima, or to Sr. Lucia all those years?
People
are still angry that St. John Paul II added the actual Gospel-based
Luminous Mysteries to the Rosary, but seem okay with this
non-Scriptural addition of an anonymous writer based on an apparition that
we're not even obliged to believe in instead? Something is definitely
wrong.
One
site says St. Pio did promote this 'Fatima Rosary' among the prayer
groups, but I have found no proof of this. I have no doubt St. Pio
encouraged the traditional Rosary and mentioned Our Lady of Fatima, but as to
encouraging people to say these new 'Fatima Mysteries' is only
hearsay, which is not proof.
Beware of anyone or anything trying to supplant the traditionally approved Rosary that is approved by the Church.
Looks
like someone was up to devilish tricks at the San Giovanni post room
and got their hands on their stationary and two of their typewriters
in order to try and make Garabandal look credible. The devil can do
awful damage in a monastery as we have seen from the lives of saints
and mystics.
This
letter attributed to St. Pio is an obvious hoax.