{"content":[{"text":"Doctor George Festa in 1919 found Pio had a scar on his breast that was not a wound but from which there were some \n drops of blood issuing. Professor Bignami found superficial wounds on his breast and hands and feet. Both doctors agreed \n that there were no deep fissures (page 100, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism). Pio’s stigmata is unsatisfactory. There \n is nothing remarkable about it (page 100, The Physical Phenomena of Mysticism).","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.015805,"width":0.986676,"height":0.06388799999999999}},{"text":"Nobody ever said he could press on each side of the wound and get his fingers to touch one another through the wound. \n Romanelli tried but assumed that his fingers would meet if he tried harder but was afraid to for Pio was in great pain (page \n 14, The Stigmata and Modern Science). But with the priest crying and struggling and wincing with the alleged pain would \n it have been done right? There is no doubt that the testimony of Romanelli is the only one that is worth examining for it is \n detailed and though not great it is the best of a bad lot. He is the leg that the pro-Pio devotees have to stand on because they \n want to believe in deep wounds. But it is a terrible witness.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.095979,"width":0.994966,"height":0.095958}},{"text":"All saints-to-be have followers who cook up ridiculous miracle stories about them and there were a lot about Pio. He never \n condemned these stories so it would be no mystery if he faked his own stigmata. He claimed that he was attacked often at \n night by demons in his cell and they fought. Demons would harm him more discreetly than that. A man who declares that \n unverifiable miracles happen is not to be trusted. There was nobody there to verify the attacks and who saw them \n happening.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.208222,"width":0.990455,"height":0.07992400000000002}},{"text":"Pio was reportedly beaten by demons at nighttime. When demons gave him bruises why couldn’t they give him the \n stigmata? Why did they make so much noise that others near Pio’s cell heard them? Why were they so keen to make him \n look like a target of evil spirits? They would only do that if he was one of their followers. It was all just a performance if \n demons were involved at all. Or perhaps Pio was the performer!","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.304431,"width":0.9723069999999999,"height":0.063888}},{"text":"Demons would not come up from Hell to kick the door and shake Pio’s bed when he could do that himself. Nobody can \n prove that Pio was not doing these poltergeist stunts himself for he was alone in the room. No God would let miracles \n happen that one could create oneself for if he would do that then we should believe in miracle-workers who accomplish \n feats that any magician can do easily. Pio was not the miracle man he had people thinking he was.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.384605,"width":0.9636250000000001,"height":0.06388800000000006}},{"text":"It is interesting that Pio who acted so determined to hide his stigmata did not gag himself to stop shouting at the demons \n and screaming so that nobody would know what was going on. He was conniving and manipulative. The fact that suspicion \n regarding the source of the wounds hangs over him shows that the faithful are dallying with demons for risks like that \n should not be taken for God says he comes first.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.464779,"width":0.9945649999999999,"height":0.063888}},{"text":"In 1964, Pio shouted out in his cell one evening at 10pm. The monks ran to his aid and found him in his cell with a gash on \n his head claiming that it was inflicted during a battle with Satan who had been trying to scrape his eyes out. Pio admitted \n that Satan could inflict wounds. Interesting. And there is no doubt that Jesus who said that you have to hide your prayers \n and good works in the Sermon on the Mount would not think much of a man who had to tell people that the Devil was to \n blame for his head wound for that is the same as saying, “I am such an important person in the Church and such a good \n man that the Devil himself came up from Hell to knock me about”. Satan would die with embarrassment if Pio had been \n going about with no eyes for it would be practically advertising Pio as a man of God. Satan was slandered. It was either a \n poltergeist that caused the wounds not Satan or Pio did it himself.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.544953,"width":0.991294,"height":0.128027}},{"text":"The Church has made no declaration on the authenticity of the miracles allegedly surrounding Pio or even his supposed \n stigmata excepting the two healing miracles that were required for the canonisation. One miracle was the cure of a woman \n with lung disease and the other was of a Italian boy who was in a coma with meningitis. That medicine is full of anomalies \n like that and doctor’s despairing predictions are sometimes disproved is conveniently forgotten.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.689266,"width":0.989517,"height":0.06388799999999994}},{"text":"John Paul II declared Pio a saint. Pio never should have been canonised. He was just the kind of man that wanted to bring \n people back to the days when unconditional obedience and self-degradation under the heels of bishops and engaging in \n physical torture was an essential part of being a Christian. That the man hasn’t caused too much evil is down to the fact that \n believers are weak in faith not down to any good influence from him.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.76944,"width":0.9958269999999999,"height":0.06388800000000006}},{"text":"FINALLY","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.849614,"width":0.084117,"height":0.01578400000000002}},{"text":"Most cases of stigmata carry indications of wilful fraud. When they are not caught out we still know they are frauds \n because God and the Devil are certainly not to blame. The stigmata convey an evil message. Normality says nobody in their \n sane senses would seek or desire the gift of the stigmata. Theology says they would and that those who do not want the \n stigmata are the crazy ones for God’s blessings are the sanest things anybody could every go after. If stigmata is not always \n fraud then some evil or mischievous spirit is behind the marks.","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.881683,"width":0.998422,"height":0.07992300000000008}},{"text":"BOOKS CONSULTED","bbox":{"left":0.0,"top":0.977892,"width":0.19115,"height":0.01578400000000002}}],"images_bbox":[],"images_bbox_not_text_overlap":[]}