Post #5868

“Padre Pio had an unpleasant duty to perform. He was talking with a recently-widowed woman. Her husband had once left her & their two children to live with another woman for over 3 years. Unexpectedly cancer had claimed his life. Before his death, after urgent appeals, he had consented to receive the last Sacraments... The woman, short & plain, finally asked the inevitable: ‘Where is his soul, Padre? I haven’t slept, worrying.’ Padre Pio watched her with troubled eyes. He could almost feel her grief filling his own heart. ‘Your husband’s soul is condemned forever,’he whispered. The woman shook her head and her eyes clouded with tears. ‘Condemned?’ Padre Pio nodded sadly. ‘When receiving the last Sacraments he concealed many sins. He had neither repentance nor a good resolution. He was also a sinner against God’s mercy, because he said he always wanted to have a share of the good things in life & then have time to be converted to God.’”(Prophet of the People, A Biography of Padre Pio, p. 158)