Don Marcello
Stanzione
Il Nuovo
Arengario
October 9,
2022
Padre Pio with Father Jean Derobert
The French writer,
Yves Chiron, in his biography, cites the case of an American soldier, upon
landing in Italy [during the Second World War]. This Catholic man was black and
hailed from New York. In terms of English he only spoke the Harlem
slang-dialect, incomprehensible to anyone who had not grown up up in that black neighborhood.
As soon as the soldier knelt before Padre Pio, the Friar began speaking this
slang as if he had done so all his life.
But Padre Pio
possessed also a charism that made of him a miraculous confessor: clairvoyance
and the discernment of spirits, that extremely rare faculty of reading consciences like open books.
[…] Padre Pio
hinted on several occasions that he got his information [about souls] from the
same source.
[ So it happened then that ] a certain Father Derobert, a young seminarian
in Rome, had the opportunity in 1955 to go to San Giovanni Rotondo. It was not
without reticence that he embarked on this journey. Recalling perhaps the
accusations that Padre Pio was subjected to in the 1920s, a prelude to when he would be victimized later under the pontificate of
John XXIII, Derobert thought he would be dealing with a poor deluded fellow or
a con-man. This did not prevent him from wanting to test the Capuchin's famous talents
as a confessor. The first surprise this young man (who was a little too sure of
himself) had in the presence of Padre Pio, was that he immediately lost all his
boldness and was dumbstruck and found himself unable to remember what he wanted
to confess. Padre Pio let him catch his breath for a moment, then set him back
on track with such precision that it could not have been the result of
natural discernment - harshly highlighting the faults that Derobert had never
accused himself of - more out of negligence as he had not measured their
gravity and extent.
'With tears in his eyes, he showed me the gravity of certain acts...gravity that, to tell the truth, had never occurred to me. But upon hearing these things from the mouth of Padre Pio, they took on their true dimensions. 'This is serious...it's serious!' And he wept. I was in great difficulty, especially since everything he said was true. He also gave me precise details that I had totally forgotten about. Sometimes one acts on reflex, with no sense of guilt whatsoever.'
This seminarian then, so smug and proud, who had gone there to amuse himself at the expense of a poor Italian Friar (suspected of deception by some high dignitaries in the Church), would then go on to receive the most important lesson of his life. After receiving absolution, he remained there stupified and distraught, not understanding what had happened to him. Padre Pio then asked him: 'Do you beleive in your Guardian Angel?'
In
the 1950s, devotion to the Guardian Angel was for many Catholics largely
outdated, judged childish, ridiculous and embarrassing. Nonetheless, the French seminarian was so
impressed by Padre Pio’s personality that he dared not laugh in his face. However, as a kind of provocation or because
he was so taken aback, he responded with the first silly thing that came to
mind: ‘Um…I’ve never seen him!’
Then on behalf of his Angel who had refrained from doing it for such a long time, Padre Pio administered a resounding slap to the lad's cheeks and said to him: Look carefully; he is there - and he is very beautiful!'
The seminarian Derobert, his cheeks red and stinging from the slap, was so persuaded of the truthfulness of Padre Pio's words that he turned round quickly, almost expecting to find the Heavenly Spirit right behind him: 'I for sure saw nothing, but the Father had the expression in his eyes of one seeing something. He was not looking into empty space. 'Your Guardian Angel is here protecting you! Pray well to him!' Padre Pio's eyes were luminous, reflecting the light of my Angel.'
After that Derobert never again trifled with his Guardian Angel. On the contrary, when he became a priest he wrote several books on Catholic devotion to heavenly spirits.
Source: Padre Pio e l’Angelo Custode del seminarista – Il Nuovo
Arengario
Translation: Contributor Francesca Romana
