Rev. Fr Alfonso Picone
Rector/Founder

Pia Ramadanovic
President

Armando Cerquozzi
Vice President

Qua Le
Treasurer

Theresa Petrone
Book Keeper

Rose Gresh
Secretary

Father Gian Domenico Flora
Vice Rector/Rosary

Emilio DeAngelis
Choir Director

A former Mason who was converted by Padre Pio received this letter from a friend: "My dear Alberto, the Lord has infinite ways! You crossed my path, you showed me the right road, I took heed and climbed up the steep slope of Monte Gargano where I found the Master; He received me with joy because He saw that I was blind, and He listened smiling to the doubts that were in my mind. With simple words but with most profound wisdom He demolished one by one all of the theories that filled my mind, and I found myself without arguments to oppose him; He stripped my soul bare and by showing me Our Lord's sublime teaching He reopened the eyes of my soul; I was able to see the true light, my inmost heart was touched and I knew the meaning of Faith. I now enjoy true peace of soul, I now know the true God. For this I am grateful to you, for I owe you so much, and to Padre Pio I owe everything!"

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One day a poor man came with a very sick child; he had consulted a number of doctors and had spent much money in the search of a cure. He brought him to the Padre while he was still feverish, hoping for a miracle. When he entered the confessional Padre Pio chased him away with these words: "What are you doing in front of God's tribunal if you don't believe? Go! Go away! You are a communist!" The man went back to his lodgings with the intention of taking his child home, but a professor who happened to be there persuaded him to return to the Father and confess his sins, at the same time renouncing the evil teachings of Moscow. In the afternoon he returned to the monastery Church with the intention of going to confession. As soon as he saw the Father he threw himself weeping at his feet, unable to utter a word. Padre Pio raised him up from the ground and said: "Now that's the way! A good scrubbing is what you need, but you have to have the will to be clean. You have done the right thing and your son will get well. Now come to confession." The poor man wept during his confession, being very deeply moved. The child was cured physically just as his father was cured spiritually.

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A woman from Pesaro, the wife of a workman, brought her deaf and dumb child to Padre Pio. He cured her instantly. In an outburst of gratitude the woman took a gold chain from the child's neck, the only object of value that she owned, and gave it to Padre Pio for the Virgin. When she reached home she told everything to her husband who flew into a rage at the offering she had made to the Father: he said that she should have chosen some other article rather than the gift that he himself had made to his daughter. The next morning they found the chain on the bed table.

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Signor Federico Abresch was born into a Lutheran family in Germany. At the time of his marriage to a Catholic girl, he became a Catholic more as an accommodation to his wife's religion than out of sincere conviction. Hearing of Padre Pio as a great miracle worker, he went to visit him with skeptical curiosity. When he approached Padre Pio for confession, he was told of certain grave sins that were omitted in previous confessions. Abresch stated to Padre Pio that he thought confession was good 'psychologically' but he did not believe in the divinity of the sacrament. But, deeply moved by the fact that he had read his past life, he now believed. Signor Abresch stated:

"I was struck dumb with the overwhelming realization that I had come in contact with the supernatural. Then concealing his knowledge of my entire past under the form of questions he enumerated with precision and clarity all of my mortal sins. He made me understand, with most impressive words, the whole of their gravity, adding in a tone of voice that I shall never forget: 'You have launched a hymn to Satan, whereas Jesus, in His tremendous love, has broken Himself for you.' He then gave me a penance and absolved me. From that day to this I have been to daily Mass and Communion. Both I and my wife have become Franciscan tertiaries. Not only do I believe in the dogmas of the Catholic Church, but in everything she teaches. And I could not lose this faith without also losing my life."

Signor Abresch, like so many other converts of Padre Pio, decided to move to San Giovanni Rotondo where he could be near to the man who had completely changed his life. He became, so to speak, the official photographer of Padre Pio, and most of the pictures one sees of the famous stigmatist were taken by him. Both he and his son, Pio, served his Mass many times. Eventually his son became a priest in fulfillment of a prophecy of Padre Pio. According to this prophecy the boy was not only to be a priest but would someday be placed in a high position in the Church. Msgr. Pio Abresch is presently working in the Vatican. Frederico Abresch died in August, 1969, within a year of the death of his great spiritual father.