The emotional ceremony reached its climax when Cardinal Diaz presented the chalice donated by the Holy Father to the Church and placed a relic of Saint Padre Pio Da Pietralcina in the altar during the dedication ceremony.
It comes from an interesting article on the dedication of the first Catholic Church in QatarPope greets Hamad on church opening
I first encountered the name of Padre Pio while driving around Italy’s spectacularly beautiful Gargano Peninsula (the spur above the heal of the boot on the Adriatic coast) in June of 2002. The Pope declared Padre Pio a saint on the 16th and his name and face were front page headline news on all of the newspapers on the newstands. It could not read the Italian text but it was pretty clear that the folks in the area were quite proud of their local Saint.Wikipedia has many interesting things to say about Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, The Capuchin Friar famous for his stigmata and the patron saint of stress relief and the January blues.
Padre Pio was assigned to Our Lady of Grace Capuchin Friary, located in the Gargano Mountains in San Giovanni Rotondo. Except for a brief time during WWI, Padre Pio remaned there until his death.
The reference to Padre Pio inspired me to post a few photos taken on that spectacular drive.
Fishing at Vieste
Clicking on the photos will take you to my Flickr photo set of photos from the Gargano Peninsula where you can see a slide show or download full size images.
Gargano Coast
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