by John L. Allen Jr.
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
New York
If All Saints Day were treated like Election Day in Italy, today’s headline would probably be: “Padre Pio takes early lead, to face run-off against St. Anthony.”
The more surprising subhead would then be, “Incumbents Jesus, Madonna drubbed.”
The result stems from a poll conducted for the weekly magazine Famiglia Christiana, sponsored by the Pauline order, and carried out by the SWG polling institute. It found that 70 percent of Italians invoke the help of the saints, a finding that suggests a strong underlying popular religiosity in Italy despite perceptions of runaway secularization in Europe.
The results were reported in the Oct. 31 issue of Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading national daily.
Reflecting the frequent gap between popular faith and official catechetical teaching, however, the same poll found that just 9 percent of Italians turn to the Blessed Virgin Mary for assistance, and only 2 percent address their intercessions to Jesus Christ.
Padre Pio, the Capuchin stigmatic and healer canonized by John Paul II on June 16, 2002, under the name Saint Pio of Pietrelcina, topped the poll, with 31 percent of Italians saying they’ve asked for his help. In second place, at 25 percent, was St. Anthony of Padua, the 13th century Franciscan who holds the record for the second-fastest canonization in Catholic history. He was declared a saint by Pope Gregory IX in 1231, just 352 days after his death.
Numerous miracles have been attributed to St. Anthony’s intercession, a point reflected in the seemingly infinite list of causes for which he is considered the patron saint: recovery of things lost, starvation, barrenness, amputees, animals, boatmen, Brazil, domestic animals, the elderly, expectant mothers, faith in the Blessed Sacrament, Ferrazzano, fishermen, harvests, horses, lower animals, mail, mariners, oppressed persons, Padua, paupers, Portugal, sailors, scholars, sterility, swineherds, Tigua Indians, travel hostesses, travelers, and watermen, to name just a few.
The rest of the field included St. Francis at 7 percent, Saint Rita and Saint Joseph at 4 percent, and Saints Gennaro, Rocco, Agatha and Gerald, along with Mother Teresa (who is not yet even canonized), at 1 percent.
Church officials in Italy breathed an air of weary familiarity with respect to the results.
“No surprise,” said Fr. Tonino Lasconi, a parish priest and author of numerous volumes on the renewal of catechesis in Italy.
“It shows that Italy is still rooted in a popular faith,” Lasconi said. “But the fact that the Madonna and Jesus are very little invoked, that the preference goes to the saints and that it’s not understood that we’re talking about different levels, is a sign that our Christians are very ignorant, despite years of catechesis and religious instruction in schools.”
The depth of the catechetical challenge facing the church, it scarcely needs to be pointed out, is suggested by the fact that these results obtain in the pope’s own backyard – in a country where the Catholic Church enjoys two national television networks, two widely read daily newspapers, saturation coverage in the secular media, and a strong social presence up and down the Italian peninsula.
The SWG poll found that 71 percent of Italians carry holy cards of saints, and here again Padre Pio was a runaway winner, with 48 percent saying they have an image of the Capuchin saint. St. Anthony was again the nearest runner-up, at 18 percent.
Lasconi also expressed concern for the poll’s finding that prayer to the saints is overwhelmingly associated with elderly Catholics.
“We don’t talk to children anymore about their Guardian Angel, or their patron saint,” he said. “We can’t think that Mass and conventions are enough. Without the saints, the faith fanishes.”
