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In the News: Praying to the Dead
By Ken Horn | April 24, 2008
The AP reported today from San Giovanni Rotondo in Italy:
The body of Padre Pio, a hugely popular Italian saint, goes on public display Thursday in a southern Italian town where thousands have gathered to pray to the mystic monk….
This kind of woeful superstition and benighted religion persists in much of the world. Unfortunately, this is in the name of Christianity. But it is not true Christianity.
Last year, when my wife, Peggy, and I were with missionaries Steve and Patti Gray in Padua, Italy, we saw this same macabre behavior, people praying to Saint Anthony at displays of his body parts, including his tongue. You can’t find this in the Bible.
Read the AP story here.
My article begins this way:
They gather outside Padua’s bars and in piazzas, tippling the latest trendy drink of the student culture. It’s called spritz, and if you want to be in, you’ve got one in your hand.
Because Padua, Italy, is only 15 minutes by train from Venice, one of the world’s most compelling tourist sites, it is often overlooked. But Padua is compelling in its own right. Students are drawn to the 800-year-old University of Padua where Galileo taught; religious pilgrims to the Basilica of St. Anthony; and travelers-in-the-know to the city’s history, architecture, art, literature (Padua is the setting of Shakespeare’s The Taming of the Shrew), and more.
The city was heavily bombed during World War II, leading to a sometimes bizarre intermingling of ancient and modern architecture. This same juxtaposition exists in the city’s spiritual core where the modern — secularism — vies with the ancient — superstition.
Read the full article: ICF Padua: Confronting secularism and superstition in northern Italy.
Read the pdf version with photos.
Topics: Italy, prayer, World Missions Edition, WME, Christian living, missions, Bible |
