TESTIMONY
HE UNFOLDED MY LIFE BEFORE ME
For many years Frederick Abresch ran a bookshop in San Giovanni Rotondo. He was one of Father Pio’s converts, among so many others.
" I was born into a Protestant family which was highly critical of the Catholic Church but I became a Catholic for reasons of convenience. This didn’t prevent me from indulging in spiritualism and the occult sciences. To please my wife, I sometimes frequented the sacraments, but without any real sincerity.
My wife fell seriously ill and had to undergo surgery that would prevent us from ever having children. As I had heard about a miracle-worker in San Giovanni Rotondo, I went there out of curiosity.
Father Pio gave me a very cool reception. When I knelt down to make my confession he reproached me for having hidden serious sins in my previous confessions, and of having committed sacrilege by receiving communion unworthily, etc. He ordered me to make a general confession and left me there, while he went off to confess the women.
My heart was in my boots when he came back to me. I began to reel off all my sins. " Let us cut all that out " he interrupted, " and start after your honeymoon. That is when you made your last good confession. " He then began to tell me, one by one, all the sins I’d committed even naming the number of Masses I had missed ! He even reminded me of things I’d completely forgotten. He then explained to me how I had started to serve Satan through spiritualism and the occult sciences. After I had received absolution I experienced a wonderful sense of liberation and joy. But I couldn’t wait for my wife to meet this man of God also.
She came to him for confession. " Must I agree to have the operation advised by the doctors ? " she asked. " Yes " was his first response, with the common sense of his peasant background. " But then I’ll be permanently sterile " my wife exclaimed. " In that case, no surgery ", came the firm reply from Father Pio.
In faith, we returned home. The symptoms of my wife’s illness disappeared. We had a little boy. Today, he is a priest ! "
See : Il est Vivant 1996-1999