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place because the doctors had found that there was nothing they could do. The bishop immediately began to console his friend, believing that the cancer had been declared inoperable.

“Oh no, you do not understand,” Andrei interrupted. “The doctors are confronted with a mystery. They could not find anything.” The tumor, which had been previously confirmed by the doctors, had now completely disappeared. For Bishop Wojtyla, only one explanation for this cure was possible — Padre Pio’s prayers.

At the time, the Poltawskas knew nothing about their friend’s letter to the holy man, Padre Pio, and they did not find out until later. In fact, the couple had never heard of Padre Pio, since Poland was still a closed-off Iron Curtain country, and there was little opportunity for them to learn about events in the free world. Thus, at first Wanda attributed the results to the one-in-20 possibility that the mass was an inflammation that had healed on its own, and not a tumor at all.

Upon hearing the good news, Bishop Wojtyla composed a second letter to Padre Pio, this time thanking him for interceding before God for this mother of four children. In the letter, dated November 28 and written in Latin, Wojtyla clearly attributed the doctors’ failure to find any diseased tissue to divine intervention.

Venerable Father,
The woman living in Krakow, Poland, and mother of four children, on the twenty-first of
November, prior to the surgical operation, was suddenly cured. Thanks be to God! And also to you, Venerable Father, I offer thegreatest possible gratitude in the name of the woman, of her husband, and all of her family.
In Christ,
Karol Wojtyla
Capitular Bishop of Krakow

Once again the bishop’s letter was consigned to Angelo Battisti, with instructions from Vatican officials to immediately carry it to San Giovanni Rotondo. He departed at once, and upon reaching Our Lady of Grace Friary, the messenger approached Padre Pio in his cell. As before, Pio spoke the simple command: “Open it and read.” This time Battisti himself was extremely curious, and upon reading aloud “the truly extraordinary and incredible news” he turned to Padre Pio in order to congratulate him. But the friar was immersed in prayer.

“It seemed that he had not even heard my voice as I was reading the letter,” Battisti said later. The minutes passed by in silence, and finally the padre asked Angelo to keep these letters from Bishop Wojtyla, because someday they would become very important.

Returning to Rome, Battisti secured the letters in a safe place, and as the years passed, he almost forgot about them. Then, after 16 years, the evening of October 16, 1978 arrived. Gathered with the crowds in front of St. Peter’s Basilica, he waited for the announcement of the name of the new pope. When he heard the words “Karol Wojtyla,” Battisti was stunned. His first thoughts were of the words of Padre Pio from long ago — “Angelo, to this one it is not possible to say no!” — and then tears came to Battisti’s eyes.

Five years after her sudden cure in 1962, Wanda Poltawska had a rare opportunity to travel from communist-controlled Poland to Rome. By then information about Padre Pio had begun to reach her from various sources, and she had learned of the letters sent to him by Wojtyla. But as a medical doctor, she was still inclined to believe that she had been mistakenly diagnosed.

“It seemed too difficult to comprehend a supernatural intervention,” she said.

In May 1967, she journeyed from Rome to San Giovanni Rotondo and was able to secure a seat near the altar for Padre Pio’s 5 a.m. Mass. She could thus closely observe the Capuchin as he celebrated “…with incredible intensity and with an expression of suffering on his face.”

At the Mass, Poltawska could see the stigmatized friar’s own agony, the bloodstains from his wounds, the perspiration running from his forehead. Afterward, Poltawska waited in the sacristy to greet the holy padre. He passed by quite close to her, walking slowly on his pierced feet. Looking around, he stopped, and then gazed directly at her. He smiled as he neared her, patted her on the head, and said, “Adesso, va bene?” (Now, are you all right?). She was speechless.

The moment Padre Pio’s eyes met hers, she knew he recognized her, and now understood why she had not needed an operation several years earlier. It was not because of a wrong diagnosis, but because, “This monk had come into my life in such an extraordinary way because the Archbishop of Krakow had asked for it.” And Padre Pio had known at the time he received the urgent request from Karol Wojtyla that “this one” could not be refused.  CD

Frank M. Rega, a Secular Franciscan, is the author of Padre Pio and America (TAN Books).