Pastor’s devotion to St. Padre Pio transforms parish community
By Christina Gray
Msgr. Romulo “Loi” Vergara, pastor of Our Lady of Mount Carmel parish in Redwood City has long had a devotion to St. Padre Pio. Hosting two relics tours at the parish in the past two years has only strengthened it and that of parishioners.
“I admire his piety and charity and giving of himself until his last breath for the people,” Msgr. Vergara told Catholic San Francisco by email. He came to the Redwood City parish in 2020 and was diagnosed with cancer two years later. He continues in his role with the support of his pastoral staff and loyal parishioners.
In the spring of 2023, the parish, in partnership with the St. Pio Foundation, hosted a two-day tour of the saint’s relics that drew thousands from around the state. This past August, St. Padre Pio’s relics returned to the parish for a second time. The subsequent visit revealed a community transformed, according to parishioner Melanie “Mel” Albano-Valdez, site lead for the August visit.
“Devotion to St. Padre Pio has strengthened our parish,” she said. “Many of our parishioners knew a bit about Padre Pio, but these events have encouraged us to learn more.”
Both the 2023 and 2025 relics visits were scheduled to coincide with the parish’s longtime “healing Mass” the third Friday of every month. A dedicated “prayer warrior” ministry is present to pray with and for the faithful, some from within the parish and others traveling from some distance outside Redwood City.
“The attraction of devotion to many people is to be able to give thanks to Padre Pio or to ask for his loving intercession in healing or for any other intercession for their family and the community,” Msgr. Vergara said.
Approximately 200 parishioners volunteered for the August event, including members of established ministries such as Cruzado Guadalupano and Society of St. Vincent de Paul, to parishioners who do not formally belong to any ministry. New ministries that did not exist during the first relics visit in 2023, like the Legion of Mary, were also highly involved.
“We found volunteer jobs for everyone, and they were gracious with their time and dedication,” said Albano-Valdez. “They all understood their purpose was to build and strengthen our faith community using a saint’s relics to bring people closer to God.”
Devotional items like rose-scented rosaries, books and T-shirts were available at this year’s relics visit, along with bilingual biographical information on the saint together with some of his best quotes, including “pray, hope and don’t worry.”
Parishioner Lisa Prosch spearheaded the first relics visit in 2023. Albano-Valdez collaborated with her for the second visit for which she took the lead. The pair have been longtime confirmation teachers at OLMC.
“I believe the visitation of the relics has brought faith and hope to the community, parish and faithful during these uncertain times,” said Prosch. “It has strengthened our parish community and its numerous ministries as we have worked together for the same mission.”
An advisory board member for the St. Pio Foundation, Prosch did not have a special devotion to the saint until 2018 when she had what she described as a supernatural experience at a relics visit at Our Lady of Peace Shrine in Santa Clara.
“I experienced a strong and impactful fragrance of roses while waiting in line to view the relics,” she said. This phenomenon is one of the gifts attributed to Padre Pio, the only Catholic priest in history confirmed to have borne the stigmata, the wounds of Christ’s crucifixion. Padre Pio’s presence often left behind what many around the world have described as a roselike scent. Reports from eyewitnesses around the world have reported that the smell of flowers was especially pronounced in the blood from his stigmatic wounds or when he was hearing prayers of intercession.
Prosch began to volunteer for the St. Pio Foundation, which announced in 2022 it was planning a relics tour for the following year. The foundation’s mission, according to its website, is to promote devotion to Padre Pio and to make his teachings and spirituality more widely known. Parishes or other Catholic organizations must petition to be chosen as a relics host site.
Both women presented the idea of the parish being a relics host site to Msgr. Vergara in 2022. The pastor had recently been forced to cancel the trip he had planned to San Giovanni Rotondo in southern Italy because of scheduled medical treatments. Padre Pio’s remains and relics are housed there in the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie.
“At the time, Lisa and I said, if the monsignor can’t go to the relics, we will bring the relics to him,” said Albano-Valdez. “And we did.”
Msgr. Vergara’s steadfast devotion to Padre Pio has been an inspiration to Prosch and to the rest of the parish.
“I felt his spiritual direction deepened my devotion to Padre Pio, especially observing him in his fight with cancer,” she said.
At the Mass for the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God on New Year’s Day this year, Albano-Valdez looked around at the fuller pews and felt a communal desire for “more Pio” at the parish. She suggested another relics visit to Msgr. Vergara, Prosch and the pastoral staff.
“They all said, yes, it’s time to bring Padre Pio back to Our Lady of Mount Carmel,” said Albano-Valdez.
With two relics visits within two years, Albano-Valdez said Msgr. Vergara and others dream of the parish eventually becoming a designated devotional site to St. Padre Pio.
She recalled standing outside the doors of the church with Luciano Lamonarco, the founder of the St. Pio Foundation, during the filled-to-capacity “healing Mass.”
She asked what he thought. “He replied that this church community is exactly where Padre Pio would want to be,” she said.
Christina Gray is the lead writer for Catholic San Francisco.
