michael burke

sadly the rage over the film is crude. the scene with the demon licking the picnofbthe Madonna ( i think) is ugly but what else is a demon but discusting? her words " i take them n split them n keep them for myself" seems just what Dante might describe,,,,, the twin stories are parallel universes one the material world, the other the spiritual one. Pio is attacked many times ( esp on Fridays) by demons, true, yes i imagine Satan is scary as in the scene where pio is running thru a sort of jungle with a beast after him, prob Satan pio is just right with the crippled man who chooses to walk. and when the women confesses incestual intent, pio cast her out ( read Saint Paul). we see secular world in the other half, violence, envy, lust- the women who was waiting for her husband is confronted by the sleazy boss of the owners hire , he confesses his love for her after he says your husband is dead ( true??)dead. she stabs him- good for her her courage is from her many virtues- Pio had an invisible stigmata for years, in1918 the visible one occurred from then on ( but for the last year of his life) so men sin n pio duffers for their salvation, over the years his authority increased n demons could not break him , they attacked him physically as they vld not morally. yes the film is not integrated, n if the director thought he was pushing socialism, good luck with that- no we are confronted by our sins n witness a great saint in his transition to full holiness - if not a success , still worth the try ....