PILGRIMS FLOCK TO SEE "WEEPING STATUE"

[AussieMark]

Pilgrims Flock to See 'Weeping Statue'

ROME (Reuters) - Faithful and curious flocked to a town in southern Italy on Thursday after reports that a bronze statue of a saint was weeping blood.
Local officials in the southern town of Brancaleone said a red liquid was seen coming out of the eyelids of a life-size statue of Padre Pio, a mystic monk who died in 1968 at the age of 81 and was made a saint last year.

The town's deputy mayor, Gentile Scaramozzino, said tests showed there was some kind of blood in the liquid that stained the statue and the pavement in a town square on Wednesday.

Further tests were being carried out to determine if it was human or animal blood.

While local Catholic Church officials urged the faithful to be cautious about what some people were calling a miracle and others a hoax, Scaramozzino said the town was getting ready to provide hospitality services for pilgrims.

A national consumer protection group warned against a possible hoax, saying devotees of Padre Pio had been swindled in the past. "Let's be careful before shouting 'miracle'," the Codacons consumer group said in a statement.

During his life, Padre Pio had the stigmata -- bleeding wounds in the hands and feet similar to those of Christ. Scientists could not explain the wounds.