My grandmother was deeply devoted to Padre Pio. Over the years, she had several surgeries at his hospital, the “Casa Sollievo della Sofferenza” in San Giovanni Rotondo, Puglia, the region I’m from.
If she is still with us today, it is in no small part thanks to that place. A little over a year ago, the hospital published a strategic plan for 2024–2029, claiming losses had been reversed, EBITDA had turned positive, and everything was moving into the black. But reading the plan closely, it was clear the hospital was still losing money, and employees weren’t being paid.
And being from Puglia, I’ve learned that institutions like this aren’t always in the hands they deserve, and that good intentions aren’t always what guide them.
Yesterday, the answer to my harsh reading came loud and clear, directly from Pope Leo XIV. The Holy Father issued a chirograph placing the Foundation that manages the hospital under a Commission of Guidance and Oversight, with extraordinary powers to substitute its governing bodies and take direct control of its turnaround. Rome doesn’t do that when the slides are telling the truth.
Vincenzo martemucci 
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