Pio confirmed he had this mystical gift, declaring to Rossi: "A very few times I happened to feel inside me with clarity someone's fault, or sin, or virtue, of people of whom I had some knowledge, at least generally". Investigations by the Vatican The Vatican initially imposed severe sanctions on Pio in the 1920s to reduce publicity about him: he was forbidden from saying Mass in public, blessing people, answering letters, showing his stigmata publicly, and communicating with Padre Benedetto, his spiritual director. The church authorities decided that Pio be relocated to another convent in northern Italy. The local people threatened to riot, and the Vatican left him where he was. A second plan for removal was also changed. Nevertheless, from 1921 to 1922 he was prevented from publicly performing his priestly duties, such as hearing confessions and saying Mass. From 1924 to 1931, the Holy See made statements denying that the events in Pio's life were due to any divine cause. Luigi Romanelli, medical examination from 1919 A large number of doctors visited Pio to verify that he was not a braggart. The first to study his wounds was Luigi Romanelli, chief physician of the civil hospital of Barletta, by order of the provincial father superior, on May 15 and 16, 1919. In his report, among other things he wrote: "The injuries he presents to hands are covered with a brown-red membrane, with no bleeding points, no edema and no inflammatory reactions in the surrounding tissues. I am sure that those wounds are not superficial because, by applying the thumb in the palm of the hand and the index finger on the back and applying pressure, one has the exact perception of the existing void." Amico Bignami, medical examination from 1919 Two months later, on July 26, pathologist Amico Bignami arrived in San Giovanni Rotondo. Bignami conducted a medical examination of Pio's wounds in 1919 and launched several hypotheses, among which was that the wounds were a skin necrosis that was hindered from healing by chemicals such as iodine tincture. Giorgio Festa, medical examinations 1919 and 1920 Festa was a physician who examined Pio in 1919 and 1920. He was obviously impressed by the fragrance of the stigmata. Festa, as Bignami before, had described the side wound as cruciform. In his report to the Holy Office of 1925, Festa arrived at a benevolent verdict and attacked Gemelli's critical view