Does stigmata really happen?

I agree. In my relationship with God I can't imagine Him inflicting something so painful to one of his ('special' children as Catholics believe another concept I disagree with. We are all special to him). Is it real? I don't know really and many investigators were just as baffled with conflicting results when they researched the documented cases. But there were plenty of fakes. Take for example the most (in)famous case of Padre Pio who was made a saint by the Catholic Church. Now I always perceived him as a creep and he scared the shlt out of me but my gosh he had thousands and thousands of followers who believed him to be another Christ almost and he encouraged it, another reason why I always thought him a fake, no humility or false one. Well it wasn't until recently that it was discovered that he used to order tons of this chemical known for inducing open wounds when applied and bleeding (and Pio would always use bandages on his hands so you could never see the origin of the wound, only that it was profusely bleeding). Needless to say, there is a heated debate going on in the Vatican and his followers so loyal to him. Personally, whenever I'd see his photos or a video I'd get this very disturbed feeling, not one you'd feel when you're around truly kind hearted people. I honestly think that he was an opposite of a saint; I believe that he worshiped the devil, not God.

It's a great blessing if it's accompanied by a sense of union with the divine - which it usually is - otherwise the experiencer would not think of it as a blessing, but as a curse, mental illness, or a punishment. It's a blessing if one thinks that stigmata are signs of intimacy with the divine; it's something else again if one disbelieves in such occurrences.

Oh, and - there is a possibility that Padre Pio faked his stigmata with acid. After he died, the stigmata began to fade, as if from the "neglect" of frequent acid-treatments.

Pio was undoubtedly a fraud.