What if one friendship could change the faith of generations?

The Finger of God: The Life and Times of Bill Carrigan is a documentary feature that takes the viewer through the near century long life of William M. Carrigan, an American businessman, philanthropist, WWII relief worker, and faithful Catholic.

The film follows Bill from his early life on the Iowa prairie to the deserts of North Africa and the villages of Italy where he worked as a Red Cross Field Director in 1943 and was forever changed by his encounter with a miracle and his friendship with a mysterious Catholic priest, Padre Pio.

Bill's love for Padre Pio compelled him to bring hundreds of GIs to a remote mountain monastery for peace and healing and changed his post-war destiny.

Through tape recordings of Bill’s voice and interviews with his nephew, Chuck, and others who still hold Bill in living memory, Bill's life and impact are reconstructed. Interwoven throughout are the poetic wartime letters exchanged across the ocean by Bill and his beloved wife, Ramona.

This film is a sensitive and colorful account of the ripple effect that one life directed by Providence can have on generations.

Explore

the

Letters

Click to view a selection of ten of the hundreds of wartime letters exchanged between Bill and Ramona between 1943-1945.