There is no doctrinal significance. That is not the purpose of the stigmata.
Any Catholic who says the stigmata isn’t real is not just merely mistaken, but a liar. This is not ancient church history. Padre Pio was a 20th century saint who lived his life with the stigmata. His wounds healed the day before he died. That is impossible for a man who did it to himself, consciously or not. His body is uncorrupted and is sometimes on display. The stigmata is real, as are the people we know who lived with it.
What does it exist? Remember, we must all take up our cross and follow Him. This cross is to be shared by us all. Some of us have bigger crosses than others. Once a generation, someone will literally carry “The Cross of Christ”. The stigmata is a grace, given to its bearer for our sakes as we are healed by our own suffering as well as His. Suffering in this world is not punishment for sin, it is the cure for sin’s effects on the soul. We need to be grateful that we can suffer in this world, instead of the next.
Stigmata has nothing to do with the Church’s mission, and the Church’s teaching on suffering would still exist without the stigmata, but it is all the more reason for us to believe and be willing to deny ourselves.
BTW, no non-Catholic has ever claimed to be a stigmatic.
