When the Vatican warns against a particular writing, there is a good reason for the warning and one should always trust the Church, which teaches with the authority of Christ, assisted by the Holy Spirit.
But let us return to the principal facts regarding Maria Valtorta. She was born in Caserta, Italy, in 1897. At the age of 23, she was attacked and beaten with an iron bar and was never completely well again. From 1933 on, she was unable to leave her bed. On Good Friday, 1943, she began to receive “dictations” on the life of Christ. In 1947, she handed over 10,000 handwritten pages to her spiritual director, Fr Romuald Migliorini, OSM. Fr Migliorini had them typed and bound and they were presented to Fr (later Cardinal) Augustin Bea, SJ, the spiritual director of Pope Pius XII.
On February 26, 1948, Fr Migliorini and two other Servites had a private audience with Pope Pius XII, during which the priests remembered the Pope saying: “Publish this work as it is. There is no need to give an opinion about its origin, whether it be extraordinary or not. Who reads it, will understand. One hears of many visions and revelations. I will not say they are all authentic; but there are some of which it could be said that they are.”
Fr Berti OSM then took the books to the Vatican press to be printed. However, in 1949 two commissioners of the Holy Office, Mons Giovanni Pepe and Father Berruti, OP, condemned the Poem, ordering Berti to hand over every copy and to sign an agreement not to publish it. Fr Berti returned the manuscripts to Valtorta and handed over his typed copies.
Despite his signed promise, in 1952 Fr Berti went to publisher Emiliano Pisani. Though aware of the Holy Office’s opposition, Pisani printed the first volume in 1956 and a new volume each year through 1959. When the fourth volume appeared, the Holy Office examined the Poem and condemned it, including it on the Index of Forbidden Books on December 16, 1959, by a decree signed by Pope John XXIII. On January 6, 1960, the Vatican’s newspaper L’Osservatore Romano printed the condemnation with an accompanying front-page article entitled A Badly Fictionalised Life of Jesus.
The article gave various reasons for the condemnation. Among them were that the long speeches of Jesus and Mary contrast starkly with those given by the evangelists, who portray Jesus as “humble, reserved”. Valtorta’s fictionalised history makes Jesus sound “like a chatterbox, always ready to proclaim himself the Messiah and the Son of God”. Also, “some passages are rather risque,” like the “immodest” dance before Pilate (vol 5, p 73). There are “many historical, geographical and other blunders.” For instance, Jesus uses screwdrivers centuries before screws existed. (Vol. 1, pp. 195, 223)
There are also theological errors, as when Jesus says that Eve’s temptation consisted in arousing her flesh, as the serpent sensuously “caressed” her. (Vol 1, p 30). While Eve “began the sin by herself”, she “accomplished it with her companion”. (Vol 1, p 7). The book claims that “Mary can be called the ‘second-born’ of the Father ...” “Another strange and imprecise statement” made of Mary is that she will “be second to Peter with regard to ecclesiastical hierarchy”. (vol 4, p 240)
There are other extraordinary statements coming from Our Lady, who says after Jesus is taken down from the cross: “Leave him in my lap. If I succeed in warming him up, he will rise sooner.” A few lines later, she says with respect to the burial shroud: “Prepare the way for his return. I am sending you, I, whom Maternity makes the Priestess of the Rite. Go. I said that I do not want it. Do not think that I will let you put it on him. It will be easier for him to rise if he is free from those funeral useless bandages.” (Vol. V, p. 634)
On January 31, 1985, Cardinal Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote to Genoa’s Cardinal Giuseppe Siri on the book’s status, recalling L’Osservatore Romano’s judgment that it was “a badly fictionalised life of Jesus.” He added that even though the Index was abolished in 1966, it still retained its moral force. As regards the publication of the book, he said: “A decision against distributing and recommending a work, which had not been condemned lightly, may be reversed, but only after profound changes that neutralise the harm which such a publication could bring forth among the ordinary faithful.”
In view of these warnings, it is clear that while some people may find The Poem of the Man-God inspirational, the book presents an image of Jesus and Mary that is not always faithful to the Gospels and that can be seriously misleading. For this reason it is better to read the Scriptures and the many approved books of the life of Christ.
Send your questions to Fr John Flader
c/- The Catholic Weekly, Level 8, Polding Centre,
133 Liverpool St, Sydney 2000,
or email to director@caec.com.au
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