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"Maria Valtorta
is considered to be one of the most edifying visionaries of our time, in that
she recorded the most comprehensive and detailed Private Revelation of the
Gospels ever; "The Gospel as it Was Revealed to Me" in Italy, and later
published in English as the "Poem of the Man-God" after her death. She was born
in Caserta, Italy in 1897, passed away in Viareggio in 1961 and is
buried under
the altar of the Capitular Chapel of the Servants of Mary at The Basilica of the Annunciation in Florence
(7).
Her dictations and visions took place during the times of WWII and give a
wonderfully detailed account of the lives of Jesus and Mary" (8). |
The publishers
of the "Poem of the Man-God" books claim that Maria Valtorta’s
writings originally received a Papal Imprimatur from Pope Pius XII
in February of 1948 (9). Naturally this is hotly contested by opponents
of these aforementioned Books.
1) "Please
do not read these books or believe anyone that says that they have
been approved by Pope Pius XII for this is not true. These books
have not been approved by any Pope no matter what their claim may be"
(10).
Although
many of the antagonistic websites and books that ardently dispute
the Papal Imprimatur, most offer no explanations whatsoever to
support their claims. The very few that endeavor to propose any form
of disputations, pose very awkward or weak arguments at best (11,
12,
13). For
example, the previous quoted site posts: "His
polite murmurs about the Poem reportedly included the phrase
"publish this work as it is" which the Servites afterwards
remembered and interpreted as a "Supreme Pontifical Imprimatur"
(14).
The date Valtorta’s writings were given to Pope Pius XII for
evaluation appears to be universally accepted by even the most
aggressive antagonists, as well as Medjugorje supporters,
particularly because it was documented by Pope Pius XII’s confessor Cardinal Augustin Bea, who
served as the intermediary in presenting the writings
on April 3, 1948 (15,
16,
17). After personally evaluating Maria Valtorta’s
writings for eleven months, the Pontiff summoned her Spiritual
Director Father Romualdo M. Migliorini on February 26,
1948. This date is also undisputed, as the attendees of
the Papal meeting were documented in the Vatican newspaper
L’Osservatore Romano Citta Del Vaticano the next day on on February
27, 1948, issue 48, on the first
page (18).
Father
Migliorini had hand typed thousands of pages of Maria Valtorta’s
writings, he had everything at stake. Since the Papal meeting was a
make or break, he elected to take two additional Priests with him to
act as witnesses to the final verdict by the Pontiff. One Priest
Father Corrado Berti had assisted Father Migliorini by adding
theological notations to Valtorta’s writings. The other Priest,
Father Andrew M. Cecchin served as an unbiased witness, since at
that point he had no prior knowledge concerning Valtorta. When the
Pontiff arrived at the meeting, He was accompanied by a Vatican
Recording Cardinal who took minutes of the meeting like a
stenographer. After the Papal meeting, the three Priests wrote
signed testimonies to the Papal Imprimatur (19,
20,
21).
After these signed testimonies were fiercely contested by Cardinal
Alfredo Ottaviani who was upset at being
bypassed in the approval process, one of the Priests persuaded
Vatican Cardinal Edouard Gagnon to locate and evaluate the minutes
from the Papal meeting (22,
23,
24). After evaluating the minutes, Cardinal
Gagnon wrote from the Vatican that: Pope Pius XII's action was "the
kind of official Imprimatur granted before witnesses by the Holy
Father in 1948, an Official Imprimatur of the Supreme Authority of
the Church" (25,
26,
27). Cardinal Edouard Gagnon served as the Peritus (Expert
Theologian Advisor and Consultant) during the second Vatican
Council. He had a Doctorate in Theology and taught Canon law for ten
years at the Grand Seminary (28,
29,
30). Even the opposing sites
(including the one above) acknowledge that "a
Pope could in theory grant such an imprimatur and even do it
orally" (31,
32,
33).
Ostensibly, the most rational
method of evaluating the opposing analysis in determining the true
validity of the Papal Imprimatur, would obviously be weighing the facts. On one side of the scale there is
the uncontested proof that Pope Pius XII evaluated Maria Valtorta’s writings for
eleven months, the written testimony of Valtorta's Spiritual Director,
the
written testimony of the two Priest witnesses, the original minutes from the
1948 Papal meeting, and the validation of these minutes by a Vatican
Cardinal. The question is: What is on the other side of the scale?
Nothing. Go figure.
2) "The
trouble is that the first edition of "The Poem of the Man-God", in
four volumes, was included by the Catholic Church, in 1959, in the
index of Forbidden Books (34).
It's
difficult to imagine why this particular contention is so widely cited by Medjugorje challengers,
as it's incomprehensible
that these contenders would not be well aware of the fact that the
Polish Saint Mary
Faustina Kowalska's Diary and Divine Mercy writings were likewise
condemned on the Index of Forbidden Books, as well as the writings
of Galileo Galilei, David Hume and John Milton (35,
36,
37). Moreover, Saint
Faustina's condemnations may have been upheld by the Vatican more
times than Maria Valtorta's, particularly when several exhaustive
attempts were made by Polish Priests, Bishops and Cardinals to persuade the
Vatican to remove Faustina's writings from the index (38).
Saint
Faustina's Spiritual Director Father
Michal Sopocko (who nearly had a nervous breakdown), suffered even
more castigation at the hands of his superiors than Maria Valtorta's
Spiritual Director Father
Father Romualdo Migliorini (39,
40,
41). All this was rapidly reversed at the
hands of the first Polish Pope John Paul II, Who quickly beatified
Sister Faustina in 1993, Canonizing her on Easter 2000 and making a
formal apology to the family of Galileo Galilei to (42,
43,
44).
Pope John Paul II pushed no devotion
further or faster. His second encyclical, 1980’s "Dives in Misericordia",
was inspired by Faustina. Notwithstanding that the
condemnation actually stemmed from theological reservations by the
head of the Holy Office Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani (such as the
complete remission of sin for certain devotional acts and excessive
focus on Faustina herself -
45,
46),
today
her Diary, Divine Mercy writings and excerpts from her conversations
with Jesus are quoted by the Vatican and during Divine Mercy Sunday Mass, celebrated on
the Sunday after Easter (47,
48,
49).
Many Divine Mercy
devotees fervently believe that the frail Vatican explanations for
the original condemnations being attributed to a poor translation
was a weak attempt at saving face.
Cardinal
Ottaviani's Condemnation of Saint Faustina's writings off-set the
Divine Mercy Devotion for fifty two years. Only God knows how
many souls were effected.
According to Divine Mercy Devotees; "After a failed attempt to
persuade Pope Pius XII to sign a condemnation, Cardinal Alfredo
Ottaviani at the Holy Office included Sister Faustina's works on a
list he submitted to the newly elected Pope John XXIII in
1959. The Pope signed the decree
that placed her work on the Index of Forbidden Books and they
remained on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum until it was abolished
on 14 June 1966 by Pope Paul VI. Father Sopoćko was harshly
reprimanded, and all his work was suppressed" (50).
According to Maria Valtorta Devotees; "As Valtorta's Visions were
mystical in nature and the Local Bishop Fontevecchia's vision was
fading, Father Romualdo M. Migliorini sought Vatican guidance for
procedural advice for approval. At the Vatican Father Migliorini
encountered Cardinal Augustin Bea (Pope Pius XII's confessor) and
Monsignor Alphonse Carini (Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of
Rites). Cardinal Bea cautioned that Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani
was unenthusiastic regarding Private Revelations, and previously
attempted to place Sister Faustina Kowalska's Divine Mercy writings
on the Forbidden Book list, but Pope Pius XII would not sign the
Decree. Father Migliorini took council with Cardinal Bea and
Monsignor Carinci, who after carefully review of Valtorta's
writings, advised that the most prudent outset would be bypassing
Cardinal Ottaviani altogether and presenting the typed manuscript
directly to Pope Pius XII, which would be arranged via Cardinal Bea"
(51).
Both Sister Faustina's and Maria Valtorta's condemnations were
presented to Pope John XXIII after He took Office and condemned on
the same day.
3)
Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a letter on January 31, 1985 to Giuseppe
Siri, the Archbishop of Genoa. In this letter He writes: "although
abolished, the Index retains 'all its moral value'"
(52).
If this
statement were true; Saint Faustina's Divine
Mercy and Galileo Galilei's Heliocentrism theory (the Earth revolves
around the sun) would still retain a full condemnation status (which
would therefore make the Celestial Sphere Orbs theory developed by
Aristotle and adopted by the Catholic Church remain in effect, meaning that
the the stars and planets are carried around by being embedded in
rotating crystal spheres moving around the Earth).
Pope John Paul II was unconcerned regarding this 1985 letter when He
Beatified Saint Faustina on April 18, 1993 and Canonized her on
April 30, 2000 (53).
4) "There
are many historical, geographical and other blunders"
(54).
No citations
are referenced to support these contentions. Maria Valtorta
wrote "647 chapters (15,000
pages) in
random order
in glue bound binder notebooks (with no corrections), at the
conclusion (when Jesus purportedly gives the chapter sequence)
unfolds from a well-shuffled deck of cards into a perfectly seamless
flowing chronology (that only materialized when her work was typed
and could be sequenced to the key), in which Jesus traverses the
land of Palestine from one end to another in five cycles (some 4,000
miles), ministering in 343 named
locations in proper order (that have
been route mapped)
without error. All this while paralyzed from the waist down for
28 years in a bed" (55,
56,
57).
"Researcher
David J. Webster observed that Maria Valtorta named nine towns and
villages that were not discovered until after her death. He authored
a landmark
31 page article that fundamentally proves the authenticity of Maria
Valtorta's writings. The "Poem of the Man-God" may be the very first
Private Revelation ever to be scientifically proven genuine. David
meticulously and methodically examines Maria Valtorta’s strikingly
accurate descriptions of first Century Palestine for every piece of
topographical evidence. He then compares this evidence with
currently known facts that are only now being proven authentic" (58).
"Over thirty percent or 79 of the 255 geographical sites in
Palestine mentioned in the Poem were not listed in the 1939
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE) Atlas. 62 of these
79 were not even listed in the 184 page Macmillan Bible Atlas (MBA)
published in 1968. (Maria
Valtorta died in 1961)
Where did Maria Valtorta get all these names? For a first century
eye-witness to include so many obscure and unknown names would, of
course, be expected. And most surprising is that these names,
obscure and unknown in the 1940’s, are being proven authentic. 52 of
these 62 have no biblical reference whatever and 17 of these with no
biblical reference have been either indirectly confirmed as
authentic by recent "ancient external sources" found in the
Macmillan Bible Atlas (1968) or actually listed in the HarperCollins
Atlas of the Bible (1989). This makes a total of 29 confirmations
since the 1939 ISBE atlas listing. Also among those 62 sites are
mentioned the ruins of 6 ancient Palestinian cities some
corresponding to the modern consensus on location. In addition,
Valtorta’s precise descriptions of the natural topography of
Palestine from numerous locations and the information about the
outside pagan world of that day, including people, places, customs,
Greek and Roman mythology, related in the conversations of that day,
are strikingly correct" (59).
When the "Poem
of the Man-God" was given to Harvard Theoretical Physicist Lonnie
Lee Van Zandt for evaluation, he noticed that Maria Valtorta
identified and recorded several planets and star constellations in
the first century Palestinian skies on certain nights.
Utilizing astronomical computer programs to conduct a stellar
excursion into the distant past, he discovered that these alignments
were correct, even noting that some of these astronomical alignments
didn't reoccur for decades before and after the given nights.
He explained that Astrophysicists did not have the capability of
making such accurate predictions that far into the distant past
until the introduction of sufficient computers became available in
the 1980's. "It would have been unfeasible for anyone in the
1940's to be capable of determining these astronomical alignments".
Van Zandt writes that these impossibly exact details "tax the
credulity of even the immovable atheist more than the alternative
that Jesus showed it to Valtorta." He added, "In the words of
Sherlock Holmes, when you eliminated the impossible, that which
remains, however merely improbable, must be true" (60).
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