MARIA VALTORTA

'Maria Valtorta' (14 March 1897 – 12 October 1961) was an Italian writer and poet, considered by many to be a mystic. Her work centers on Catholic Christian themes. Her followers believe that she had personally conversed with Jesus Christ in her visions of Jesus and Mary.

Contents

Early Life

The 15,000 handwritten pages

Publication and controversy

Death and burial

Mentions by other mystics

Situation at the Vatican

Sources and external links

Early Life

Valtorta was born in Caserta, in the Campania region of Italy, the only child of parents from the Lombardy region. Her father was in the Italian cavalry and eventually settled in Viareggio, on the coast of Tuscany in 1924 . She received a classic education in various parts of Italy, and focused on Italian literature. However, after settling in Viareggio, she hardly ever left that town. At the age of 23, while she was walking on a street with her mother, a delinquent youth struck her in the back with an iron bar for no apparent reason. Although she seemed to have recovered after 3 months, and was able to move around for over a decade thereafter, the complications from that injury eventually confined her to bed for 28 years, from 1934 onwards.
In 1925 she was deeply moved by reading the autobiography of St. Theresa of the Child Jesus and in 1930 took private vows of chastity, poverty and obedience. In 1935, a year after she was bed-ridden, Martha Diciotti began to care for her as a constant companion and listener until her death. Maria’s religious adviser was Father Romualdo Migliorini, O.S.M. who asked her to write about her visions and her autobiography.

The 15,000 handwritten pages

On the morning of Good Friday 1943, Maria reported the first vision of Jesus speaking to her. These visions and conversations grew more frequent over time and continued until 1953. From 1944 to 1947 she recorded these vision and conversations in 15,000 handwritten pages. These pages became the basis of her major work, ''The Poem of the Man God'', and constitute about two thirds of her literary work. The visions give a detailed account of the life of Jesus from his birth to the Passion and read like an elaboration of the Gospel. For instance, while the Gospel includes a few sentences about the wedding at Cana, the text includes a few pages and narrates the words spoken among the people present. The visions also describe the many journeys of Jesus throughout the Holy Land, and his conversations with people such as the apostles.
The handwritten pages were characterized by the fact that they included no overwrites, corrections or revisions and seemed somewhat like dictations. The fact that she often suffered from heart and lung ailments during the period of the visions made the natural flow of the text even more unusual. Readers are often struck by the fact that the sentences attributed to Jesus in the visions have a distinct and recognizable tone and style that is distinct from the rest of the text. Given that she never left Italy and was bed-ridden much of her life, Maria’s writings reflect a surprising, almost eyewitness-like, knowledge of the Holy Land. A geologist, Vittorio Tredici, stated that her detailed knowledge of the topographic, geological and mineralogical aspects of Palestine seems unexplainable. And a biblical archeologist, Father Dreyfus, noted that her work includes the names of several small towns which are absent from the Old and New Testaments and are only known to a few experts.

Publication and controversy

Maria Valtorta was at first reluctant to have her notebooks published, but based on the advice of her priest, in 1947 she agreed to their publication.
Her priest, Father Romualdo Migliorini and Father Corrado Berti, along with their Prior Father Andrea Checchin used their contacts to bypass the Vatican hierarchy to present the manuscript directly to Pope Pius XII. Among those impressed by the work at the Vatican was the Pope's confessor, Msgr. (later Cardinal) Augustin Bea who later wrote that he found the work "''not only interesting and pleasing, but truly edifying''". The manuscript was thus delivered to Pius XII and the three priests were granted a papal audience.
At the meeting Pope Pius XII reportedly told the three priests: "''Publish this work as is. There is no need to give an opinion about its origin, whether it is extraordinary or not. Whoever reads it will understand''." Father Berti then signed an affidavit to that effect. The ''Poem of the Man God ''was hence offered to the Vatican Printing Office for publication in 1948, because Pope Pius XII had agreed to its publication before the three Priests of the Servite Order. While Pius XII was alive, the Holy Office did not announce an official position on the manuscript. When Pius XII died in 1958, upon taking office, his successor Pope John XXIII signed a decision by the Holy Office to place the book on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1959. However, in 1963 Pope Paul VI succeeded John XXIII and abolished the Index altogether in 1965. Valtorta followers argue that this in effect nullified the suppression of 1959 since the Index no longer existed after 1965. Others view the abolition of the Index as not reversing the Church's opinion of the work.
At the moment the official position of the Catholic Church with respect to the book is less than clear. The church does not endorse the book, yet does not ban it either, although church officials have made occasional comments about it. The last formal action taken by the Vatican with respect to the book was in 1992, when Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, the Secretary General of the Italian Bishops' Conference, wrote to the publisher Emilio Pisani. In his letter, Tettamanzi requested that a paragraph be added to the first few pages of the book disclaiming any supernatural origin for the work. The publisher assumes that the letter indicates that the Italian Bishops' Conference sees nothing in the work that contradicts the doctrines of the Church, yet some detractors claim that the letter intended to classify the work as fiction. Since 1993 the Catholic Church has chosen to remain silent on its position with respect to the work.
The ''Poem of the Man God ''was eventually published as a 4,000 page multi-volume book and has since been translated into 10 languages and received the imprimatur and approval of several Catholic bishops and Cardinals worldwide. Valtorta's other literary works include historical notes on the early Christian church and martyrs and comments on biblical texts, as well as some religious poems and compositions.

Death and burial

Maria Valtorta died and was buried in Viareggio in 1961, at age 65. In 1973 with ecclesiastic permission, her remains were moved to Florence to the Chapel in the Grand Cloister of the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze. Her house at 257 Via Antonio Fratti in Viareggio, where all her messages were written, has been preserved intact and can be visited by appointment.

Mentions by other mystics

In the 1980s, she was mentioned in the visions of two of the visionaries in Medjugorje. The Medjugorje visions by Marija Pavlovic and Vicka Ivankovic both stated that Maria Valtorta’s records of her conversations with Jesus are truthful. According to Ivankovic, in 1981 the Virgin Mary told her at Medjugorje: "If a person wants to know Jesus he should read Maria Valtorta".
Maria Valtorta's work is also mentioned in Don Ottavio's Michelini writings. He is a relatively obscure priest from Mirandola, who reported a series of Dictations and Visions given to him by Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary from 1975 to 1979. He reported these words dictated to him by Christ:

I have dictated to Maria Valtorta, a victim soul, a marvelous work. Of this work I am the Author. You yourself, Son, have taken account of the raging reactions of Satan.... You have verified the resistance that many priests oppose to this work. This also proves, Son, that he who has not sensed in the Poem the savor of the Divine, the perfume of the Supernatural, has a soul encumbered and darkened. If it were -- I do not say "read" --but studied and meditated, it would bring an immense good to souls. This work is a well-spring of serious and solid culture.... This is a work willed by Wisdom and Divine Providence for the new times. It is a spring of living and pure water. It is I, the Word living and eternal, Who have given Myself anew as nourishment to the souls that I love. I, Myself, am the Light, and the Light cannot be confused with, and still less blend Itself with, the darkness. Where I am found, the darkness is dissolved to make room for the Light.

The particular Michelini book from which this quotation was taken is called ''La medida está colmada'' in its Spanish version and remains in the library of The Archidiocesan Minor Seminary of Monterrey in the city of San Pedro Garza García. It is worth noting that the first page of the book has a seal that reads "Biblioteca Seminario Menor de Monterrey Donativo del Sr. Emmo. Adolfo Antonio Cardenal Suárez Rivera", ("Library of the Minor Seminary of Monterrey Donated by Sr. Eminentísimo Adolfo Cardinal Suárez Rivera"). He was for many years Cardinal Archbishop of the Diocese of Monterrey. This Spanish edition of Michelini's writings where supposedly Christ himself defends Valtorta's Work , comes with a copy of two letters between Bishops (within the first pages). The first letter is from the Bishop of León, México Anselmo Zarza Bernal and is addressed to Bishop Miguel García Franco at the time Bishop of Mazatlan. The response to Bishop Zarza is the second letter. In the first letter, Bishop Zarza recommends to Bishop García Franco the reading and reflection of Michelini's book (where among many supposed dictations from Christ, there is one defeanding Valtorta's work), on response (second letter) Bishop García wrote: "I received your letter...that came with the book" (Michelini's Book) "...I find all the doctrine contained in the book 100% orthodox, more yet, in whole coincident with the writings of Mrs. Conchita Cabrera de Armida..." (the Venerable Concepción Cabrera de Armida a Mexican mystic in the process of canonization) “... and with the book of Father Esteban Gobbi (In Italian Stefano Gobbi), books for which we have ecclesiastic aprobation".

Situation at the Vatican

The higher levels of the Vatican hierarchy continue to express skepticism about the ''Poem of the Man God's origin, although they do not claim that it contains items contrary to the doctrines of the Church. In 1993, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) wrote that the he viewed the visions and dictations of Maria Valtorta as "simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus" and that they cannot be considered supernatural in origin.
However, support for Maria Valtorta’s work continues to grow from within the mid levels of the Vatican hierarchy, with Archbishop George Hamilton Pearce, S. M. publicly defending Valtorta's book, the Poem of the Man God and Msgr. Gianfranco Nolli, a director of the Vatican Museum stating that: "Whoever reads ''The Poem of the Man God ''is favored with spiritual blessing and inner peace."
In February 2002 Bishop Roman Danylak, who provided his nihil obstat and imprimatur for Valtorta's book, wrote:

The big issue is this: "Is there anything against faith or morals in her writings?" All her critics begrudgingly have acknowledged that there is nothing against faith and morals.... it is outright immoral and sinful to continue to level their accusing fingers at this gift of heaven and God’s faithful servant and victim soul, Maria Valtorta.

Valtorta's supporters also point to the fact that the Holy See has at times reversed its position on visions of Jesus and Mary (as was the case for Saint Faustina Kowalska in 1993) and they expect that increased support for Maria Valtorta from the mid levels of the Church will in time achieve the same result for the Poem of the Man God. As a historical pattern, Vatican approval for visions of Jesus and Mary often follows general acceptance of a vision by well over a century in most cases.
Given the additional support for Maria Valtorta in the Medjugorje messages, some observers have viewed the current silence of the Holy See as a prudent necessity. A rejection of Valtorta’s work will signal that the Holy See does not believe in the Medjugorje messages, a signal that the Vatican does not seem prepared to send. And an eventual approval for the visions of Jesus and Mary at Medjugorje will by inference lead to an acceptance of Valtorta’s work.

Sources and external links

★ Maria Valtorta official webite

★ Bishop Roman Danylak's imprimatur

★ Bishop Danylak's Comments on Maria Valtorta

★ Valtorta Publishing

★ The Maria Valtorta Network

★ The Maria Valtorta Reader’s Group in Australia

★ The Maria Valtorta Web-Ring