The Gospel as Revealed to Me - Maria Valtorta

Thank you for posting from Pope Benedict as Cardinal Ratzinger.

 

Why such passionate advocacy for a controversial book that has raised serious questions from serious theologians? And such fierce reactions to those who wish to give it a pass. Let it be. Enjoy and be enriched by it . We can make our own decisions.

 

At least two known members in this thread didn't bother to verify another's claims regarding certain passages within The Poem of the Man-God. One of those two members thus far has claimed them to be "very, very, questionable passages in it which promote illicit sexuality and theological errors," and has refused to read posts 55-57 which expose those claims to be lies. Their behavior shows negligence, bias, and apathy for the truth on the matter.

See the following excerpts from The Current Juridic and Moral Value of the Index (with Maria Valtorta Case Study):

"Letters of Ratzinger
Since the abrogation of the Index the CDF has never issued a notification or decree with regard to Valtorta’s writings. However, on January 31, 1985, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote a private letter to Cardinal Siri on the subject. A priest from Cardinal Siri’s diocese had written the CDF asking the position of the Church’s Magisterium with regard to the Poem. Ratzinger responded by writing Siri, whom he invited to share the contents of the letter with the priest concerned. The brief letter recalled the Holy Office’s decree of December 16, 1959, the anonymous article printed in L’Osservatore Romano in 1960, and the CDF’s 1966 Notification on the enduring moral value of the Index. As was seen supra the Notification clarified that the decree of 1959 no longer has any juridic value and that the enduring moral value of the Index lies in it providing input to the conscience of each Catholic, who then has the role of discerning and deciding whether or not to read a work that had been on the Index.

Ratzinger then adds something new: that “the diffusion and recommendation of [a work such as the Poem] is not held to be opportune when its condemnation was not taken superficially, but after weighing its purposes, to the end of neutralizing the damages which such a publication could bring to the more unprepared faithful.” This statement was not made in the form of a juridic act of the CDF—such as a decree or notification (nor therefore, a fortiori, could it be considered to be an authentic interpretation of the law). As a result this affirmation in the letter has no juridic weight.

On May 21, 1993 Bishop Raymond Boland of Birmingham Alabama, in a letter to Terry Colafrancesco, asserted that Cardinal Ratzinger had written to him on April 17, 1993 and had “asked me to inform you about the position of the Church” regarding the Poem. Boland asserted that the Cardinal wished to recall the items previously published in L’Osservatore Romano (presumably the decree of December 16, 1959, the accompanying anonymous article, and the Notification of November 15, 1966). He also asserted that the CDF had asked the Italian Bishops Conference to request of the publisher of the Poem that in any future edition “it might be clearly indicated from the very first page that the ‘visions’ and ‘dictations’ referred to in it are simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered supernatural in origin.”

The April 17 letter of Ratzinger was never made public. Even if it were made public, and if its language matched exactly that reported by Boland, Ratzinger’s letter would not have any juridic weight as its content does not contain a judicial sentence or an act of legislative or executive authority. It would rather be a letter relaying that the CDF had communicated with the Italian Bishops Conference and that this Conference communicated with the publisher of the Poem. Those communications would then need to be analyzed to determine their own juridic weight.

Current Juridic and Moral Value of the Index for The Poem of the Man-God
What then is the current juridic and moral value of the Index for The Poem of the Man-God? The Index no longer has the force of ecclesiastical law; therefore when one chooses to read, publish, or promote the Poem there is no violation of ecclesiastical law. The various letters issued by prelates in the decades following the abrogation of the Index on the subject of the Poem are not (with the exception of the imprimatur granted by Bishop Pakiam), juridically binding. Hence a Catholic is permitted to think and act in ways different from the opinions expressed therein. For example, a Catholic who believes the Poem to be of supernatural origin or promotes it as such is not being disobedient to Bishop Tettamanzi’s letter, for the letter has no juridic weight.

With regard to its current moral value, the “Index remains morally binding, in light of the demands of natural law, in so far as it admonishes the conscience of Christians to be on guard for those writings that can endanger faith and morals.” Hence any Catholic considering reading a book on the Index, whether it be John Stuart Mill’s Principles of Political Economy or The Poem of the Man-God, must judge, according to his conscience, whether or not the work would be nourishing for his soul or whether it would on the contrary present a proximate spiritual danger to his soul.

While this discernment is the right and responsibility of each individual, and is not properly a canonical matter, canon law can shed some light on the discernment. For example, canon law can assist in answering the following question: Even though Catholics are free to disagree with the opinions of prelates such as Ratzinger or Tettamanzi, who expressed critical opinions with regard to the Poem; or to disagree with prelates such as Kindukulam or Danylak, who expressed favorable opinions with regard to the Poem, should the Church’s juridic acts of appointing these prelates to their respective posts add a certain weight to their opinions? For example, does the appointment of Cardinal Ratzinger as prefect of the CDF not also add a certain weight to his personal judgments, even when he is not issuing a juridic act? In effect, is an appointment to this post not similar to the acts of beatification or canonization whereby the Christian faithful are invited to have particular trust in the individual as someone to be trusted and imitated?

The appointment of an individual to the office of prefect of the CDF, or to any other office in the Church, does not entail an invitation to the faithful to have a particular trust in the individual’s personal life or in their personal judgments and opinions. The appointment of an individual to an office does entail for the faithful an obligation of obedience to their legitimate decisions, when such are given in the appropriate juridic form so as to be juridically binding. It also is normally an indication that this individual has a particular personal competence in that area. Hence where an individual expresses an opinion or gives advice, either privately or in the public exercise of his office, a member of the Christian faithful may well decide to trust those statements in a particular way.

Therefore, Saint Teresa of Calcutta’s choice of the Poem as spiritual reading; Blessed Maria Inés Teresa Arias’ discernment that the Poem had become “one of the most beautiful sources of spiritual reading,”and her decision to promote the Poem in the convents she had founded and to promote it to other individuals; and Blessed Gabriel Allegra’s evaluation that, after the Gospels, no other life of Christ can compare to the Poem, or his evaluation that the Poem’s description of Mary’s compassion surpasses even the writings of St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure—these assertions merit particular consideration by the Christian faithful when discerning whether reading the Poem would be nourishing for their soul, or whether it would, on the contrary, present a proximate spiritual danger to their soul. The Church invites the faithful to consider the actions of these individuals with the confidence that “when we consider the life of those who have faithfully followed Christ […] we are most safely taught the path by which […] we can arrive at that perfect union with Christ, which is holiness.”

 

What serious questions and who are these theologians? And, you'll find controversy surrounding most things, if not everything. Regarding The Poem of the Man-God, in over 10+ years I have yet to find within it errors concerning faith, morals, traditions, and the magisterium of the Catholic Church. According to Bishop Danylak, S.T.L., J.U.D, on June 24th, 2001 he wrote a letter. Below is an excerpt:

"This major work of Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the Man-God, is the Gospel expanded, and with her other writings, is in perfect consonance with the canonical Gospels, with the traditions and the magisterium of the Catholic Church."

I suggest thoroughly researching beforehand.

 

Thank you, Soul, for your perseverance in the face of unsubstantiated opposition.

I read a positive sign in the fact that the moderators are allowing this thread to continue ... so far.

I have been nourished by the Gospel as Revealed to Me/(Valtorta) for at least 10 years non-stop. When I finish the 10 volumes I start reading them again, slowly. There is so much to them that every new reading is, literally, new. As time goes on, I cannot read long stretches of it because even in a few paragraphs so much is disclosed of the Goodness of God, of His Humility, of His Plan and Desire for His human children, of the cost of Redemption to God/Jesus (and Mary-CoRedemptrix), of the Sea of Love that "forced" God to come in the flesh, etc. etc. etc.

We may ask, how can people read the Gospels (in Scripture) and not be touched, caught, inspired by them???? Yet we know that even scripture is unbearable for some people.
Much depends on the "glasses" with which we approach that reading, and what is in our heart.

If you don't become like children....
Children, not in understanding but in simplicity and humility, because understanding of divine things comes from interior insight/revelation of God to the individual person, there is no other "formula". It is not about being "smart", but "little". Spiritual content is "revealed" to us in our heart by a motion of the Spirit. We can not grasp it without that spiritual light.

It is sad to see people who haven't read, nor want to listen to powerful voices supporting the Poem and just insist with obcecacy on declaring it to be dangerous.
The landing of the Poem on the Index of Forbidden books was due to its first publication WITHOUT AN IMPRIMATUR. This is an administrative fault, not a sin. (I don't have the quote for this, I'm speaking from memory so you can correct me if I am wrong).

Have people who don't want OTHERS to read it because THEY KNOW BETTER .... than canonized saints and popes, ever think that a minimum of humility might help them find peace with themselves, and thus not feel threatened by different opinions and experience the compulsion to destroy them ... without arguments beyond one-liners????

As a final thought, I would ask, would it be worth spending so much repetition and energy in denying the value of something people don't even know except by hearsay, against people who have dedicated not just days and month but even years to know it?

Is not there a saying of Jesus that we must give an account to God of every "idle" word? ... Just a note of caution on the responsibility we have when speaking in such a public phorum as this.

 

I read it years ago before I knew it was on a banned list. It had an imprimatur in the front of it so I thought I was good to go. This was probably 35 years ago? I don't remember specific parts. Since then, in my formation I have moved on to more books that are very deep theologically in my progression as a Roman Catholic. When Dallas Jenkins first came out with 'The Chosen" my first thought was it sounds like a version of Poem of the Man God. Do I take The Chosen as the Word? no. I take it as an artistic interpretation and that's how I read Poem. I don't remember those passages you reported . . .the only thing I remember from a long time ago is Mother Angelica was very against it. By the time I heard that I had already read it. Would I go back and read it again? No. Thirty five years ago we didn't have the internet with all kinds of really great blogs, writings etc. So it has been removed from a 'condemned' list, that's the end of the story. Would I recommend it to someone today? No, I would rather recommend "The Way of Perfection" by St. Theresa of Avila, it's a great map of where we want to go. Just my point of view. And perhaps the church has not done a good job of catechizing the people, too. I don't like 'hanging' onto one person either that does not have complete church approval. Another thing I had to learn on my journey, and life IS a journey.

 

Why take a risk?

There is so much false stuff going about these days it is incredible. The Internet is a great blessing and gift if it is used with wise discernment. But a real Black Bog if not.

 

What do you mean by "complete Church approval"?

 

There are false and true spokespersons of God. Christians need to have a childlike faith and humility, trusting that He will make known who His true ones are and protect them, just as He's always done. Otherwise, no amount of proof would make their eyes see, nor their ears hear.

 

God gives us eyes to see, ears to hear and reason to work things out with. He gives us the graces of Discernment and expects us to use them. Parents may carry their children when they are babies and it is right and good that they do so. But there comes a time when wise parents expect their children to walk on their own two good feet.
We cannot believe everything we think.

Jeremiah 14:14
14 Then the LORD said to me, “The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds.

 

Well said.

 

My sister also likes to read the Man-God. She said that it gave her an idea of the life of Our Mother. My sister is a devout Catholic, so it's a helpful read for her and I don't see any need to discuss it with my sister, she knows the critical opinion of priests in our environment.

I haven't read any of it myself, only the passages which Soul posted.
My point of criticism is not so much individual passages, but what I think it is important to realise and internalise that Valtorta's stories are not on a par with the scriptures. They are not historical facts.
In my opinion, that's the main problem. Also for my sister.

Is this noted in the imprimatur ? :

That would be very important, imo.

And as has been mentioned - there is so much undisputed literature, why take a risk?
Each person's own decision, of course.
What would be too risky for me personally would be not to read it myself, but to recommend it to others.

 

I didn't disagree with your point about discernment, but to give an example of what I was saying, the Pharisees discerned Jesus's words and actions, but some lacked faith, love, and humility, and so, despite all that they had heard and witnessed which testified to Him being the Messiah and God in the flesh, they still rejected Him. Regarding Maria Valtorta, there's ample proof that she was Jesus's spokesperson, and yet there's people who still reject this.

 

Yes, we each have to discern. Maria Valtorta's work has an Imprimatur from Bp. Ramon Danylak. I personally believe it is authentic. Pray and discern. Source here: http://www.valtorta-maria.com/Pages/001_Bishop_Roman_Danylak-Imprimatur.htm

 

Thank you Brian...clear and concise

 

Below are excerpts from The Current Juridic and Moral Value of the Index (with Maria Valtorta Case Study):

"On May 21, 1993 Bishop Raymond Boland of Birmingham Alabama, in a letter to Terry Colafrancesco, asserted that Cardinal Ratzinger had written to him on April 17, 1993 and had “asked me to inform you about the position of the Church” regarding the Poem. Boland asserted that the Cardinal wished to recall the items previously published in L’Osservatore Romano (presumably the decree of December 16, 1959, the accompanying anonymous article, and the Notification of November 15, 1966). He also asserted that the CDF had asked the Italian Bishops Conference to request of the publisher of the Poem that in any future edition “it might be clearly indicated from the very first page that the ‘visions’ and ‘dictations’ referred to in it are simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered supernatural in origin.”

The April 17 letter of Ratzinger was never made public. Even if it were made public, and if its language matched exactly that reported by Boland, Ratzinger’s letter would not have any juridic weight as its content does not contain a judicial sentence or an act of legislative or executive authority. It would rather be a letter relaying that the CDF had communicated with the Italian Bishops Conference and that this Conference communicated with the publisher of the Poem. Those communications would then need to be analyzed to determine their own juridic weight." (The Current Juridic and Moral Value of the Index (with Maria Valtorta Case Study)

" [...] Catholics are free to disagree with the opinions of prelates such as Ratzinger or Tettamanzi, who expressed critical opinions with regard to the Poem; or to disagree with prelates such as Kindukulam or Danylak, who expressed favorable opinions with regard to the Poem [...] "

On September 23rd, 1944, Jesus dictated the following to Maria Valtorta: "The order of the Gospels is good, but not perfect as a chronological order. A diligent observer notices that. He who could have given the exact order of events, having been with Me from the beginning of the Evangelization to My Ascension, did not do so, because John, a true son of the Light, devoted himself to and worried about making the Light shine brightly through its appearance of a Body in the eyes of the heretics, who contested the truth of the Divinity enclosed in a human body. John's sublime Gospel achieved its supernatural purpose, but the chronology of My public life has not been improved by it. The other three evangelists show resemblances to one another with regard to events, but they alter their order with regard to time, because only one of the three was present at almost all My public life: Matthew, and he wrote it only fifteen years later, whilst the others wrote theirs even later, after hearing the story from My Mother, from Peter, from other apostles and disciples. I want to give you a guide to collect together the events of the three years, year by year.” (The Poem of the Man-God: Vol. IV, ch. 466, p. 213)
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On October 17th, 1944, in response to someone Maria Valtorta knew who called The Gospel as Revealed to Me, or The Poem of the Man-God, as the "5th Gospel," Jesus dictated the following: "Now we come to the so-called 5th gospel. There are four Gospels. Now I am explaining them in order to bring to light others which are lost or downplayed. But I am not creating another Gospel. There are four, four there will remain. Understood in detail or left in their broad outlines, four and no more." (The Little Notebooks)
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On April 28th, 1947, Jesus dictated the following to Maria Valtorta: “[...] Further: if you object that the revelation was closed with the last Apostle, and there was nothing further to add, because the same Apostle says in Revelation: "If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him every plague mentioned in the book" (22:18) and that can be understood for all the Revelation, the last completion of which is the Revelation by John, I reply to you that with this work no addition was made to revelation, but only the gaps, brought about by natural causes and by supernatural will, were filled in.

And if I wanted to take pleasure in restoring the picture of My Divine Charity as a restorer of mosaics does replacing the tesserae damaged or missing, reinstating the mosaic in its complete beauty, and I have decided to do it in this century in which mankind is hurling itself towards the Abyss of darkness and horror, can you forbid Me from doing so? Can you perhaps say that you do not need it, you whose spirits are dull, weak, deaf to lights, voices and invitations from Above?" (The Poem of the Man-God: Vol. V, pp. 481-482)
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On April 8th, 1948, Jesus dictated the following to Maria Valtorta: “The gaps in the four Gospels, those too strictly literal versions which have allowed the establishment of fertile ground for the plants of deceit, schisms, heresies, separations and denials; in twenty centuries you have not been able to fill those gaps in a way acceptable to minds that are ever more open to and more tempted by Satan who hates me. Those erroneous words, “Joseph did not know her until she gave birth,” and further on, “Mary’s firstborn; Jesus’s brothers; Mary’s sisters” which create confusion among the good and denial in the evil. Gaps and erroneous words that in twenty centuries you haven’t shown how to fill or substitute boldly but in a holy way, in order to save the faith and stop schisms and heresies. So after twenty centuries, and at the eve of the time of the spirit, the great battle between darkness and the Light, I have come to fill these gaps, to substitute them with true, acceptable words. I have come in defense of the Truth, of the life of the Church and the Way of God, which too many have lost.

And you block it! Just like those of old who always opposed Me and blocked My Work in their hearts; you look at the splinters and leave the beams. The weak in faith trip over the beams, and use them to make battering rams to attack the faith and you.

When was I ever loved in spirit and truth?

When did pride of life, a characteristic of ninety percent of the great ones in the Temple, accept My Word as unique and true?...” (The Little Notebooks)
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On May 8th, 1948, Jesus dictated the following to Maria Valtorta: "The canonical Gospel is essential for believing and for saving oneself; but it is not a complete knowledge of Me." (The Little Notebooks)
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On February 22th, 1949, Jesus dictated the following to Maria Valtorta: "I was already sufficiently described in the Gospels, the minimum necessary for the salvation of hearts. Mary was little known. Just an incomplete outline which left too much of Her in shadow. So now, I have revealed Her to you. I have given you this perfect story of my Mother." (The Little Notebooks)

If by "not on a par with Scripture" you mean that The Gospel as Revealed to Me, or The Poem of the Man-God, isn't another Gospel then that's true, as Jesus has made clear through Maria Valtorta. However, it doesn't make it unimportant if Maria Valtorta was truly Jesus's spokesperson, and she was. If you're interested, His seven reasons for the Work can be read here.

 

No problem was that they failed to discern the reason for Christ's Words and actions.