On 30 November 1998, Bishop Roman Danylak S.T.L.,J.U.D., the titular Bishop of Nyssa in Rome, granted his Imprimatur for Maria Valtorta’s spiritual writings in their original Italian, as well as their English translations approved up to that time by the present publishers. An Imprimatur is a formal written declaration of a bishop exercising his charism of teaching authority, assuring the faithful that a work such as a book, is free of moral and doctrinal error.

MARIA VALTORTA AND HER WRITINGS

            Many ecclesiastical and lay authorities have read Maria Valtorta’s writings, especially The Poem of the Man-God, and have judged them authentically of Divine origin. For example:

            His Holiness Pope Pius XII, On February 26, 1948 (in front of three witnesses) he said: “Publish this work just as it is. There is no need to give an opinion, whether it be extraordinary or not. Who reads it, will understand…”

            Dr. Vittorio Tredici, geologist and mineralogist, Italy. In 1952 he said: “I wish to underline the author’s unexplainably precise knowledge of Palestine in its panoramic, topographic, geological and mineralogical aspects.” Maria Valtorta had never gone to the Holy Land, nor had any access to the necessary information.

            Dr. Nicholas Pende, endocrinologist of world renown. In 1952 Dr. Pende declared his astonishment at the way in which Valtorta, in depicting the spasms of Jesus on the Cross, “describes a phenomenon which only a few informed physicians would know how to explain, and she does it in an authentically medical style.”

            Jean Aulagnier, specialist in ancient calendars, author of the book* on Valtorta’s work in 1995: “Having established a scientific chronology of all events and occurrences in Maria Valtorta’s work, I say it remains unexplainable otherwise than by divine intervention.”

            *The Diary of Jesus, Kolbe’s Publications, Sherbrooke QC, Canada.

            Fr. Dreyfus, of the French Biblical and Archeological School, Jerusalem (1986): “I was greatly impressed on finding in Maria Valtorta’s work the names of at least six or seven towns, absent from the Old and New Testaments. These names are known but to a few specialists, and through non-biblical sources…”

            Fr. Marco Giraudo, O.P. Commissioner of the Holy Office in 1961, to Fr. Berti, representing the Servants of Mary, and made responsible for her writings by Maria Valtorta herself (1961): “You have our complete approval to continue the publication of this second edition of Maria Valtorta’s Poem of the Man-God.”

            Pope Paul VI. When Archbishop of Milan, he read one of The Poem’s volumes, and had the complete work sent to the library of the diocesan seminary in Milan.

            Fr. Gabriel M. Roschini, professor at “Marianum”, Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Rome, famous Mariologist, author of 130 books, and advisor to the Holy Office (1972): “The Mariology found in Maria Valtorta’s writings, whether published or not, has been for me a real discovery. No other Marian writing, not even the sum total of all the writings I have read and studied, were able to give me as clear, as lively, as complete, as luminous, or as fascinating an image, both simple and sublime, of Mary, God’s masterpiece.”

            Fr. Gino C. Violini, Calgary, Alberta, Canada (1987). “It is the gospel proclaimed with new vigor and detail. It is a powerful light beamed on the person of Jesus Christ and on His eternal teachings. Indeed this work appears to be the only true vision-and-word revelation on the gospels ever granted to mankind.”

            [Note: For any authentic private revelation, there will always be opposition – whether from lay people or priests, inside or outside the Church. Commentaries, pro or con, about Maria Valtorta’s writings including some useful information, may be found in a Reader’s Group web-site <http://valtorta.alphalink.com.au>, and in another equally excellent web-site: [http://www.bardstown.com/~brchrys/index.html]

            John M. Haffert: All my life, I longed to know Jesus… and I was always looking for the book that would reveal Him to me. My prayers were answered literally when the Bishop of Fatima introduced me to The Poem of the Man-God.

            I happened to be in Rome with the Most. Rev. John Venancio, the Bishop of Fatima, when he sought out a special bookstore to purchase the ten volumes of the Italian edition… Years later, after Bishop Venancio retired, whenever I visited him our conversation seemed to turn to The Poem. In his last years the Bishop read from it everyday. He must have read all ten volumes over and over. I began to wonder what could be so special about it. The Bishop was widely read and had a sizable library. He had been a professor of dogmatic theology in Rome before becoming the Bishop of Fatima. Yet now, when he had ample time to read anything he wished, he seemed to spend all his time on this one book…

            I found my way back to the same bookstore in Rome and bought the ten volumes. Next I bought each volume in French (my “second” language) as it came out. Finally I read the entire work a third time when the English edition became available. Today I continue, like Bishop Venancio, to read it over and over…

            One has the impression that Maria Valtorta would prefer to be forgotten, like a pencil laid aside. But from now until the end of the world, readers of The Poem of the Man-God will bless the day she offered herself as a victim soul and became what Jesus liked to call her: “My little John”… likening her to St. John the Evangelist.

            As was said above, what is special about the work of Maria Valtorta is that it is first hand. The visions of Therese Neumann and Catherine Emmerich are as told to someone else, and therefore incomplete and perhaps even somewhat distorted…

            So we can imagine how much conjecture may have been necessary, for writers who had to fill out the description of visions not exactly remembered.

            We know there are no such distortions in The Poem, which was written while the visions were being heard and seen. But even so… as the Holy See warned in approving The Poem for general reading, historical and geographical data are not always to be taken literally…

            One tends to become childlike in old age, and I sometimes wonder if it is not necessary to be like children, to grasp the wonder of Jesus as we find Him in The Poem… truly a man, while at the same time God…

            To my surprise, I learned in further discussions, that it was not the size of the work, but the very work itself which had proved intimidating. The Poem reveals Jesus to be really man. And it is possible to feel that our utter faith in His Divinity is tested, when we admit that He was a Man. Many of us have so constantly affirmed His Divinity, that we cannot dare to think of Him as a Man born in human ignorance, even though as God He was omniscient.

            But if we read The Poem through, we do not have to dare. Little by little we come to SEE the reality of Jesus as a Person, with two very real natures. And that is the WONDER of the Poem…

            Another benefit I had was to read The Poem before it was published in English, my native tongue, in which words seem often like weathered coins, while those in a second or third language seem quite often to sparkle like new, not clouded by the same range of different usages.

            While editor of Soul Magazine… a person wrote that a certain passage seemed  to say that Jesus favoured women priests. And sure enough, at least out of context, that seemed to be the case… But it was due to an ambiguity in the English translation…

            One can find fault here and there in almost any work, including scripture, by taking words too literally or taking them out of context…

            The Ven. Gabriel Allegra, O.F.M., whose process for canonization was opened in 1984 just 8 years after his death, was a theologian and a biblical exegete. He wrote:

            “The Poem never contradicts the Gospel but admirably completes it, making it living, and powerful, tender and demanding… the crowds move, shout, are agitated. The miracles you would say are SEEN. The discourses of Our Lord, even the most difficult in their conciseness, become of solar clarity… Whoever reads this work breathes at last the atmosphere of the Gospel and almost becomes one of the crowd which follows the Master.” So say we all: The gospels come alive.

            Answering the critic in 1961, the Venerable Father Allegra realized that the critic had never read the entire work. He wrote: “When completed, The Poem makes us better understand the Gospel, but does not contradict it. I still do not know how to explain to myself, and perhaps I will never know, how the Lord had ever shown His earthly life to a soul of the 20^th century, but I believe in the Love which can do all.”… That’s the bottom line… knowing the tree by its fruit…

            One thing is certain: In The Poem we know that what we read (barring faults of translation from the original Italian, some of which are unfortunate) is what Maria Valtorta heard and saw. She herself, while seeing and hearing, wrote it down…

            Our Lord has revealed Himself more and more during the past 2,000 years. And now, when there is much confusion, He has given us this great gift, The Poem of the Man-God…

            The Poem says that St. Joseph lived by faith, without ever having seen the miracles of his foster Son. Scriptures confirm that Jesus performed his first miracle at Cana.

            Oh! What lessons for us all! The ordinary circumstances of life are our means of sanctification. Holy fulfillment (which is sanctification) of everyday activities is the alpha and omega of holiness. Oh! Blessed Poem which reveals this reality!

            The Poem does not replace the gospel – as almost every scholar who has commented on it repeats over and over – but enhances them. Indeed, the more we read The Poem the more we feel a real need to read the Bible, both the Old Testament and the New…

            It is with good reason that, while approving The Poem for general reading, the Holy See warns that it is NOT “revelation”. It does not replace or even add to “public revelation”. It is essentially like all those other books about the Life of Our lord which are approved by the Church as pious reading, to help us to a better knowledge and deeper love of him.

            Pope Pius XII, after reading The Poem, told the Servite Fathers to publish it, saying: “Those who read it will understand…”

            Cardinal Gagnon certified that the above was a papal imprimatur, given before witnesses (whose meeting with the Pope was reported in the Vatican newspaper).