Bishops of Aquino-Sora-Pontecorvo and Maria Valtorta
The Diocese of Sora, where the episcopal seat is located, concerns Maria Valtorta for two reasons:
- Its jurisdiction includes Isola-del-Liri, where the Valtortian Editorial Center that publishes Maria Valtorta's works and the Maria Valtorta Heir Foundation (Fondazione Erede di Maria Valtorta), which manages her material and spiritual heritage, are located.
- As the diocese of the publisher, the local bishops were solicited from 1948 to grant the imprimatur (authorization to publish) to "Words of Eternal Life", the first title call of the work now known as The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me.
The Diocese of Sora only had to deal with the imprimatur of the work but not with the cause of beatification of Maria Valtorta. That falls under the diocese where Maria Valtorta lived and died: Viareggio. This city depends on the Archbishops of Lucca.
The Diocese of Aquino-Cassino-Sora-Pontecorvo
Formed from a grouping of former dioceses, it is located in the province of Frosinone and in the Lazio region. Lazio is the region around Rome, about 100 km to the west. Sora, of modest size (25,000 inhabitants), is nevertheless the most populous city of the diocese if one excludes Cassino.
The diocese is known for some great figures of Christianity:
- St Thomas Aquinas, the Angelic Doctor born in the Diocese of Aquino at the castle of Roccasecca.
- St Benedict, Patron of Europe and major figure of monasticism (Rule of St Benedict), whose millennium-old Abbey is located in the Diocese of Cassino but outside its jurisdiction.
- St Scholastica, twin sister of St Benedict of Nursia. She founded the first female monastery that adopted the Benedictine rules.
Other figures from civil society illustrate this territory: Cicero[1] and Vittorio De Sica, for example.[2]
Maria Valtorta's Publisher
It was Pius XII who, on October 25, 1948, asked through his private secretary, Mgr Montini, future Paul VI, that the imprimatur be confirmed by an Italian bishop to avoid reactions from "certain hostile prelates"[3].
Mgr Montini suggested to the Servites of Mary, Mgr Michele Fontevecchia, Bishop of Aquino-Sora, the diocese where Michele Pisani Editions (currently the Valtortian Editorial Center), then specialized in religious editions, was located.
Imprimatur[edit | edit source]
Pius XII had given the opinion that was solicited from him on the work of Maria Valtorta. He encouraged its publication while leaving the question of a divine origin or not to the reader's freedom. Such is the law of the Church which does not endorse the divine origin of private revelations, even recognized ones, but which allows (or not) their cautious reading (or devotion). Pius XII requested that the usual imprimatur issuance proceed, not because he had doubts, but because these are the procedures of the Church of which he is the guardian.
The imprimatur (whether printed) indicates that the work has been authorized for publication by "the ordinary of the diocese," or another ecclesiastical authority. It guarantees that it contains nothing contrary to Catholic faith or morals.
For this, authorization is preceded by a thorough reading culminating in a Nihil obstat (nothing opposes). This assessment means that the publication is free of doctrinal error and not contrary to Catholic morality. It is issued by a qualified person.
Even if the Pope’s opinion was, by his office, the double authorization[4], formalization was required which Mgr Constantino Barneschi granted very quickly. The Holy Office protested: an Italian bishop was needed. The Pope thus requested compliance. Which was done.
Mgr Michele Fontevecchia[edit | edit source]
Mgr Michele Fontevecchia proposed to grant the imprimatur[5] and submitted the study of the work to his compatriot and friend: Mgr Ugo Emilio Lattanzi, a renowned theologian, Dean of the Pontifical Lateran Faculty. In his 1952 certification, he declared having found nothing opposing publication, even if some positions puzzled him. He detected a preternatural origin without further judgment. The ornate descriptions bothered him, but he concluded that Maria Valtorta's work "could bring more than one indifferent soul to quench themselves at the source of living water: the Holy Scripture"[6].
On his side, Mgr Fontevecchia was interested in the work which he had read to him as he himself was becoming a confessor. He would therefore have naturally granted the imprimatur[5] if this decision had not been "snatched from his hands" as Maria Valtorta reports to Mgr Carinci:"On November 21, 1948, while I still did not know that the Holy Office had taken charge of the matter, snatching it from the hands and judgment of His Excellency the Bishop of Sora and his Reviewer Monsignor Lattanzi, he (Jesus) said: "in turn, I would remove that which mattered most to those who did not serve him and that a day would come when I and everyone would know the actions of many"[7]."
This phrase of Jesus, which Maria Valtorta notes without understanding its scope, can be interpreted as a prophecy regarding the future placing of the work on the Index followed, in 1966, by its abolition in law and consequence.
Reconstructing the scenario of events, it is known[8] that the Holy Office protested against the imprimatur given during the summer of 1948 to Maria Valtorta's work by Mgr Constantino Barneschi. That on October 25, 1948, Pius XII asked the Servite Order of Mary to entrust the imprimatur to an Italian bishop to avoid the reactions of "certain hostile prelates". Mgr M. Fontevecchia was favorably contacted. It seems that he and Mgr Lattanzi quickly got to work, as the request indeed came from the top of the Church. This unexpected outcome to the indefinite postponement they thought they had imposed did not please the Holy Office: on November 29, 1948, they ordered (by phone) the Servites of Mary to stop acting for the work under penalty of sanctions. According to what Maria Valtorta reported to Mgr Carinci, they had already ordered Mgr Fontevecchia to do the same. Nevertheless, the involvement of this bishop, perfectly competent, was fully canonical and came from a request from the highest levels of the Church.
Maria Valtorta, who is nevertheless the author, ignores what was plotting behind her back. She only learned about it on Ash Wednesday, February 23, 1949. But Heaven knew all:."A warning (that of Jesus given on November 21, 1948) which was repeated on February 18, 1949, and February 22, while I still did not know the sanction was already pronounced. A warning given more and more explicitly and energetically, drawing a parallel between those who, in Hungary, violated the rights of the Church by condemning the Primate and persecuting the faithful and those who trampled on God's wishes by blocking the Work and afflicting me by their way of acting. And again, on the same subject, on February 25, qualifying the action accomplished as "sin against the Holy Spirit"[7]".
The progressive blindness eventually prevented Mgr Fontevecchia from exercising his ministry. Before reaching the age limit, he retired shortly after these events, on April 19, 1952, he was 66 years old. It was his coadjutor who replaced him.
Mgr Biagio Musto[edit | edit source]
The same with his successor Mgr Biagio Musto who later confessed having also wanted to grant the imprimatur but having also been subjected to pressures[9]. By whom? The next bishop will write about it.
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
- ↑ Born in Arpino. He was a brilliant orator and politician at the time of Julius Caesar and Augustus.
- ↑ Born in Sora, he was a prolific actor of the 1950s/60s (135 roles) as well as a director (32 films including Bicycle Thieves and Two Women).
- ↑ Letters to Mother Teresa Maria, Vol. 2, November 11, 1948, p. 160.
- ↑ See the opinion of Cardinal Édouard Gagnon on this point.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Letters to Mother Teresa, Volume 2, December 16, 1948, p. 172.
- ↑ Declaration of Mgr U.E. Lattanzi.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 Letters to Carinci, letter of August 24, 1950.
- ↑ For all these dates, see the history of the attempt to destroy the work by the Holy Office.
- ↑ Marta Diciotti, una vita con Maria Valtorta, page 388.