Father Corrado Berti: final testimony

When he wrote this article, Father Berti was very ill. He would die of a heart attack 10 months later (December 15, 1980). This long 13-page article is teeming with details about Maria Valtorta and her writings. It constitutes his ultimate testimony and, in a way, his spiritual testament. It was published in the Dominican journal RIVISTA DI ASCETICA E MISTICA (Vita Cristiana) - 1980 – Year 49 - No. 3 July-September. He probably dictated it to one of his "assistants" who supported him, because the repetitions found several times are typical of a train of thought followed without the control of reading. It was written during the pontificate of John Paul II. The hostility of the Holy Office is a distant memory, but Father Berti makes a few severe allusions to it nonetheless.

"What I Know About Maria Valtorta"

Dates and circumstances of his encounter with Maria Valtorta

"Preparing to write an eyewitness testimony about Maria Valtorta, I feel with regret and shame the need to first present myself briefly but sufficiently so that readers or listeners can one day realize the value or worthlessness of my testimony.

I was born in Florence in 1911 [March 17] and spent my early youth in the shadow of the Basilica Sanctuary of the Santissima-Annunziata where now rest, awaiting the glorious resurrection, the bones of Maria Valtorta. In this sanctuary, perhaps on the very day of my first communion, I felt the Call to the priesthood within the Order of the Servants of Mary. Then in 1928 I went to Rome where I still am (1980) with the only parenthesis of 5 years spent at the Faculty of Theology of the Catholic University of Louvain, where I learned to love scientific rigor, whereas as a young man, residing in Rome and attending what was then called the Pontifical Urban University of Propaganda Fide, I learned to think with my own head, to have clear ideas, and to try to present these ideas with logical rigor.

In 1945, I began frequenting certain hospitals in Rome and I frequented them, as long as my health allowed me, for more than 30 years. In 1946 a pious priest of the Order of the Servants of Mary, therefore one of my brothers, Father Romualdo Maria Migliorini, came to Rome. He had been sent to Rome, almost as a punishment and also so that he would cease to care for Maria Valtorta. Instead, in Rome, he found in me his most affectionate and faithful assistant. See how the Lord, when He allows a tribulation or humiliation, always does so for Good. Thus, in 1946, I met Father Romualdo Maria Migliorini. He was notoriously the spiritual director and then the humble typist of Maria Valtorta.

Father Migliorini was old and especially he was ill. He asked me to help him and I, not out of fanaticism, not to associate myself with the one called the "spiritual director of the spokesperson of Viareggio", but only to help a sick brother, associated myself with him and became his faithful and hardworking assistant.

So I am an eyewitness of Maria Valtorta. Why? Because Father Migliorini could not, because it was forbidden to him, set foot again in Tuscany. Therefore the one who began to go to Maria Valtorta, in 1946, was me. From 1946 to 1961, at least once a month, I went to see Maria Valtorta. I affirm that upon my arrival, I was never left at the door, but immediately invited to enter.

Upon entering, I never found the ill Maria Valtorta with her legs out of bed, never sitting on a chair, never at a table, never with a book in her hand, but always in bed, sitting or half-lying down.

I observed her for 16 years. I never found her studying, I never found her reading theological books or in any case books that could somehow have been used to compose the great works she was then composing. So Maria Valtorta wrote more than 120 notebooks, but never after consulting books. I am an eyewitness to this.

One day, a Franciscan brother came to see me and said: "I want to see the eyes that have seen Maria Valtorta." I took off my glasses and said: "Look at these green eyes like those of cats, these eyes have seen Maria Valtorta, just as these ears have heard Maria Valtorta."

His refutation of criticisms against the Work

"I start immediately with a statement that seems very important to me. Especially lately, articles or comments about the writings of Maria Valtorta have multiplied. I have not yet read the articles written by Professor Fabrizio Braccini of the University of Salerno because I am ill, I say (as it seems). I have not read them yet but I have heard from prepared, honest, and competent people that they are well done and, when the time comes, by reading them or having them read, I would also like to personally become acquainted with them.

Others, on the other hand, are frightening because they are terribly superficial.

For example, there are those who say (like the articles that nitpick, those that relentlessly appear in the magazine Chiesa Viva, of Brescia) that Maria Valtorta's writings are a life of Jesus, poorly novelized.

First of all, the writings of Maria Valtorta, in my opinion, are by no means a novel. The Poem could perhaps also be called a novel as descriptive, but of a beautifully novelized life of Jesus, not poorly novelized, as the one who first used that expression said. It is better said beautifully novelized, excellently novelized, artistically novelized, not poorly novelized.

Moreover, why call it a novel? - Does Maria Valtorta not deserve to be esteemed, to be considered, especially today with the much-proclaimed respect for the human person?

The visionaries of Lourdes, the visionaries of La Salette, the visionaries of Monte Berico, the visionaries of Fatima, the visionaries of Guadalupe have been heard and considered; why wouldn't we also listen to Maria Valtorta?

- Let's listen to her for a moment, let's listen, hanging on the lips of an eyewitness. - Maria Valtorta always said that what she wrote was the fruit of supernatural visions or supernatural dictations.

Why exclude these repeatedly, perpetually repeated statements of Maria Valtorta? - Why exclude them? They are not even taken into consideration, why?

And then, even if one wanted to claim that The Poem of the Man-God is a beautifully novelized life of Jesus, one cannot in any case affirm that the other works, namely: "The Book of Azarias" is a novel, it has nothing fictional. "The Notebooks of 1943" are not a novel, they have nothing fictional. "The lessons on Paul's Epistle to the Romans" have nothing novelistic. The volume to be published soon: "The Notebooks of 1944" have nothing fictional. The last volume to be published, God willing, in a few years, which will consist of "Miscellaneous Valtortian writings", written between 45 and 53, a volume that will have nothing fictional; so it is not possible to explain the Valtorta phenomenon by presenting it as a novel, even if beautifully conceived, it is not possible! - Because it is necessary, with respect, if not to accept, at least to meditate on the words always repeated by Maria Valtorta: "What I wrote is due to supernatural visions, it is due to supernatural dictations".

I am a witness to this, in a certain way, not because I saw supernatural manifestations taking place next to Maria Valtorta, no! - But because sometimes, when reading the writings of Maria Valtorta and going to her, I would say to her: "Mademoiselle, but this sentence is not very clear". She looked at it, checked her notebooks, and sometimes said: "Yes, it's unclear because you typed it badly. The notebook says this and that, you put a - no - and with this - no - you caused an error or an obscurity".

Or Maria Valtorta said: "Yes, the sentence is not clear, clarify it yourselves who are theologians". She could not clarify that sentence herself. Why? - Because she said: "As long as the light of the vision and the dictation is on, I am able to write; but when that little light of the vision and the dictation, when that light goes out, when that voice goes out, then I no longer know how to write".

How many times did she tell me that! -. Now then, and thereafter, it will be necessary to remember this affirmation of Maria Valtorta, that her phenomenon is explained by visions and dictations; and this affirmation of Maria Valtorta can only be excluded after demonstrating that it is certainly not visions and dictations.

Perhaps someone in the books of Maria Valtorta will find imperfections, will also find errors and say: "Here it is not dictated by God, here it is not shown by God because there is an obscurity, and what obscurity! there is an error, and what error!" But in order to say this one must first be competent in the different branches of knowledge, because a dogmatic theologian [who Father Berti was] cannot judge in the liturgical field and a hagiographer cannot express himself in the biblical field. But even if a competent person manages to find some doctrinal error in the writings of Maria Valtorta, it should always be recalled that there is no one on the face of the earth who is always infallible. Even the infallibility of the Pope and the infallibility of the Ecumenical Councils have justly well-defined limits defined by theology, also well defined by the dogmatic constitution of the First Vatican Council on the primacy of the Pope and his infallible Magisterium.

I believe that Maria Valtorta was very preserved from errors, but one cannot say that she was always preserved in everything, because Maria Valtorta could also see badly, misunderstand, write badly, describe badly. The one who moved the hand (I think it is possible to say) was God, but the pen (she called herself the pen of Jesus) the pen could sometimes also be irritated by illness, by fatigue, by the night, by writing fatigue; this pen could sometimes also be irritated.

Therefore, those who, with frightening superficiality, seem to affirm that Maria Valtorta had to be infallible, commit a grave error. Instead of nitpicking, we are struck by this Work of wisdom and mercy that is il Poema dell'uomo Dio (The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me) and the entirety of the Valtortian writings; and we think that this Valtorta wrote in bed; she wrote with little light; she wrote at any hour of day or night; she also wrote for many hours and so she could sometimes have made mistakes, especially in description or writing.

Who is infallible in writing? - Who can instead of "me [mi]" not write "no"? - Who can never be wrong in writing? It would be an extraordinary miracle if Maria Valtorta had never been mistaken; what an extraordinary miracle that would be."

His opinion on Maria Valtorta's writings

"What do I say about the Valtorta phenomenon? - I want to express myself with the greatest serenity, without fanaticism. I hate fanaticism. I want that absolute lack of fanaticism also in me regarding Maria Valtorta; all the more since I only served Maria Valtorta. I was not her spiritual director, as some mistakenly said. I was not her confessor. This means that my testimony is worth a little less and a little more. A little less because it is the testimony of someone who did not know the spiritual depths of the Soul of Maria Valtorta. That is a bit of a disadvantage, a bit of my weakness, but it is also my strength because I am not bound by any secret, sacerdotal or professional. I can speak freely about Maria Valtorta because I did not direct her Soul, I did not listen to her Virtues and her sins. I was not her spiritual director and I was not her confessor. So what did I do for Maria Valtorta? I only read the writings once.

I remember that one of my dear friends, Don Franco Bertolotti, a monk of Subiaco, knows a person who read The Poem and all the writings 18 times. I am very small, an ant, I only read all the writings once, to serve, to annotate. I wrote the first necessary notes in 1959, then I wrote all the notes from 1960 until today 1980: 20 years of work including 15 years of intense work from morning to evening.

These last years, now suffering from serious illnesses, I work less and especially I never work alone but with an assistant, because after the illnesses I will talk about I needed help, and a core of confreres helped me and care for me, with some laypeople to whom I am very grateful. Among these helpers, I remember Father Maggi, Father Choote, Father Crociani, Father Tartamella, Father Maggioreni, Father Lai, Father Curti Vay. They helped me.

I did the theological notes, especially the biblical notes, and I noticed 2 very important things:

1) Maria Valtorta in her writings is always in harmony with faith, she is always in harmony also with the best and most accredited Catholic Doctrine, always in harmony with divine Revelation, always in harmony (or at least not in disagreement) with the best Catholic Doctrine.

The books of Maria Valtorta can be read calmly, they enlighten, they inflame, they never stray from the Faith, never stray from the Church, never depart from what we believe to be the most solid, serious Doctrine accepted in the Catholic Church, even in this time of pluralism (as they say).

2) Another important consideration. I only read once, as I said, Maria Valtorta’s writings, but to annotate them. But I read them studying them, I read them penetrating them, I read them weighing them, I read them classifying them, looking for difficulties, points to clarify and being impressed by the wonderful pearls either of major clarity or even, in a certain sense, the completion of what we knew but did not know with such completeness. I remember an old saint, the great protector of Valtortian writings, the archbishop over 100 years old, Alfonso Carinci, who said: "I have never read a writing so perfect, so clear and profound on Purgatory".

He who said, thinking of Valtorta's fallibility: "The girl perhaps misunderstood, perhaps saw badly, perhaps wrote badly." - See the admiration and moderation. These are the men who understood Maria Valtorta’s writings and these are the men who knew how to speak competently about Maria Valtorta’s writings.

I said, humbly and truthfully, that I read Maria Valtorta’s writings to serve them; but I have one advantage over everyone: I read all of Maria Valtorta’s writings, including unpublished ones. A good volume will soon be published: The Notebooks of 1944. I read them, only once, to annotate them, but I read them.

In two years, perhaps the last volume of Maria Valtorta’s scientific writings will come out, a volume of a “mixture” of writings between 1945 and 1953. I read them. No one else has read them. Likewise, there is the correspondence between Maria Valtorta and Professor Ferri.

Professor Ferri, a great sculptor, painter, and draftsman, my dear friend, I introduced him to Maria Valtorta and in 1950, Maria Valtorta began to receive him at her home and read a passage, or tell the content of a passage, or recount a fact, or explain a character and guide Professor Ferri.

These are things written here and there but then all gathered in the letters I read. Maria Valtorta indeed directed Professor Ferri.

Monsignor Cerri, of Nettuno, published a small book entitled "The Holy Shroud and the Mystical Intuitions of Maria Valtorta". But when, God willing, the volume of the Valtorta-Ferri correspondence appears, Mons. Cerri will have to produce a new revised edition of his small book, because in the Valtorta-Ferri correspondence and vice versa, he will find many elements concerning both the Shroud and also the Passion of Jesus, the Apostles, and other characters. Think, in these letters one finds the description of the noses and ears of the Apostles, to indicate the level of detail.

Valtorta guided Professor Ferri in the smallest details and then told him: "Stop, don’t touch anything anymore, it ruins everything" and Ferri returned to Rome and when he was in Rome, he wrote, he was no longer able to work as when he worked in Viareggio, beside Valtorta’s bed, enlightened and guided by The Spirit and Valtorta’s own words.

These are very important elements, unknown to almost everyone. Few people, eyewitnesses like me, are aware of these details, but others are not known. Therefore, it is not possible to summarily judge the great Valtorta phenomenon of which we, as Italians, should be proud.

I remember that when unenlightened people wanted to end the Valtorta phenomenon, destroy all the manuscripts, destroy all the typescripts, I went to see the President of the Italian Republic Luigi Einaudi and told him: "Excellency, save, with your power as President of the Republic, save this Italian national literary and spiritual monument that is all of Maria Valtorta’s writings".

To tell the truth, he listened to me very kindly, but then did nothing. But the Lord provided, and little by little Maria Valtorta’s writings were not only hidden and preserved but also published by the Pisani publishing house of Isola del Liri, near Frosinone, Italy, and now it can be said that they have spread to almost all nations, because in all countries of the world there are priests who studied in Italy and in all countries there are Italian emigrants. There are millions of Italian emigrants scattered almost everywhere in the world; and everywhere, it can be said, Maria Valtorta’s writings have spread."

Some works on Maria Valtorta, including his own

"And now, I want to talk to you about my latest works. Forgive me, this is my testimony, excuse me if I speak about what I know.

In 1979 I had the inspiration, so to speak, to write my Valtorta Memoirs, also given my poor health (two heart attacks, a thrombosis, two cataracts, four emergency room visits) I have always thought that the Lord could call me away at any moment and I decided to write my Valtorta Memoirs that I wrote last year. A volume of about 400 pages. These are not tightly packed pages, there are many blank spaces, because I wrote it in the form of a dictionary, reserving one page for each person, even if I could only write 4 or 5 lines on that person. Four hundred pages. Now I am studying this work to see if I can make supplements and I have found, for now, 27 more items to add and I add them gradually.

This dictionary of the Valtorta people, what beautiful expressions it contains! I remember one: Professor Giuseppina Azzaro, specialist of Saint Catherine of Siena, this great Doctor of the Church. One day, I went to listen to a lecture by Professor Azzaro and her husband, the Honorable Lawyer Giuseppe, Undersecretary of Finance. Both spoke, in separate conferences, about Saint Catherine of Siena. After the lecture, I approached the Lady to compliment her, to please them, because they had truly been excellent, but also to speak to them afterward about Maria Valtorta, I said: "Professor, now in the Church we have another Doctor of the Church, It is Maria Valtorta, a second Catherine". The Professor replied: "No, Father, Maria Valtorta is not a second Catherine, Maria Valtorta has no equal, she is a unique phenomenon." Many of these expressions are found in this book I wrote on the Valtorta Memoirs.

This book is now confidential, so to speak, because I made very few copies and gave them to the people I respect most in the Valtorta field and who would be well advised to also write their own depositions, as I do, their own eyewitness testimony on Maria Valtorta.

One is Miss Marta Diciotti, who lived for about 30 years beside the sick Maria Valtorta, a meter away, or a centimeter because Marta’s bed was perhaps not even a meter away from Maria’s, and she helped her in everything, except one thing: she never helped her in writing, because Marta never gave Maria Valtorta a book to study, to copy.

Maria Valtorta’s very small and contemptible, if one may say so, library (two or three hundred booklets) was locked and the key kept by the terrible mother.

So Maria Valtorta could not read anything for that. She could not get out of bed and Marta did not give her books because it was forbidden to give books just as it was forbidden to open the small book library. All the beautiful things that many do not know and yet they say in four words that the Valtorta phenomenon is merely a novel-writing phenomenon, or something similar. What novel? But when the great Manzoni was writing, he corrected and corrected. Valtorta wrote in first draft and never corrected mystical writings. In her personal letters yes, there are many corrections, but in the mystical writings there are no corrections.

Pope Pius XII

The great Pius XII, this very wise pope, so favorable to Maria Valtorta, told me, I heard it with my own ears: "Publish this Work as it is. Whoever reads will understand!"

The very wise Pius XII corrected and amended, and entrusted to his friend Mgr Alfonso Carinci: "Your Excellency, sometimes, to choose a word, I spend an hour on it." Valtorta did not stay an extra minute. On each word, she spent the strictly necessary time to write that word. She did not think. If she was interrupted, she resumed – "Mademoiselle, what should I give to the shoemaker who resoled the shoes?" - "Give two thousand lire" - and immediately she resumed writing her mystical writings. Who is capable of that? - "Mademoiselle, how do you make fish soup?" – Like this and like that; then she resumed writing.

I lived in a Faculty of Theology among the professors for 50 years, and sometimes I knock on the door of a professor and find him immersed in his studies and he says to me: "Go away, go away, I’m losing my thread, you made me lose the thread". Maria Valtorta never lost the thread, and did not correct. But it is a phenomenon! This must be studied! We cannot explain or believe that it is explained by simply launching a phrase: "she was a person with the talent of a novelist!" I think I have explained everything. It is not true! First because I said that the entire Valtorta production is not of a novelistic nature. If the Poem is a beautifully, admirably novelized life of Jesus, the rest cannot be explained this way; absolutely cannot be explained this way.

One must take into account these humble confessions of Maria Valtorta, and not exclude what in God’s Church is not excluded, because it is not excluded that many sanctuaries were born following an order of the Madonna, it is not excluded! Why, if it is not excluded that Our Lady spoke in this place or that other, should it necessarily be excluded that she spoke in this other place, to this other person?

This way of acting is not scientific, it is not scientific! It is superficial! It is good only for those who are satisfied with everything, but it is superficial, it is not scientific, it is not rigorous, it is not humble, it is not what respects the dignity due to every human person.

I go back for a moment. I had spoken earlier about the Valtorta-Ferri correspondence and vice versa; I remember the Bottai-Valtorta letters and vice versa.

Who was this Bottai? He was an official of the state railways; very meticulous, and in his letters, he subjected Maria Valtorta to a rigorous interrogation. For example, he asked her: - "How many times have you seen our Lord Jesus Christ?" - And Maria Valtorta replied, I don’t know how she did it: "720"; maybe the Inner Witness reminded her, the one she called her internal Monitor, that is her Guardian Angel, Azarias. It may however also be: "I have seen Jesus 720 times" quite simply.

Maria Valtorta was very simple and one cannot exclude that she told the truth since we know (at least us eyewitnesses know) that she did not lie, except perhaps when she was absent-minded, almost faint-hearted, as happens to all mortals.

I said that I wrote my Valtorta Memoirs which, for now, are not known, because I made few copies and gave them; to Prof. Albo Centoni of Viareggio, because it concerns him, especially from a literary point of view, eliminating all literary errors or horrors; another copy I gave to Marta Diciotti, mentioned above, who having lived next to Maria Valtorta for about 30 years, knows everything about Maria, so she is able to fill my gaps and correct my possible errors; another copy was sent to M.T.M., a mysterious person who likes to stay in the shadows and should be left in the shadows; she is a cloistered nun, a close friend of Maria Valtorta.

I don't know if this M.T.M. will read them, because she is old, because she is ill; so I don't know if she will read my memoirs and correct them; however, out of respect and in consideration of her value, I sent them to her so that, if possible, my personal memories could be archived, completed, and perfected.

I do not know if one day they will be published, but I know that the aforementioned Professor Albo Centoni has interviewed all eyewitnesses; he recorded the depositions of all eyewitnesses on a tape recorder and prepared a volume with the depositions of all eyewitnesses. Who knows, maybe one day such a volume with mine might see the light, I do not even know if it has been done, however.

The aforementioned volume of my memoirs was also given, in copy, to Dottore Emilio Pisani, very deserving, because his father, Cavalier Michele Pisani, began publishing Maria Valtorta’s books when they were, so to speak, condemned to death. He did a great work of faith and trust.

I still remember that I predicted the catastrophe to Cav. Pisani, but Father Migliorini interrupted me saying: "We have warned him 3 times, now enough!" - And I stopped. Cav. Pisani, in 1950, began preparing the drafts of the first edition. Since 1960, the one who takes care of Maria Valtorta’s writings is Cavalier Michele’s son, the well-prepared Doctor of law, Emilio, who ensured that the volumes of the second edition and subsequent editions were all strictly in accordance with Maria Valtorta’s originals; thus the volumes that we can read calmly. They represent, with all the perfection permitted to people of this world, certainly, they represent the Work as it came from the pen of Maria Valtorta, as contained in Maria Valtorta’s autograph notebooks.

Marta handed over the [122] notebooks to Dott. Pisani who has them exactly reproduced in drafts and then in print.

So I have also begged Dott. Emilio Pisani to review my Valtorta Memoirs, especially because he knows all the echo that these books produce among thousands and thousands of readers, with whom he maintains close relations.

I would really like my Valtorta Memoirs to be circumscribed, perfected, and completed and that in the future they could also be published, but along with all the other Valtorta Memoirs, so that future researchers lack nothing, that they have all the literary production, but also everything which, in any way, might help them.

From what we just said, it appears that to write about Valtorta, one must be well informed and not proceed superficially. To understand the complexity of the phenomenon and especially from a historical, geographical, and doctrinal point of view, it may be useful to consult the indexes, particularly the geographical map carefully prepared by Mr. Hopfen, a German engineer of the FAO, with about 25 editions.

Always consult the precise index of the Poema dell'Uomo-Dio. For the other Valtorta books, however, one must take account of the indexes prepared by Dott. Emilio Pisani.

To get an overview and also a detailed idea of Valtorta's Doctrine, consult the Index of [attached] notes to the Valtorta writings published up until the end of 1975 and prepared by Father Corrado M. Berti O.S.M.

His conclusion

"This will be short and concise. A few lines.

In philosophy, there was and perhaps still is a severe metaphysical principle: "Effectus non est maior sua causa", that is to say that the effect cannot be greater than its cause.

Maria Valtorta was intelligent, a writer by birth, and well educated. But her culture or preparation, both distant and near, was certainly much inferior to that which is manifested in her spiritual, doctrinal, or mystical production, if preferred (10 volumes of the Poem and 5 on other theological or various spiritual subjects).

Only the Autobiography and other epistolary and autobiographical writings are explained by Valtorta’s expertise and culture; but the 15 doctrinal volumes cannot be explained by such expertise and culture alone, otherwise there would be an effect greater than the cause, which is metaphysically impossible and absurd.

Therefore, as Enrico Medi [a physicist] said, a natural cause is not enough to explain the effect of the doctrinal Valtorta production, one must seek a supernatural cause

And, as for other similar persons, it seems just and respectful to accept the cause that Maria Valtorta indicates, because she was a humble, honest (if not saintly) and truthful person.

Now, the superior cause indicated by Maria Valtorta to us, eyewitnesses and to all readers, consists in visions and supernatural dictations. Visions which she described both with her innate talent as a writer, but not endowed with exemption from error or infallibility. Dictations, which she transcribed as she heard them, with the fidelity allowed to any human instrument, not endowed with this infallibility. This infallibility is granted only to the authors of the Bible, to Popes, and to defining ecumenical councils."

And this human frailty explains the errors that can be pointed out by truly competent persons placed solely at the service of truth and charity. And therefore not by jealous and vindictive adversaries.

Rome, February 20, 1980

Fr. Corrado M. Berti, of the Order of the Servants of Mary

International College S. Alessio Falconieri - Viale Trenta Aprile, 6 - Rome

Further reading

• Le Father Corrado Berti and Maria Valtorta
• Selection of dictations to Maria Valtorta about Father Berti
• Text of Father Berti's lecture of Thursday, January 29, 1970
• Search in the Valtorta Index.
• Discuss on the Maria Valtorta Forum.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

In-depth research on God, faith, religious Doctrine.

Author who writes about the life and deeds of saints.

In a Christian sense, study concerning God and divine things in the light of Revelation.

Solemn document of the pope or a council defining essential points of the Catholic faith.

Authority in matters of faith and morals exercised over the Catholic faithful by the pope and all bishops in communion with the pope.

Fellowship of the Church who are not part of the clergy or religious orders.

Person who is not religious or a non-religious affair.

(University) Responsible for the quality of teaching, management of faculty and students. (Institution) Head of the corporation.