Holy Office and Maria Valtorta

From Wiki Maria Valtorta
Palace of the Holy Office in Rome (Palazzo del Sant'Uffizio) currently housing the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith

On February 26, 1948, Pius XII, at the end of his audience with the promoters of the work, had explicitly encouraged its publication while requesting that the usual rules be respected and that a bishop grant its imprimatur. This imprimatur, which opened the way to publication, was known to the Holy Office, which regretted it. The papal audience had been obtained through another channel. Almost exactly one year later, on February 17, 1949, it attempted to destroy the work, which the Holy Father refused. It would again try, in 1952, to condemn the work: an unsuccessful attempt during the lifetime of Pius XII.

Timeline of events[edit | edit source]

Publishing preparations[edit | edit source]

  • April 11, 1948: Mgr Alfonso Carinci, secretary of the Congregation for Sacred Rites (currently for the cause of saints) and close to Pius XII, traveled to Viareggio to meet against Maria Valtorta.
  • June 29, 1948: Father Berti wrote to the Holy Father that he had knocked in vain on the doors of many bishops to obtain the imprimatur. He then decided to call on Mgr Constantino Barneschi, a bishop of his congregation[1].
  • Summer 1948: Very quickly this bishop gave his imprimatur to a 32-page booklet entitled Parole di Vita Eterna (Laboremus, Rome, 1948). This pamphlet contained some excerpts and the outline of the work of Maria Valtorta which was to be published soon. It was intended to raise funds for the edition. The author was anonymous. This booklet circulated freely in the Vatican, including at the Holy Office. Everything thus seemed to be well underway.
  • October 14, 1948: The Giornale d'Italia published a call for subscription for the edition of the works of Maria Valtorta. The 32-page brochure, containing the table of contents and some excerpts, mentioned on the last page the imprimatur of Mgr Constantino Barneschi[1].

Warning signs[edit | edit source]

  • October 25, 1948: Father Enrico M. Gargiani (1890-1965), Procurator General[2] of the Servites of Mary, received a request from Pope Pius XII transmitted by Mgrs G.B. Montini (future Paul VI) and Domenico Tardini (1888-1961): that the future publication be secured by a second proper imprimatur[3]. The Vatican Secretariat proposed to call on a printer outside the Vatican to avoid reactions from "certain hostile prelates." It suggested for this purpose the publishing house Michele Pisani (today Centro Editoriale Valtortiano). The imprimatur was to be requested from the bishop of Sora-Aquino-Pontecorvo, the diocese of the publisher, who offered to grant it[4].
  • November 24, 1948: at the request of the Holy Office, while Maria Valtorta's work was about to be published by the Servites of Mary, Father Alberto Vaccari, a Jesuit, was solicited to give an opinion on Maria Valtorta's work. He complied within 2 months[5]. At the same time, the Holy Office decided to call on the Prior General of the Servites "concerning Father Migliorini and C. [Cecchin] in relation to Valtorta... Meanwhile, suspend the collection of memberships and dues for subscriptions to the work." And this was immediately carried out.[1].
  • November 25, 1948: According to Mgr Giovanni Pepe, the Holy Father approved the decree[1].
  • November 29, 1948: Father Alfonso Benedetti (1880-1958), Prior General of the Servites of Mary, received a phone call (but no letter[6]) from the Holy Office ordering Fathers Berti and Migliorini to no longer be involved in the dissemination of the work. The imprimatur obtained was, according to the interlocutor Salton, not compliant with canon law. For him, Mgr Barneschi was only the bishop "of the Zulus"[7]. He was neither the bishop of the author's location, nor of the publisher, nor of the printer[4]. Sanctions were promised in case of disobedience.
  • December 23, 1948: A very rare event, Maria Valtorta received a message from the Eternal Father[8] addressed to Pope Pius XII urging him to defend the work of Maria Valtorta with the greatest firmness. It is unknown whether Pope Pius XII had the chance to read this "dictation," but we know it reached the Vatican and members of the Holy Office read it, as part of it is transcribed in the report of the Holy Office – Brevi Notizie, February 2, 1949.
Facsimile of the daily Il Giornale d'Italia from December 25, 1948, p. 3, archives of the Maria Valtorta Heritage Foundation.
  • December 25, 1948: The Italian daily Il Giornale d’Italia[9] published an article entitled: "The Nativity of Jesus, in the account and vision of an anonymous Christian" with the text of the current chapters EMV 29.1-5 and EMV 207.1-7 from The Gospel as Revealed to Me.
  • January 9, 1949: Under the pressure of alarming events, Maria Valtorta took the initiative to directly address Mgr Alfonso Carinci. She informed him that "continuous and increasingly growing difficulties are coming from some prelates to prevent the successful completion of the work"[10]. Mgr Carinci delayed, stating that it was only a verification, not a condemnation[11].
  • January 20, 1949: Maria Valtorta replied that she approved these verifications because she herself had asked the Servites of Mary not to publish the work before Church approval and that she would continue writing as long as Heaven asked her to. In the margin of this letter, Mgr Carinci noted that he showed it to the Holy Father on January 28, who was impressed and praised her spirit of humility. The Holy Father told Mgr Carinci that he was taking charge of the Holy Office.

First attempt at condemnation rejected by the Holy Father[edit | edit source]

  • January 26, 1949: Father Alberto Vaccari concluded his very critical partial study of Maria Valtorta's work, summarized in the last word of the report: "zero."
  • February 2, 1949: Mgr Giovanni Pepe, head of the censorship bureau, published a report on the "dictations" and "visions" of the hysterical Maria Valtorta of Viareggio, to whom Father Migliorini of the Servites of Mary, her confessor, believed faithfully. The tone was set. On the same day, Father Berti reported to Maria Valtorta "during the offering of candles to His Holiness, he repeated to Father Berti and a Servite of Mary student his intention to approve the work quickly"[12].
  • February 14, 1949: The censorship bureau of the Holy Office decided to condemn the work by an official act (notification): "To publish the prohibition of the publication of the work because the Ecclesiastical Authority found errors in it and that there is nothing supernatural in these visions" (point no. 2).
  • February 16, 1949: Father Berti wrote to Maria Valtorta that everything seemed to be going in the right direction. On the same day, the management of the Holy Office, for its part, confirmed the condemnation.
  • February 17, 1949: The Holy Father did not accept the proposal of condemnation, which he deemed "excessive and superfluous," but approved the other precautionary decisions.

Secret attempt at destruction[edit | edit source]

  • Tuesday, February 22, 1949[13]: Father Berti was summoned by two censors, Mgr Giovanni Pepe, in charge of book censorship, and Father Girolamo Berruti. He was not allowed to speak, only to sign the letter from the Holy Office and to hand over the manuscripts in his possession[14]. "Here they will remain as in a tomb," said Mgr Pepe[15]. On that date, while Maria Valtorta was unaware of this destruction attempt, Jesus prophetically commented: "As for you, rejoice, my Soul, for you thus have the sign that you truly belong to me. To those who belong to me, I give my sign: to be persecuted, accused, and unjustly condemned. Remember: always question the truth of persons who seem to be my servants or profess it if you do not see them persecuted"[16].
  • Wednesday, February 23, 1949: day of Ash Wednesday (Lent entry), a lay friend came to announce to Maria Valtorta that the work had been condemned. That the Holy Office had taken all precautions to keep it secret but that it had leaked[17]. He sent an attorney to order the Servites of Mary to comply with this condemnation. On this occasion, the attorney informed Maria Valtorta of all the provisions of canon law that this condemnation had violated.

Contextual elements[edit | edit source]

In 1952, the Holy Office commissioned Father Augustin Bea to provide an opinion on the decision to be made regarding Maria Valtorta's work. On October 17, 1952, he concluded that it was inappropriate to publish an ambiguous work. This document, by its nature, its addressee, and its conclusions, proves that the decision had not been made earlier. Which invalidates:

  • The Salton thesis that the decision to ban had been made on February 17, 1949 with the Holy Father's assent. An unpublished decision is not opposable to anyone.
  • The legitimacy of Mgr Giovanni Pepe's meeting of February 22, 1949, ordering Father Berti not to publish the work besides handing over the manuscripts.

This also explains why the article in the Osservatore Romano of 1960 commenting on the placement on the Index vaguely and unusually refers to "memories from about ten years ago"[18]. It is therefore incorrect to translate this ambiguity as "1949" and confirms that the 1959 decision of the Holy Office referred only to its own opinion not validated by the Holy Father at the time, as per the law[19].

Notes and references[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Report by Mgr Giovanni Pepe dated February 2, 1949.
  2. ↑ Procurator. In a religious order, the procurator general is in charge of the material interests of the order. He is thus the general secretary to whom the Pope's two collaborators addressed themselves as their hierarchical equivalent.
  3. ↑ Letters to Mother Teresa Maria, volume 2, November 11, 1948, pp. 167-168.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Ib°, December 16, 1948, page 172.
  5. ↑ The late Gabriele Allegra, a recognized biblical scholar, took two years to study the work.
  6. ↑ Yet Mgr Giovanni Pepe speaks well, in his report, of a "decree," thus an official written document.
  7. ↑ It is hard to imagine the Holy Father; supposed guarantor of the decision, using such language. Moreover, it contradicts the request of October 25, 1948.
  8. ↑ The Notebooks, dictation of December 23, 1948, 11 a.m.
  9. ↑ At that time Il Giornale d'Italia was a moderate Roman daily, read by administrative and intellectual elites, exerting significant qualitative influence in circles close to power and the Vatican.
  10. ↑ Letters to Mons. Carinci {it}, letter of January 9, 1949.
  11. ↑ Id°, letter of January 17, 1949.
  12. ↑ Letters to Mother Teresa Maria, Volume 2, p. 188.
  13. ↑ Maria Valtorta places this day in an undated correspondence (Letters to Mother Teresa Maria, Volume 2, p. 188). It is 20 days after the approval of the work entrusted by Pius XII on February 2. She learned it on the day of Lent’s entry (Wednesday, February 23, 1949), as indicated in note no. 14.
  14. ↑ Father Berti, the sole witness, reported the circumstances of the meeting but did not specify the exact date. Ten years later, the author of the Osservatore Romano article did the same. Note that this condemnation attempt came almost exactly one year after the papal audience encouraging the publication of the work.
  15. ↑ "Qui rimaranno come in un sepolcro" Testimony of Father Berti: Exposizione, § 4.
  16. ↑ The Notebooks, p. 204. In the same work, on February 25, 1949, Jesus commented: "The gift of the Work was a trial proposed to you before anyone else, then to Romualdo [Migliorini], then again to the whole Order of the Servites, and finally to the teaching Church. Each responded according to their abilities and love. Of you four, you are the only one to have overcome this trial perfectly" (Idem, pp. 206).
  17. ↑ Correspondence with Mgr Carinci, letter of March 8, 1949, pp. 24-25.
  18. ↑ Memories and not decrees. No precise date: a very unusual behavior. It seems explained by the reassembly of the file, after the death of Pius XII in 1958 (it became 144/58). This new file, serving for the Index, apparently no longer contains traces of this February 1949 condemnation linked to the refusal of Pius XII.
  19. ↑ In the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office, the Pope held final authority over all doctrinal and disciplinary decisions. Although the Holy Office dealt with matters of faith and morals, all its actions and decrees were subject to papal approval. The censorship proposal for Maria Valtorta's works of February 17, 1949, was not retained by Pius XII. The Bea report of October 17, 1952, which attempted to regain control, was not validated by the Pope as long as he lived, despite the editions of 1956, 1957, 1958. Therefore, in its 1960 article, the Holy Office cannot refer neither to a 1949 decision, invalidated, nor to a post-1952 decision which was not made, at least during the Pope’s lifetime.

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