Inclusion of Maria Valtorta's work in the Index: the procedure

Illustration of a meeting of the consultees at the Holy Office

The work of Maria Valtorta was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in December 1959. However, it seems that this procedure was prepared by the Holy Office as early as 1948 and could only be made effective after the death of Pope Pius XII.

The usual procedure

1. The starting point of the procedure

The procedure was generally initiated by the denunciation of a book, an article, or a person, a doctrinal doubt raised by a bishop, or a self-referral by the Holy Office. In the case of Maria Valtorta, the archival document that records the start of the procedure is not available, but the historical context suggests that it was a self-referral.

2. The doctrinal examination

The file was entrusted to consultees (expert theologians). They had to analyze the texts in detail; identify doctrinal errors; write a votum (reasoned opinion). This was an essential phase: everything rested on this analysis. In the case of Maria Valtorta, only the opinion of Father Alberto Vaccari dated January 26, 1949, is available. The brief examination concluded: "as an interpretation of the Holy Gospel, this confused book is worth nothing." It should be noted that the placement on the Index was only pronounced nearly eleven years later (December 1959).

A second opinion was requested from Father Augustin Bea (future cardinal). His opinion, dated October 17, 1952, sought to discern the positive from the negative, but in the end, he recommended not to publish the work due to the numerous questions raised and problems encountered.

3. Discussion by the cardinals

The conclusions were then examined by the cardinals who were members of the Holy Office. These were formal meetings where the conclusions of the consultees were discussed and a vote was taken on the decision to be made. In the case of Maria Valtorta, only the minutes of such a meeting dated February 14, 1949, approved by the cardinals of the Holy Office on February 16, are available. It resulted in a proposal to condemn the work of Maria Valtorta and several disciplinary measures aimed at stopping the initiative of the Servants of Mary who had created a publishing society for the publication of the work. These minutes did not take into account the report of Father Augustin Bea, which came later.

4. Papal approval

The pope was generally informed and had to approve important decisions. This was the case for Maria Valtorta. On February 17, 1949, the Holy Office reported that Pius XII approved the decisions with the notable exception of the one intended to condemn the work. He considered it "excessive and superfluous" according to what the Holy Office reports.

Contextualization

If the initiative of the Servants of Mary was short-lived, the first three volumes of Maria Valtorta's work (which then numbered four) were published by the Pisani publishing company in 1956, 1957, and 1958 without any reaction from the Holy Office. It was necessary to wait for the death of Pius XII and the creation of a new file for the placement on the Index to be pronounced. This followed 39 days after the appointment of Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani as head of the Holy Office. We can therefore assume that the preliminary procedural steps were those of 1949, as mentioned in the article of the Osservatore Romano of January 6, 1960. The imprecision of its dates suggests that the new file did not contain all the documents, notably that of February 17, 1949, bearing the decision of condemnation and Pius XII's refusal. Father Berti, summoned by a new commissioner of the Holy Office a year after the placement on the Index, noted that he was unaware of the papal audience of February 26, 1948, and the letters of support written by associates of Pius XII. They probably were no longer included in the new file. After several interviews, the commissioner, Marco Giraudo, granted, in connection with his superiors, verbal approval for the continuation of the second edition.

Role of Mgr Giovanni Pepe

"Giovanni Pepe (1880–1955) entered the Holy Office as substitute notary in 1933. Between 1942 and 1947, he was chief notary of the Congregation. In 1947, he was transferred to the Book Censorship Section as substitute and archivist, and he left the Holy Office in 1955. Notaries were persons in charge of internal administrative and legal functions within the Holy Office. They drafted minutes, kept official documents in the archives. They certified the authenticity of acts (decisions, decrees, testimonies) and guaranteed the legal validity and confidentiality of procedures.

Mgr Giovanni Pepe thus appears, in the events mentioned, more as a trusted executor than as a decision-maker.

Mgr Sebastiano Masala

At the time of the effective placement on the Index, the decree (December 19, 1959) was issued by a notary, Mgr Sebastiano Masala (1915–1994). Born in Sardinia, he was close to Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, which allowed him to climb the ranks until reaching the prestigious position of judge of the Sacred Rota (the highest court of the Catholic Church), "obtaining the title of monsignor and the privilege of wearing silver-buckled shoes", a mark of the ecclesiastical elite. Sebastiano Masala distinguished himself in 1962 in the placement on the Index of the works of Teilhard de Chardin. But in 2009, Benedict XVI spoke of "the great vision that Teilhard de Chardin had" and Pope Francis, in Laudato Si (2015), recalls that three recent popes mention him favorably.