John Haffert and Maria Valtorta

Mgr João Pereira Venâncio and John Mathias Haffert. Source: Maria Valtorta Reader's Group

John Mathias Haffert (1915–2001) was an American Catholic writer and editor best known for having co-founded the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fátima (1947), of which he quickly became the leader. In this capacity, he worked with the surviving seer, Sister Lucia dos Santos, on the Blue Army’s oath. J. Haffert discovered the work of Maria Valtorta at the instigation of Mgr João Pereira Venâncio, who was then a priest in Leiria, Portugal but later became its bishop (1958–1972). This diocese houses the sanctuary of Fátima.

Surprising Correlations

As you will read, it was through Abbé Andrew the Apostle Richard (1899–1993) that Mgr João Venâncio discovered and became passionate about The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me (known in the English-speaking world as The Poem of the Man-God). Abbé Andrew the Apostle Richard was co-founder of the magazine L'Homme nouvWater, whose Cardinal Ratzinger was a reader. The Abbé wrote laudatory articles about Maria Valtorta and the magazine disseminated her works. In the 1990s, the Cardinal asked the editor, Marcel Clément, to hold off on these articles while he verified certain points of the work. After a year, thanking Mr. Clément for his obedience, he wrote that nothing opposed the Doctrine and that publication could resume. This Nihil obstat from the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has been attested, notably by an eyewitness journalist.

Maria Valtorta was particularly devoted to Our Lady of Fátima, who manifested several times during the period when Mgr Venâncio was bishop and who forwarded Sister Lucia’s third secret to the Vatican.

John Haffert wrote several works on Fátima but also on his discovery of Maria Valtorta’s work, which enthused him. We reproduce the main passages below.

That Wonderful Poem! (Ce merveilleux Poème!)

Excerpts taken from Maria Valtorta Reader's Group, which notes that the booklet is reproduced "with the kind permission of (Fire) John Haffert, an eminent American layman, author and former editor of Soul magazine."

In my book "You, Too, Go Into My Vineyard" (pub. LAF, January 1995, 225 pages), I recount how I discovered The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta.

Mgr Venâncio

He Discovers the Poem Thanks to Mgr Venâncio

I was in Rome with Mgr João Venâncio, Bishop of Fatima, while he was searching for a specialized bookstore to buy the ten volumes of the Italian edition. It had been recommended to him by a highly esteemed friend from Paris, the famous author-editor, Abbé Andrew the Apostle Richard.

Years later, after Bishop Venâncio retired, each time I visited him, our conversation seemed to revolve around the poem. In his later years, the bishop read it daily. He must have read the ten volumes many times. I began to wonder what could be so special about it. The bishop was an avid reader and possessed a considerable library. He had been a professor of dogmatic theology in Rome before becoming bishop of Fatima. But now, with all the time to read whatever he wanted, he seemed to devote all his time to this one book.

At the time, it was only available in Italian, which was not my native language. But I returned to the same bookstore in Rome and bought the ten volumes. Later, I bought each volume in French (my “second” language) as they came out. Finally, I read the entire work a third time (3,327 pages) when the English edition became available. Today, I continue, like Mgr Venâncio, to read and reread it.

A FIRSTHAND ACCOUNT

The poem is unique in that it is a firsthand account of visions of the life of Jesus, recorded by a naturally gifted writer named Maria Valtorta. She personally wrote descriptions of the visions as she saw them. She describes real scenes and records — word for word — the conversations she hears.

The Gospels, in these vivid scenes and conversations, come alive. There has never been a book like this.

He then presents the case of Maria Valtorta, Soul victim, and draws a parallel with Thérèse Neumann, a Bavarian mystic born and died one year apart from Maria Valtorta.

Therese Neumann

THÉRÈSE (NEUMANN) COULD NOT REMEMBER

During the Annunciation vision of Thérèse Neumann, Father Naber (her parish priest and confessor) could not write fast enough what Thérèse said. He interrupted her to ask what word followed another. Thérèse (and this was only a few words later!) said: "You should have written faster, Father, I don't remember anymore."

One can therefore imagine how much conjecture may have been necessary for writers who had to fill in descriptions of visions they did not exactly remember.

We know that this poem does not contain such distortions, because it was written while the visions were being seen and heard. But even so, one should not always take them literally. As the Holy See warned when approving the poem for general reading, historical and geographical details should not always be taken literally, as we will explain shortly.

Father Gabriel Roschini

He Investigates the Work

John Haffert then mentions the testimony of Father Gabriele Roschini and describes the discussions with his circle. He draws some remarks which he shares.

After writing this booklet, I asked the opinion of two longtime friends. The first was Father Venard Poslusney, O. Carm., a Carmelite specialist in mystical theology who had spent many years in a contemplative hermitage in Austria. He was over seventy years old when he discovered the poem. He was so fascinated that he began recording a commentary on the entire work on audio tapes. He can be heard exclaiming repeatedly on the tapes: "Oh! How could anyone think this work was not supernatural!"

I eagerly sought his opinion because: 1) he was well trained in theology; 2) he had read the poem many times and was aware of all the criticisms. In fact, he had himself answered much of it. His only suggestion was that I should write more. His comment: "That's what we need!"

The second person whose critique I eagerly sought was the superior of a religious community whom I had known and respected for a long time but who — unlike Father Venard — had never wholeheartedly accepted the Poem. I thought perhaps the size of the work may have intimidated her, as she was the superior of a very busy community. But she had read substantial parts.

To my great surprise, I learned while discussing this booklet that it was not the size of the work but the work itself that had proven intimidating. The poem reveals that Jesus was really a man. And it is possible to feel that our absolute faith in his divinity is tested when we admit that he was a man. Many of us have so consistently affirmed his divinity that we dare not think of him as a man born in human ignorance, even though as God he was omniscient.

But if we read the poem in its entirety, we need not dare. Little by little, we learn to SEE the reality of Jesus as a Person, with two truly real natures. And that is the WONDER of the poem.

I wish Father Roschini were still alive to tell us what prevented him for years from accepting the Poem, then, at the end of his life, perhaps becoming its greatest defender of the 20th century. (There may be an even greater one in the 21st century!)

But I believe he would have told us he started by reading “parts.” And perhaps he lacked the example of someone wiser than him, as I had in Bishop Venâncio (for me both a theologian and a saint), whose joy in old age was to discover Jesus in the Poem.

He Discovers the French Edition

It is the first edition, translated by Felix Sauvage (1979).

Another advantage I had was reading the poem before it was published in English, my mother tongue, in which words often resemble worn coins, whereas those in a second or third language often seem to sparkle like new, without being obscured by the same range of different uses.

While I was editor of Soul Magazine (which then had about 240,000 subscribers), I brought the poem to the English-speaking public. Later, a reader wrote to tell me a priest had denounced the poem because he had read it in French and it said Jesus died on a cross of “Saint-Andrew the Apostle.” He also mentioned one or two other contradictions.

I immediately knew this was not true. But I went back to the French edition to be sure. I could not imagine a priest wanting to defame the poem with lies. But in fact, what he said was simply not true.

Another person wrote that a certain passage seemed to say Jesus favored women priests. And indeed, at least out of context, that seemed to be the case… But it was due to ambiguity in the English translation. Moreover, the following paragraph perfectly explained the true position.

One can find flaws here and there in almost any work, including the Scriptures, by taking words too literally or out of context.

Our Lady of Medjugorje

Medjugorje

It is interesting to note that Father Slavko Barbaric of Medjugorje said: “If we want to know and love the Gospels, let us read the Poem of the Man-God.” (We are told that Our Lady said that the City of God of Marie d'Agreda and the Poem were “true,” according to the visionary Marija, speaking live on EWTN.) But another priest, who was guide and interpreter at Medjugorje, is a chief critic of the Poem. Curiously, we owe him much because his critiques led to a scholarly defense written by Bishop Roman Danylak of Toronto, which was widely disseminated. His Excellency wrote: "My first reaction (to this critique) was apprehension. I returned to the original Italian… and reviewed the main work of Father Gabriel Roschini… It quickly became clear to me that the criticism came from interpretations of hearsay comments and episode interpretations from the poem.”

Blessed Gabriele Allegra

Testimony of Blessed Gabriele Allegra

The Venerable Gabriele Allegra, OFM, whose cause for canonization was opened in 1984, only eight years after his death, was a theologian and biblical exegete. He wrote:

“The Poem never contradicts the Gospel but wonderfully complements it, making it alive, powerful, tender, and demanding… the crowds stir, cry out, move. It is as if the miracles are seen. The speeches of Our Lord, even the most difficult in their brevity, become clear as day… Anyone who reads this work finally breathes the atmosphere of the Gospel and almost becomes part of the crowd following the Master.”

This is what we all say: the Gospels come alive.

In 1961, responding to a critic, Venerable Father Allegra realized that the critic had never read the work fully. He wrote: “Once completed, the Poem helps us better understand the Gospel but does not contradict it. I do not yet know how to explain, and perhaps will never know, how the Lord was able to show His earthly life to a soul of the 20th century, but I believe in the Love that can do all…”

In one of my books, I suppose I expressed the same thought when I qualified the poem as a special gift from God to our time… and perhaps especially for the time to come, the time of the triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, when the world will be very different. That will be the time of the reign of Jesus, and it is near.

Father AI Winshman, SJ, from the Marian Renewal Ministry in Boston, wrote: “The poem not only opened to me the life of Jesus, Mary, and the Apostles, but challenged me, through Jesus’s life and preaching, and his training of the Apostles, to follow Him more closely. Thanks to this work, I had the pleasure to be with Jesus in prayer, in the same way a teenager insightfully described prayer as ‘hanging out with Jesus.’

That’s it! That is what is WONDERFUL about this poem. We love to be like a child ‘hanging out with Jesus’… and oh! how we come to love Him!

This is the essence: to recognize a tree by its fruits.

We must pity the critics and hearsay that prevent some of us from enjoying this joy. Let us pray that more and more people receive the Grace (and it truly is grace!) to live the experience of the Poem.

But for the good of the critics and our own peace of mind — as we said before — it is important to realize that the very real visions of Maria Valtorta are intended to convey a spiritual message rather than a historical one.

He concludes by examining the differences in mystical accounts such as Marie d'Agreda, Anne-Catherine Emmerich, and Thérèse Neumann, and ends on the role played by Maria Valtorta’s work.

Holy Family (Nicolas Loir)

What Lessons for All of Us!

During His first thirty years, it seems that the will of His Father was that, even though He knew who He was, He lived most of His childhood as if He were ignorant of His omniscience. The people of Nazareth, who must have felt they truly knew Him, had no idea who He really was. For thirty years! That even included His four cousins, two of whom had been educated with Him. The elder brothers and their father reproached Jesus for His beginnings in public life.

The poem says Saint Joseph lived by faith, never having seen the miracles of his adopted Son. The Scriptures confirm that Jesus performed His first miracle at Cana.

Oh! What lessons for all of us! The ordinary circumstances of life are our means of sanctification. The holy accomplishment (which is sanctification) of daily activities is the alpha and omega of holiness.

Oh! Blessed poem that reveals this reality!

Consider again that the poem notes that Saint Joseph lived by faith — like all of us — never having seen Jesus’s miracles. Then note that the Scriptures say the first miracle of Our Lord took place at Cana. We can deduce that Dr Jerry Falwell was not far from the truth when he expressed the belief that Our Lord, as a child, seemed and was like any normal child in His town. (Good, if he had read the poem, I don't think Dr Falwell would have used the word "frolicked"). And Dr Falwell, like many enlightened Protestants today, is firmly convinced that Jesus was God.

The poem does not replace the Gospels — as nearly all scholars who have commented on it endlessly repeat — but it enriches them. Indeed, the more we read the poem, the more we feel a real need to read the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. In the poem, Our Lord quotes from the Old Testament one thousand six hundred thirty-five times. A Benedictine abbot from Georgia accomplished the laborious task of identifying the 1,635 references. Many have read the poem with the Bible and the abbot’s list at hand.

Maria Valtorta’s Work Leads Us to Read the Scriptures

The poem often leads us to a certain moment and simply adds: “What followed is as told in the Gospel.” And how many times (1,635 times!) Jesus, speaking to people from Judea and Samaria, refers in detail to passages of the Old Testament, passages that all Jews knew. How terribly ignorant those who do not read the Scriptures must feel when reading these many important references, while recalling that Jesus said all the prophecies were wonderfully fulfilled in Him.

It is rightly so that, while approving the Poem for general reading, the Holy See warns that it is NOT a “revelation.” It neither replaces nor completes “public revelation.” It is essentially like all other books on the Life of Our Lord that are approved by the Church as pious reading, to help us better know Him and love Him more deeply.

But with Father Roschini, this scholar and author of 125 books, we can say that all other books give us something a bit less than the picture on paper of the living and real Person of Jesus that we find in the Poem.

Pope Pius XII

We have already suggested that a childlike attitude and a truly open mind, as well as a sincere desire to truly know Our Lord, will best prepare us to live this great work.

Pope Pius XII, after reading the poem, asked the Servite Fathers to publish it, saying: “Those who read it will understand.” His Holiness also asked them to “publish the work as it is. It is not necessary to give an opinion on its origin, whether extraordinary or not. Those who read it will understand. There are many visions and revelations. I will not say that all are authentic, but there are some about which one can say they are authentic.”

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

Having first struggled to read the Italian edition, then the ten volumes in French, and finally the English edition, I did not find it necessary to keep Pope Pius XII's words in mind. I lived them. If there is a passage difficult to understand, or seeming very different from what one might expect, it can become clear with prayerful reflection and a sincere desire for Jesus to make Himself known to us.

There are some passages (very few) that critics like to take out of context. It is important to read them in full.

At the beginning, curiosity will drive you to rush. You will think you have READ the poem when you have only a sample. It is likely that the few critics of the poem have not heard enough about it. But they must admit it is a wonderful work, even if it was not supernatural.

Those of us who read as Pope Pius XII advised will find the truth of his words: “Those who read it (with a sincere desire to know) will understand.”

Person who is neither priest nor religious.

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

Official declaration that a person is holy and may be universally venerated.

Person who analyzes the historical, cultural, and literary context of Biblical texts to better understand what they meant at the time they were written and how they can be interpreted today.

First part of the Bible from the book of Genesis until before the coming of Jesus Christ. Parallel