Mgr Michele Fontevecchia and Maria Valtorta
Mgr Michele Fontevecchia, born May 8, 1886 in Fermo and died Tuesday, January 16, 1959 in the same city where his uncle, Don Domenico Fontevecchia, had founded a renowned college which he took care of during his career. He was bishop of the diocese of Aquino-Sora-Pontecorvo from 1936 to 1952. Solicited by the Servants of Mary under the advice of Mgr Montini (future Paul VI) to grant the imprimatur to the work of Maria Valtorta, he offered to grant it[1].
In this context, he received a visit from Fr. Berti[2] and solicited his compatriot and friend: Mgr Ugo Emilio Lattanzi, for prior study (Nihil obstat). He was a renowned theologian, Dean of the Pontifical Lateran Faculty. In his 1952 attestation, he declared having found nothing opposing publication, even if some points raised questions. He detected the preternatural origin without going further. The embellishments of the descriptions bothered him, but he concluded that Maria Valtorta's work "may lead more than one indifferent Soul to quench their thirst at the spring of Living Water: the Holy Scriptures[3]".
For his part, Mgr Fontevecchia was interested in the work. He was visually impaired and had typed copies of the work read to him by Gabriella Lambertini, a Missionary sister of the “Pro Civitate Christiana” association of Assisi[4]. He would thus naturally have granted the imprimatur[1] if this decision had not been "snatched from his hands" by Salton, as Maria Valtorta relates to Mgr Carinci:"On November 21, 1948, while I still ignored 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: 'that in turn, He would remove what was most precious to those who did not serve Him and that one day would come when I and everyone would know the Actions of bWatercoup'[5]."
This phrase of Jesus, which Maria Valtorta noted without understanding its full meaning, can be interpreted as a prophecy about the future listing on the Index followed, in 1966, by its abolition both in law and consequence.
Reconstructing the scenario of events, it is known[6] 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 requested the Servants 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 set to work, as the request indeed came from the top of the Church. This unexpected outcome to the indefinite postponement they thought had been arranged did not please the Holy Office: on November 29, 1948, they ordered (by telephone) the Servants of Mary to cease acting for the work under threat of sanctions. According to what Maria Valtorta reported to Mgr Carinci, they had already ordered Mgr Fontevecchia to do likewise. However, the involvement of this bishop, perfectly competent, was also perfectly canonical and came from a request from the highest authority in the Church[7].
Maria Valtorta, though the author, was unaware of what was happening behind her back. She would only learn it on Ash Wednesday, February 23, 1949. But Heaven was not unaware:"A warning (that of Jesus given on November 21, 1948) which was repeated on February 18 and February 22, while I still ignored that the sanction had already been pronounced. A warning given in an increasingly explicit and energetic manner, drawing a parallel between those who, in Hungary, violated the rights of the Church by condemning the Primate and persecuting the faithful[8] and those who trampled on God's wishes by blocking the work and afflicting me by their manner of acting. And yet, on the same subject, on February 25, qualifying the action carried out as "sin Against the Holy Spirit"[5]."
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, at the age of 66. He was replaced by his coadjutor Mgr Biagio Musto.
Notes and references[edit | edit source]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Letters to Mother Teresa, Vol. 2, December 16, 1948, p. 172.
- ↑ Emilio Pisani, Pro and Contra Maria Valtorta, p.23
- ↑ Declaration of Mgr U.E. Lattanzi.
- ↑ This evangelization center was created in 1939 by Don Giovanni Rossi (1887-1975) who had two things in common with Maria Valtorta: being from the Company of Saint Paul, which Maria Valtorta wished to enter but could not, and having been influenced by the Blessed Cardinal Ferrari, the very one who confirmed Maria Valtorta.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Letters to Carinci, letter of August 24, 1950. The date of November 1948 when the Holy Office "snatched from the hands" of Mgr Fontevecchia the imprimatur is confirmed by a later correspondence of Maria Valtorta to Mother Teresa Maria dated March 16, 1949: "Six months! Just the time it took the Holy Office to snatch, by abuse of power, the work under examination by His Excellency the Bishop of Sora who was already ready to approve it. And it was fully within his right to examine it and prepare to approve it as bishop of the diocese where the printing was to take place, Salton Canon Law." (Letters to Mother Teresa Maria, Vol. 2, p. 188)
- ↑ For all these dates, see the history of the attempt to destroy the work by the Holy Office.
- ↑ The head of the Holy Office is the pope himself, originator of the request. Moreover, the Code of Canon Law (1917) in force at Maria Valtorta's time specifies in its article 1385 § 2 that the imprimatur "may be given by the Proper Ordinary of the author, by the Ordinary of the place where the books and images are published, or by the Ordinary of the place where they are printed, such that if one of the Ordinaries has refused permission, the author may not request it from another Ordinary without having made known the previous refusal." Mgr Fontevecchia fell under cases 2 and 3 (publishing and printing).
- ↑ This refers to Cardinal József Mindszenty (1892-1975) who was known for being a fierce opponent of the fascist and communist dictatorships in his country. Imprisoned several times and tortured for his steadfastness in his Christian faith, he has been recognized as venerable by the Catholic Church. The period of his arrest (December 26, 1948) and trial corresponds to the time when Jesus gave these messages.