Synodal motion of the Chinese bishops

Facsimile of note no. 9 of the Synodal motion of the Chinese bishops, recommending Maria Valtorta (Vatican website)

On April 27, 2007, the Chinese bishops, in preparation for a synod (lineamenta) on The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church, expressed the wish that the works of Maria Valtorta could continue to be translated into their language "in order to help the people of God better understand and savor the message of the Gospel."

This ability to understand the synergy between private revelations and Public Revelation is a characteristic of The Missionary Spirit, more pragmatic, which must acculturate the Word of God.

The Synodal Motion

(Translation of paragraph 3 referring to note 9 mentioning Maria Valtorta in the last paragraph).

3. The Word of God as the central element of history, its guide

The Constitution on Divine Revelation teaches us that the Word of God precedes human words and actions. When God speaks, He opens up to men unexpected perspectives of truth and meaning. Saint Gregory the Great beautifully expresses this: "Holy Scripture stoops to our level by using our limited words, so as to gradually raise us, starting from the visible realities around us, to sublime truths." (Moralia, 20, 63).

The Bible tells how the almighty Word of God, from the beginning, engages in a living dialogue with humanity. This dialogue is often marked by dramatic tensions but always ends with victory. The history of the Word of God is inextricably linked to that of humanity, so much so that it even constitutes its foundation.

One can discern traces of the Word of God in nature and culture. Today, it is urgent to help the people of God understand the relationship between public revelation and private revelations, as well as the importance of the latter to nourish authentic faith [9].

This note [9] cites the work of Maria Valtorta as an example of important private revelations to "nourish authentic faith," and the note specifies: "in order to help the people of God better understand and savor the message of the Gospel".

[9] A monumental work by Maria Valtorta

During the first half of the 20th century, during and after the Second World War, an Italian Woman named Maria Valtorta recorded in more than four thousand pages the visions and auditory experiences she received about the Gospel. This monumental work, entitled The Poem of the Man-God (English edition, 1986), is composed of five volumes. It is structured into seven parts:

1. The Hidden Life (chapters 1 to 43);
2. The first year of the public life (chapters 44 to 140);
3. The second year of the public life (chapters 141 to 311);
4. The third year of the public life (chapters 312 to 538);
5. The preparation for the Passion and death (chapters 539 to 598);
6. The Passion and glorious death (chapters 599 to 611);
7. The splendor and radiance of the Resurrection (chapters 612 to 647).

The first part, The Hidden Life (43 chapters), was translated into Chinese and published in 2006. It is to be hoped that the other parts will be gradually translated to help the people of God better understand and savor the message of the Gospel.

This missionary clergy attitude, also found in the Indian clergy, was not - by far - the majority at the Synod. It mentioned private revelations only in a single general line aimed at their exclusion, buried in the middle of a paragraph on sects (Cf. Final proposition, resolution 47 {it}).

Christianity in Asia

Asia is the continent of two giants: India, 1.324 billion inhabitants in 2016; and China, 1.379 billion inhabitants at the same date, representing 36% of the world population combined. Christians in Asia, of all denominations combined, are few (about 13%), but rapidly growing. Christianity there enjoys an image of modernity and freedom.

John Paul II, in his exhortation Ecclesia in Asia of November 6, 1999, prophesied its evangelization: "The Church in Asia will cross the threshold of the third Christian millennium marveling at all that God has done from those beginnings until now and, strengthened by the knowledge that, just as in the first millennium the Cross was planted on European soil, in the second millennium on American and African soil, one may, in the third millennium, reap a great harvest of faith on this vast and vibrant continent."

This vast continent has had its share of martyrs since the early stages of its Christianization, among whom the Church honors:

• The 188 martyrs of Japan, one of the first lands evangelized by the nascent Jesuit order. They mostly fell in the 17th century following Saint Peter Kibe Kasui (1587-1639), a Japanese Jesuit.  
• The 117 martyrs of Vietnam (1745–1862) among whom Andrew the Apostle Dung-Lac, a priest martyred on December 21, 1839.  
• The 120 martyrs of China (1648-1930) following Saint Augustine Zhao Rong, the first Chinese priest martyred January 20, 1815. The year 1900 saw the massacre of 30,000 Christians, all denominations combined, during the Boxer Rebellion. The Chinese communist revolution likely increased this number.

The work of Maria Valtorta in China

The Blessed Gabriele-Maria Allegra (1907–1976) was a Franciscan known for completing the first full translation of the Bible into Chinese (1968), then the first biblical dictionary in that language (1975), a colossal task occupying 40 years of his life.

He began reading Maria Valtorta as early as 1961 (the Index was not abolished) and recorded in his journal the stages of his discovery. His first mention is critical of the Home given to this work:

"[the work] of Maria Valtorta [...] is the complement of the four gospel traditions, and their explanation. This explanation sometimes surprises us, it seems so new, so true and energetic that we are ready to neglect it. These are private revelations! And then, made to a Woman! And we men, priests, know well how to imitate the Apostles who [rejected] the vision that those small Women had of the risen Christ [...] In fact, the Poem of the Man-God does not really deserve to be neglected with the assurance and arrogance characteristic of many modern theologians. In the Church is the Spirit, and therefore there are the charisms of the Spirit. I think that it is only with a charism of the Holy Spirit - only with His help - that a poor sick Woman, of limited biblical culture, could write, within three years, 20,000 pages [...] And what pages! "

Pater Allegra was not the only Franciscan missionary in China to appreciate Maria Valtorta's work: Father Antonio Sisto Rosso (ofm) (1904-1990) conducted historical studies on this work twenty years before this discipline appeared and developed in France.

Another missionary in China, Jesuit Father Fernando Bortone, was expelled from communist China after 18 years of apostolate. He resided in Rome, where he became a great advocate for Maria Valtorta’s work. His missionary apostolate had given him boldness and confidence. One day, he went to protest directly to the prelates of the Holy Office regarding the treatment given to this work: "One does not throw away a mountain of gold only because it might contain a grain of sand," he stormed.

Assembly of Church leaders (mostly bishops), convened to give opinions on matters of faith, morals, or organization.

The whole of truths revealed by God to humanity through the Bible. It is complete and definitive in the Christian faith.

Gift conferred by divine Grace for the common good.

Gift conferred by divine Grace for the common good.