Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Crisis in the Church => Topic started by: Nishant Xavier on October 08, 2019, 05:42:36 PM
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Bp. Williamson, as is well known, has fully endorsed the Poem of the Man-God written by Maria Valtorta. (1) Bp. Williamson said, if H.E. had a family to defend, H.E. would regularly read to them about the life of Jesus and Mary from the Poem; (2) H.E. said a seminarian who had read and mastered all the Teachings of Our Lord in the Poem would be well-prepared for the Priesthood by it; (3) The Poem has also been defended as being of supernatural origin, by other SSPX Priests, for e.g. Fr. Bareille, SSPX vocations director for many years and close friend of Archbishop Lefebvre, and by Fr. Kevin Robinson, here: http://www.drbo.org/valtorta.htm (http://www.drbo.org/valtorta.htm)
In the Book, Jesus says He inspired this Poem as a help to "My holy Vicar Pius X" to combat Modernism, Fr. Robinson: "Valtorta's writings were specially given by Christ Our Lord as a gift to His priests, to support the work of His Vicar St Pius X to combat Modernism (see The Poem. vol. 5, pp 946), and to reveal the truth of the Gospel in a special way. They fill in the gaps. They put you in the picture. They amplify the sacred text, (e.g. the Passion may be five pages in your Gospel, it is 100 pages in The Poem.)"
"About five years ago, after reading and hearing some of the all-too-common misinformation and falsehoods about Maria Valtorta and her writings, I was convinced it was a false private revelation and I energetically began researching it and compiling information into an organized report to give to someone close to me to try to prove to them that Maria Valtorta’s writings were a false private revelation, forbidden by the Church, and should not be read. However, upon investigating Maria Valtorta and her writings in depth, and considering all the arguments both for and against it with a discerning, but open mind, I discovered my initial viewpoint was wrong, and I discovered that the evidence shows that her writings are not only free of error in faith and morals, and approved by a tremendous number of high-ranking, very learned, and trustworthy Church authorities, but that her writings are extraordinarily beneficial for souls and unlike any other book ever written. In my research, I was amazed at the massive amount of extraordinary proofs of the divine origin of her writings, proofs which rival the proofs of the greatest approved private revelations of the Church and put to shame the hundreds of false private revelations circulating around the world today. I began to realize that her writings are the most accurate, detailed, comprehensive, and powerful revelation about Jesus and Mary’s lives ever given to mankind. These writings have transformed my life. The tremendous impact these writings have had on multitudes of priests, religious, and lay faithful around the world is extraordinary." www.bardstown.com/~brchrys/Summa.pdf (http://www.bardstown.com/~brchrys/Summa.pdf)
The Poem was recommended by Pope Pius XII, its second edition was authorized for publication by the Holy Office in 1961, St. Padre Pio said, "I order you to read it" to a spiritual daughter of his, and the Vatican highly praised the work, The Virgin Mary in the writings of Mary Valtorta, by traditional Mariologist Gabriel Roschini; it also now has an Imprimatur from Bp. Roman Danylak: "Imprimatur: http://www.valtorta-maria.com/Pages/001_Bishop_Roman_Danylak-Imprimatur.htm (http://www.valtorta-maria.com/Pages/001_Bishop_Roman_Danylak-Imprimatur.htm)
"to present a letter of commendation, a Nihil Obstat, Imprimatur and a testimonial to this website of a Catholic monk on the writings of Maria Valtorta. Not only am I saying that there is nothing objectionable in The Poem of the Man-God and all the other writings of Valtorta in so far as faith and morals are concerned ...countless others who have given testimonies and writings of Maria Valtorta, the theological commentaries to her writings of one of her early spiritual directors, Fr. Corrado Berti; and the numerous other testimonies and studies on various aspects of Maria’s writings. Biblical experts, geographers of the Holy Land, theologians, prelates and scientists, consistorial lawyers, who knew and visited Maria Valtorta in her lifetime. He adduces the testimony of the Blessed Fr.Gabriel Allegro, OFM, biblical exegete and missionary; and the painstaking scholarship of the present editor, and publisher of the works, Dr. Emilio Pisani, who has collated all the arguments, pro et contra, on the writings of Maria Valtorta. This is a website worth visiting many times both for those that have acquired the writings of Maria Valtorta, as well as for those who have not yet read this Life of Christ and the Blessed Mother, and especially for those who want to cast stones. Dated Rome, Italy February 13, 2002 + Roman Danylak, Bishop"
Anti-modernist Italian Catholic writer Antonio Socci gives one simple piece of evidence of the Poem's supernatural origin: “There are hundreds of topographical names and details and of descriptions of places…which only the latest research and archaeological excavations have brought to light. Maria Valtorta’s Work is, in truth, inexplicable by merely human means.”
This is Socci's article on the Poem. From: https://www.antoniosocci.com/un-regalo-meraviglioso-alla-nostra-generazione-levangelo-come-mi-e-stato-rivelato-di-maria-valtorta/
"Well, if it is true that all would have desired to have been present there, to have seen Jesus of Nazareth – to have seen His Face, "The fairest of the sons of men" – to have listened to Him in some town's market-square, along some dusty roads – to have been present at His tremendous, earth-shattering miracles; then it must be made known to everyone: there exists a work – the only one of its kind in the world; the only one of its kind in history – which fulfills exactly this "impossible" desire.
It was precisely for our very own generation that this exceptional gift was given. It is a work of ten volumes, about 5,000 pages – literally awe-inspiring – where is re-lived, day by day, as though broadcast live, the adventure of Jesus of Nazareth, the God-Man who overturned human history.
...But who is Maria Valtorta? She was born on March 14, 1897. Beginning in 1913, the Valtorta family was living in Florence. She was an active member of Catholic Action and, during World War I, was a volunteer nurse.
Still living in Florence, in 1920, [while walking with her mother], a revolutionary struck the back of the young woman, who happened to be there by chance, thus establishing her condition and subsequent immobility. In fact, after various painful experiences from April 1, 1934, until her death on October 12, 1961, she spent twenty-seven-and-a-half years "nailed" to her bed: a "Calvary," which she lived out with heroic faith ... For this reason, fifty years after her death, the number of those who await the opening of her beatification process is ever increasing. Valtorta was a lady of strong character – greatly reasonable and practical, in no way inclined towards fantastical suggestions – who never desired nor sought after mystical experiences.
The supernatural phenomena began in 1943, just when she thought she would not make it anymore and was close to death. On the morning of April 23, Good Friday, Jesus entered into her life and began daily supernatural visits to her, made by means of interior locutions, visions, and dictations, which bound Maria – already suffering on that bed – to an enormous transcription project: approximately fifteen thousand handwritten pages.
These pages are the fruit of several years of mystical experiences, in which Jesus literally made those days of two thousand years ago come back to life again for the visionary, just as if she had been there at that time; indeed, even more so because she also sees and hears things in those days that the apostles themselves were not able to see, know, and relate (such as the entire, long path of Judas's going astray from the beginning, which was known only by Jesus, Who tried in every way and with a love unheard of, for three years, to save him).
These are exceptional pages, which practically contain all four Gospels and fill in missing periods, solving so many enigmatic points or apparent contradictions. Above all, it confirms the veracity of all the dogmas and teachings of the Church, of St. John, St. Paul, and of all the Councils.
For twenty years, after having laboriously stumbled through trying to read hundreds of biblical scholars' volumes, I can say that – with the reading of the Work of Valtorta – two hundred years of Enlightenment-based, idealistic, and modernist chatter about the Gospels and about the Life of Jesus can be run through the shredder. And this perhaps is one of the reasons why this exceptional work – a work which moved even Pius XII – is still ignored and "repressed" by the official intelligentsia and by clerical modernism.
In Maria Valtorta's Work is found a reconstruction that is so accurate and rich in historical, geographical, and human facts about the Public Life of Jesus, that it is impossible to explain – especially if one considers that it came forth from the pen of a woman who was ignorant of these subjects and of theology, who was not familiar with the Holy Land, and who did not have any books to consult, lying sick and immobilized on a bed in Viareggio, on the Gothic Line, during the war's most ferocious months.
There are thousands of pages, overflowing with information and with the loftiest reflections and meditations; with geographical descriptions which only today, by going onsite, would be able to be done.
There are hundreds of topographical names and details and descriptions of places, which were unknown to almost everyone and which only the latest research and archaeological excavations have brought to light. Maria Valtorta's Work is, in truth, inexplicable by merely human means. Even the literary style is very lofty and profound.
But above all, the Giant – Who runs through these pages and Who fascinates by means of Power, Goodness, and Beauty; Who inspires, by means of words and actions – is precisely that Jesus of Nazareth of Whom the Gospels speak. The world had not seen – nor will ever see – anything comparable."
And Blessed Gabriel M. Allegra, O.F.M, a Biblical scholar, concurs, "The dogmas which the Church continues defending in the course of the ages...are a solemn affirmation of the faith of the Apostles. Through an ineffable charism, Valtorta had been plunged again into the tender, moving, spontaneous faith of the Apostles, especially of St. John ... In her tragic destiny, a powerful and moving figure in the Poem is Mary of Simon, the mother of Judas, and who was so loved by Jesus. No poet or dramatist has ever thought up a profile so robust, so delicate, and at the same time so pitiful, as that unfortunate and gentle woman ... Worthy of note is the manner in which Jesus explains the Old Testament, applying it always to the present, to the messianic era already in progress, and which is about to be fulfilled."
Camillo Corsánego (1891-1963) was National President of Catholic Action in Italy, Dean of the Consistorial Lawyers (where he functioned as advocate of causes of beatification and canonization), and a professor at the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. He wrote in a signed testimony in 1952:31 "Throughout my life, by now fairly long, I have read a very large number of works in apologetics, hagiography [saints' lives], theology, and biblical criticism; however, I have never found such a body of knowledge, art, devotion, and adherence to the traditional teachings of the Church, as in Miss Maria Valtorta's work on the Gospels.
Having read those numerous pages attentively and repeatedly, I must in all conscience declare that with respect to the woman who wrote them only two hypotheses can be made: a) either she was talented like Manzoni or Shakespeare, and her scriptural and theological learning and her knowledge of the Holy Places were perfect, at any rate superior to those of anyone alive in Italy today; b) or else "digitus Dei est hic" ["God's finger is here"].
Obedient as I am (and as, with God's grace, I intend being all my life) to the supreme and infallible Magisterium of the Church, I will never dare take its place. Yet, as a humble Christian, I profess that I think the publication of this work will help to take many souls back to God, and will arouse in the modern world an apologetic interest and a leavening of Christian life comparable only to the effects of the private revelation [of the Sacred Heart] to St. Marie Alacoque."
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Hey, X-sem, good for you! I much appreciate this plug for Maria Valtorta. Well done! Yes, the Poem of the Man God is indeed inspired by God. Additionally, it is a literary masterpiece, as at least one source, whom you cite, readily acknowledges.
Bp. Williams recommended the work to all of us some time ago. But as we might have expected, the usual suspects stepped forward and loudly condemned this magnificent tour de force. Yes, magnificent it is. My wife and I have all five volumes, and read from them daily.
Again, sir, good job.
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Thanks, Hollingsworth. God bless you and your family.
Fr. Robinson in his endorsement also stated, "they continue to edify the Church resulting in many conversions and vocations. It is a masterpiece of sacred literature, unlike anything ever written. In some ways it is like being in the first seminary, trained by the Master Himself. A professor and sculptor friend of Maria Valtorta wrote in 1965: "(her works) have completely transformed my inner life. The knowledge of Christ has become so total as to make the Gospels clear to me and make me live them in everyday life better" (Lorenzo Ferri). All those among our parishioners who have read Valtorta say the same thing ... Fr. Gabriel Roschini, a famous Mariologist who also promoted Valtorta until his death in 1976, considered her writings greater than anything he has ever read on Our Blessed Lady. He wrote over 125 totally orthodox books!" Among other points to note, the Lord Jesus also condemns Darwinian evolution in this work, along with miracle-deniers, "biblical criticism" nuts etc.
From the PDF in the OP: "Don’t Just Take My Word for It: The Thoughts and Testimony of Trustworthy Clerics, Authorities, Experts, Scientists, and Pious Lay Faithful
Professor Fabrizio Braccini of the University of Palermo, in 1979, wrote:26 "What constitutes the finish line for others, so to speak, is, on the contrary, Maria Valtorta's ascetic starting point."
Fr. Gabriel Roschini, O.S.M., was a world-renowned Mariologist, decorated professor and founder of the Marianum Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Rome in 1950 under Pope Pius XII, professor at the Lateran Pontifical University, and a Consultant to the Holy Office and the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints. During the pontificate of Pope Pius XII, he worked closely with the Vatican on Marian publications. He is considered by many to be the greatest Mariologist of the 20th century, was highly esteemed by all the Popes during his priestly life (especially Pope Pius XII), and was often referred to by Pope John Paul II as one of the greatest Mariologists who ever lived.
Fr. Roschini had also personally met Valtorta, but admitted that, like many others, he was a respectful and condescending skeptic. But after carefully studying her writings for himself, he underwent a radical and enthusiastic change of heart, later declaring Valtorta to be “one of the eighteen greatest mystics of all time.”27...
In his last book of 395 pages, which he said was his most important book, The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta, he declared that the Mariology found in Maria Valtorta’s writings exceeds the sum total of everything he has read, studied, and published himself (and he has published over 790 articles and miscellaneous writings, and 130 books, 66 of which were over 200 pages long – almost all of which are on Mariology). As material for a course which he taught at the Marianum Pontifical Theological Faculty in Rome on the Marian intuitions of the great mystics, Fr. Gabriel Roschini used both Maria Valtorta’s The Poem of the Man-God as well as her other mystical writings as a basis for his course.
Fr. Gabriel Roschini, O.S.M., wrote in his last book, The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta (395 pages): 30 I have been studying, teaching, preaching, and writing Mariology for half a century already. To do this, I had to read innumerable works and articles of all kinds on Mary: a real Marian library. However, I must candidly admit that the Mariology found in all of Maria Valtorta's writings – both published or unpublished – has been for me a real discovery. No other Marian writings, not even the sum total of everything I have read and studied, were able to give me as clear, as lively, as complete, as luminous, or as fascinating an image, both simple and sublime, of Mary, God's Masterpiece.
...Blessed Gabriel M. Allegra, O.F.M., was a very learned and world-renowned exegete, theologian, and missionary priest in the Order of the Friars Minor, which he entered into at the age of 16. After being ordained in 1930, he departed to China and distinguished himself as an exemplary missionary and man of culture. As a St. Jerome of our time, he was the first to translate the entire Bible into Chinese ...He was an outspoken and avid long-time supporter of Maria Valtorta, and his latter years were spent reading, studying, promoting, and defending the Poem of the Man-God. Here are a number of thought-provoking quotes from this very learned and holy priest:
32"I assure you that The Poem of the Man-God immensely surpasses whatever descriptions — I do not say of mine, because I do not know how to write — but of any other writer... It is a work which makes one grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus and of His Holy Mother... I hold that the work demands a supernatural origin…. I find knowledge: and such knowledge in the theological (especially mariological), exegetical, and mystical fields, that if it is not infused I do not know how a poor, sick woman could acquire and master it, even if she was endowed with a signal intelligence… I find in her doctrine: and doctrine such as is sure; it embraces almost all fields of Revelation. Hence, it is multiple, immediate, luminous… Gifts of nature and mystical gifts harmoniously joined explain this masterwork of Italian religious literature, and perhaps I should say [a masterwork] of the world's Christian literature… After the Gospels, I do not know another life of Jesus that can compare to the Poem."
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One example where the Poem helps confirm what many traditional scholars have long suspected - though denied by modernists and others - is that the first Post-Resurrection Appearance of Our Lord Jesus Christ was to none other than to His Holy Mother Mary.
Dom Prosper Gueranger writes, "“The Gospel does not relate the apparition thus made by Jesus to his Mother, whereas all the others are fully described. It is not difficult to assign the reason. The other apparitions were intended as proofs of the Resurrection; this to Mary was dictated by the tender love borne to her by her Son. Both nature and grace required that His first visit should be to such a Mother, and christian hearts dwell with delight on the meditation of the mystery. There was no need of its being mentioned in the Gospel; the Tradition of the Holy Fathers, beginning with St. Ambrose, bears sufficient testimony to it; and even had they been silent, our hearts would have told it us.
“And why was it that our Saviour rose from the Tomb so early on the Day He had fixed for His Resurrection? It was, because His filial love was impatient to satisfy the vehement longings of his dearest and most afflicted Mother. Such is the teaching of many pious and learned Writers; and who that knows aught of Jesus and Mary could refuse to accept it?” (from The Liturgical Year, vol. 7, “Easter Sunday: Morning”) http://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/05/did-jesus-appear-first-to-his-mother.html (http://newtheologicalmovement.blogspot.com/2011/05/did-jesus-appear-first-to-his-mother.html)
And, sure enough, the Lord Jesus confirmed it, in Chapter 614, of the Poem of the Man-God. He appeared first to Her, then to Magdalene next.
Jesus said: "«It is all over, Mother. You no longer have to weep over Your Son. The trial is over. Redemption has taken place. Mother, thanks for conceiving Me, for bringing Me up, for helping Me in life and in death. I heard Your prayers come to Me. They have been My strength in My grief, My companions in My journey on the Earth and beyond the Earth. They came with Me on the Cross and to Limbo. They were the incense that preceded the Pontiff, Who was going to call His servants and take them to the temple that does not die: to My Heaven. They have come with Me to Paradise, preceding, like an angelical voice, the procession of the redeemed led by the Redeemer, so that the angels should be ready to greet the Conqueror, Who was returning to His Kingdom. They have been seen and heard by the Father and by the Spirit, Who smiled at them, as if they were the most beautiful flower and the sweetest song born in Paradise. They have been recognised by the Patriarchs and by the new Saints, by the new, first , citizens of My Jerusalem, and I bring You their thanks, Mother, together with the kisses of their relatives, with their blessings and with that of Joseph, the spouse of Your soul. The whole of Heaven sings its hosanna to You, Mother, Holy Mother! A hosanna that does not die, that is not a false one like the one given to Me a few days ago.
4 I will now go to the Father in My human appearance. Paradise must see the Conqueror in His appearance of Man, by means of which He defeated the Sin of Man. But I will come again. I must confirm in the Faith those who do not yet believe and are in need to believe to lead the others to believe, I must fortify the pusillanimous ones who will need so much strength to resist the world. Then I will ascend to Heaven. But I will not leave You alone, Mother, can You see that veil? In My annihilation, I still exhaled the power of miracle on Your behalf, to give You that comfort. But for You I will work another miracle. You will have Me, in the Sacrament, as real as when You carried Me. You will never be alone. But these past days You have been alone. But also that sorrow of Yours was required for My Redemption. Much is continuously to be added to Redemption, because much will be continuously created in the way of Sin. I will call all My servants to this redeeming participation. You are the one who by Yourself will do more than all the others together. But also this long abandonment was required. Now no longer so. I am no longer separated from the Father. You will no longer be separated from Your Son. And, by having Your Son, You have Our Trinity. A living Heaven, You will bring the Trinity to men on the Earth, and You will sanctify the Church, You, Queen of the Priesthood and Mother of the Christians. Then I will come to get You. And no longer shall I be in You, but You will be in Me, in My Kingdom, to make Paradise more beautiful.
5 I am going now, Mother. I am going to make the other Mary happy. Then I will ascend to the Father. Thence I will come to those who do not believe. Mother, Your kiss as a blessing. And My Peace to You as a companion. Goodbye.» And Jesus disappears in the sunshine that streams down from the early morning clear sky."
And just before His Ascension, in Chapter 633, speaking to the audience and the worldly rationalists of today, Our Lord Jesus says: "What is the Eucharist? It is My Body and My Blood united to My Soul and to My Divinity. Well, when She was pregnant with Me, what else had She in Her womb? Did She not have the Son of God, the Word of the Father with His Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity? Do you, perhaps, not have Me because Mary had Me and She gave Me to you, after carrying Me for nine months? Well, as I left Heaven to dwell in Mary's womb, so, now that I was leaving the Earth, I was electing Mary's womb as My Ciborium. And which ciborium, in which cathedral, is more beautiful and holy than this One?
Holy Communion is a Miracle of Love that I worked for you, men. But at the summit of My thought of love, there was shining the thought of Infinite Love of being able to live with My Mother and make Her live with Me until we should be reunited in Heaven. I worked the first miracle for the joy of My Mother, at Cana in Galilee. The last miracle, or rather, the last miracles, for the consolation of Mary, in Jerusalem. The Eucharist and the veil of the veronica. The latter, to give a drop of honey to the bitterness of the Desolate Mother. The former, to prevent Her from feeling that Jesus was no longer on the Earth.
Everything, everything, everything, but try and understand this once and for all, you have through Mary! You ought to love and bless Her at each breath of yours!
5 The veil of veronica is also a goad to your skeptical souls. Since you, o rationalists, o tepid people vacillating in your faith, proceed through arid examinations, compare the face of the veronica with that of the Holy Shroud. One is the Face of a living person, the other of a dead one. But length, width, somatic types, form, distinctive features, are identical. Superimpose the images. You will see that they correspond. It is I. I Who wanted to remind you how I was and how I had become out of love for you. If you had not gone astray, if you were not blind, those two Faces should be enough to bring you to love, to repentance, to God.
The Son of God leaves you, blessing you with the Father and with the Holy Spirit .»"
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Fr. Gabriel Roschini
It is a work which makes one grow in the knowledge and love of the Lord Jesus and of His Holy Mother... I hold that the work demands a supernatural origin…. I find knowledge: and such knowledge in the theological (especially mariological), exegetical, and mystical fields, that if it is not infused I do not know how a poor, sick woman could acquire and master it, even if she was endowed with a signal intelligence… I find in her doctrine: and doctrine such as is sure; it embraces almost all fields of Revelation. Hence, it is multiple, immediate, luminous… Gifts of nature and mystical gifts harmoniously joined explain this masterwork of Italian religious literature, and perhaps I should say [a masterwork] of the world's Christian literature… After the Gospels, I do not know another life of Jesus that can compare to the Poem."
Exactly! One might even argue that her work is the Gospels in an expanded form. But I will not insist on it, lest some armchair theologian come along and rebuke me for even suggesting such a thing.