Horvat's polemical article is ridiculous and misleading and has been refuted before. In 1961, the Holy Office approved the second edition of the Poem for publication: “Continue to publish this second edition. We will see how the world receives it.”
St. Padre Pio said to a spiritual daughter of his, "
“Father, I have heard mention of Maria Valtorta’s books. Do you advise me to read them?” Padre Pio replied, “I don’t advise you to—I order you to!” http://www.bardstown.com/~brchrys/Padre-Pio-Valtorta.htmlHe thus vouched for the fact that she was an authentic mystic, as she had once done during the time St. Pio himself was misunderstood by Church authorities, when Maria Valtorta said the Franciscan Friar was really holy instead. St. Pio has never given such an endorsement of any other book outside the Holy Bible.
Bp. Williamson is not unaware of these objections and has sufficiently answered most of them. Many of them are just hopelessly and ridiculously taken out of context, as anyone who has actually read more than 10 pages of the book will know. The passage on St. Peter for e.g. is totally misrepresented by Horvat; St. Peter wanted to adopt a child, at first Our Lord said no. Later, Mother Mary interceded for him, and then it was granted. As for the other things, Horvat is misunderstanding a spiritual truth. The Gospel calls St. John the Apostle whom Jesus loved, and when the Poem says St. John's heart was inflamed by the love of Jesus it means no more than that.
The Mystical City of God by Ven. Mary of Agreda is another excellent book. That book also had its critics before being fully approved. It's amazing that the critics of works that stretch into thousands and thousands of pages can come up only with 3 or 4 recycled objections.
Fr. Gabriel Roschini was one of the leading Mariologists of the last century:
"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. 28 Fr. Roschini is also one of the authorities whose favorable certifications about Maria Valtorta was given to the Holy Office in 1961 by Fr. Corrado Berti, which led the Holy Office to grant their approval of the publication of the second edition of her work.29"
http://www.bardstown.com/~brchrys/Summa.pdfDRBO has an article from Fr. Kevin Robinson, SSPX: "Fr. Roschini O.S.M. exposes the falsity of this charge in his book The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta (Kolbe., Sherbrooke, Canada, 1986, pp. 276-279) ... He goes on to quote 10 saints and numerous other theologians in support of Valtorta! This is context.
With Valtorta, as with the canonical Scriptures, there are difficulties that are easily resolved by distinction from Thomistic philosophy ... These distinctions are usually not needed for the simple faithful as the context gives them the truth without danger.
http://www.drbo.org/valtorta.htm Even Pope Pius XII had said, “Publish it just as it is. There is no need to give an opinion as to whether it is of supernatural origin. Those who read it will understand.” which is sufficient grounds for publication.
That Maria Valtorta did not make them up is also evident because she remained bedridden throughout her life, but archaeologists have confirmed the knowledge of Jerusalem imparted during her revelations is incredible precise. From the article: "Given that she never left Italy and was bedridden much of her life, Maria's writings reflect a surprising knowledge of the Holy Land. A geologist, Vittorio Tredici, stated that her detailed knowledge of the topographic, geological, and mineralogical aspects of Palestine is unexplainable. And a biblical archeologist, Father Dreyfus, noted that her work includes the names of several small towns which are absent from the Old and New Testaments and are only known to a few experts." Many do not know "Iscariot" means "of Kerioth" as one example. She gets it right.
Let me cite 3 passages from the Poem, which shows plainly (1) the Divinity of Christ (against the claims of a "Humanized Christ), (2) the very high praise of His Mother from the Saviour Himself, and (3) the full context of that passage where the Blessed Virgin speaks to Her parents, which Horvat misrepresents; there St. Joachim and St. Anne discuss with their long awaited Child, the Blessed Mother, Who is going to live out Her vocation in the Temple, how God has saved Her in advance (the Blessed Mother could have remained humble in simplicity, asking Her parents the questions children are normally used to ask, and God spoke through Her parents lips to guide Her).
1. (After the Resurrection of Lazarus) "is what you have seen enough for you? One day you told Me that in order to believe, you and your peers needed to see a decomposed dead body be recomposed and in good health. Are you satisfied with the rottenness you have seen? Can you admit that Lazarus was dead and that now he is alive and healthy, as he has never been for many years? I know. You came here to tempt these people, to increase their grief and their doubt. You came here looking for Me, hoping to find Me hiding in the room of the dying man. You did not come with feelings of love and with the desire to honour the deceased man, but to ensure that Lazarus was really dead, and you have continued to come rejoicing all the more as time went by. If the situation had evolved as you were hoping, as you believed it would evolve, you would have been right in exulting. The Friend Who cures everybody, but does not cure His friend. The Master Who rewards everybody's faith, but not the faith of His friends in Bethany. The Messiah powerless against the reality of death. That is what was making you exult. Then God gave you His reply. No prophet had ever been able to put together what was decomposed, in addition to being dead. God did it. That is the living witness of what I am. One day it was God Who took some dust and made it into a form and He breathed the vital spirit into it and man was. I was there to say: “Let man be made in our own image and likeness”. Because I am the Word of the Father. Today, I, the Word, said to what is even less than dust, I said to rottenness: “Live”, and decomposition was recomposed into flesh, into wholesome, living, breathing flesh. There it is looking at you. And to the flesh I joined the spirit that had been lying for days in Abraham's bosom. I called him with My will, because I can do everything, as I am the Living Being, the King of kings to Whom all creatures and things are subject. What are you going to reply to Me now?» He is in front of them, tall, ablaze with majesty, really Judge and God. They do not reply. He insists: «Is it not yet enough for you to believe, to accept what is ineluctable?» «You have kept but one part of Your promise. This is not the sign of Jonah...» says Sadoc harshly. «You shall have that one as well. I promised it and I will keep My promise» says the Lord. And another person, who is present here, and is waiting for another sign, shall have it. And as he is a just man, he will accept it. You will not. You will remain what you are.»
2. (right at the beginning of the book), "1. Introduction. 22nd August 1944. Jesus orders me: « Take a completely new notebook. Write down on the first page what I dictated on August the 16th. She will be spoken of in this book. » I obey and I write. -----------------
16th August 1944. Jesus says: « Today write only this. Purity has such a value, that the womb of a creature can contain the Uncontainable One, because She possessed the greatest purity that a creature of God could have. The Most Holy Trinity descended with Its perfections, inhabited with Its Three Persons, enclosed Its infinity in a small space. But It did not debase Itself by doing so, because the love of the Virgin and the will of God widened this space until they rendered it a Heaven. And the Most Holy Trinity made Itself known by Its characteristics: The Father, being once again the Creator of the creature, as on the sixth day of Creation, had a real, worthy daughter fashioned to His perfect image. The mark of God was impressed so completely and exactly on Mary, that only in the Firstborn was it greater. Mary can be called the Second-born of the Father because, owing to the perfection granted to Her and preserved by Her, and to Her dignity of Spouse and Mother of God and Queen of Heaven, She comes second after the Son of the Father and second in His eternal thought, which ab aeterno took delight in Her. The Son, being also “Her Son”, did teach Her, by the mystery of Grace, His truth and wisdom, when He was but an Embryo, growing in Her womb. The Holy Spirit appeared amongst men, for an anticipated prolonged Pentecost: Love for “Her Whom He loved”, Consolation to men because of the Fruit of Her Womb, Sanctification on account of the Maternity of the Holy One. God, to reveal Himself to men in the new and complete form, which starts the Redemption era, did not select for His throne a star in the sky, nor the palace of a powerful man. Neither did He want the wings of angels as the base of His feet. He wanted a spotless womb. Also Eve had been created spotless. But she wanted to become corrupt of her own free will. Mary, Who lived in a corrupt world – Eve was in a pure world – did not wish to violate Her purity, not even with one thought remotely connected with sin. She knew that sin exists. She saw its various and horrible forms and implications. She saw them all, including the most hideous one: Deicide. But She knew them solely to expiate them and to be, forever, the Woman who has mercy on sinners and prays for their redemption. This thought will be the introduction to other holy things that I will give for your benefit and the welfare of many people. »"
3. (the incident misrepresented by Horvat and already answered by Fr. Robinson in its full context), "« Oh! You can see then that I must be a virgin? I must. If He wants a virgin as His Mother, it means that He loves virginity above all things. I want Him to love Me, His maiden, because of the virginity which will make Me somewhat like His beloved Mother... This is what I want... I would also like to be a sinner, a big sinner, if I were not afraid of offending the Lord... Tell Me, mummy, can one be a sinner out of love of God ? » « But what are You saying, my dear? I don't understand You. » « I mean: to commit a sin in order to be loved by God, Who becomes the Saviour. Who is lost, is saved. Isn't that so? I would like to be saved by the Saviour to receive His loving look. That is why 1 would like to sin, but not to commit a sin that would disgust Him. How can He save Me if I do not get lost?» Anne is dumbfounded. She does not know what to say. Joachim helps her. He has approached them walking noiselessly on the grass, behind the low hedge of vine-shoots. « He has saved You beforehand, because He knows that You love Him and You want to love Him only. So You are already redeemed and You can be a virgin as You wish » says Joachim. « Is that true, daddy? » Mary embraces his knees and looks at him with Her clear blue eyes, so like Her father's and so happy because of this hope She gets from Her father. « It is true, my little darling. Look! I was just bringing You this little sparrow, that at its first flight landed near the spring. I could have left it there but its weak wings did not have enough strength to fly off again, and its tiny legs could not hold it on to the slippery moss stones. It would have fallen into the water. But I did not wait for that. I took it and now I am giving it to You. You will do what you like with it. The fact is that it was saved before it fell into the danger. God has done the same with You. Now, tell me, Mary: have I loved the sparrow more by saving it beforehand, or would I have loved it more saving it afterwards? » « You have loved it now, because you did not let it get hurt in the cold water. » « And God has loved You more, because He has loved You before You sinned. » « And I will love Him wholeheartedly. Wholeheartedly. My beautiful little sparrow, I am like you. The Lord has loved us both equally, by saving us... I will now rear you and then I will let you go. And you in the forest and I in the Temple will sing the praises of God, and we shall say: “Please send the One You promised to those who expect Him.” Oh! Daddy, when are you taking Me to the Temple?»" Don't despise a wonderful work praised by St. Pio and Bp. Williamson which the Saviour has revealed to increase the love for His Gospel among us.