Note: blue words are links to supporting documentation

    These writings are private revelation given to a pius bed-ridden woman, Maria Valtorta during the times of World War II. They flesh out the Gospels and detail the day to day life of Jesus and Mary. There are several other visionaries recognized by the Church who were given this gift, but none approach the accuracy and detail of Maria's writings.

    Maria Valtorta was born in Italy in 1897, entered Eternal Life in 1961.  Her mortal remains are buried under the altar of The Basilica of the Annunciation in Florence, Italy.  She was rendered handicapped by an assailant in 1920, and eventually became bedridden in the late 1930's when her condition became progressively worse. Jesus appeared to her during her holy suffering and called her to be his mouthpiece. From 1943 to 1954 she was given private dictations and detailed revelations of the entire Messianic cycle from the birth of Mary through the Coronation. Her spiritual director was Father Migliorini and the original editor of her works was Michael Pisani. There has been a long-standing controversy regarding these works. There are many supporters as well as opponents. Our essential response is that the sheep know the Master’s voice.

    Initially Maria Valtorta's writings had the Roman Catholic Church's highest level of support; the consent of the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII Himself. Father Corrado M. Berti, who reviewed Maria’s writings and assisted by providing theological notes, decided to consult with several church officials for procedural advice on presenting these writings to the Church hierarchy. This was necessary because Maria Valtorta’s writings originated from supernatural Dictations and Visions. Father Berti was able to secure guidance from his Excellency Monsignor Alphonse Carinci, who was then Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and Reverend Augustin Bea, who was then confessor to Pope Pius XII. Monsignor Carinci and Reverend Bea advised him to present typed copies to His Holiness Pope Pius XII. Father Berti and Father Migliorini followed this advice, and with assistance were able to present a typed copy to Pope Pius XII for his assessment in 1947. After spending a year studying Maria Valtorta’s writings, Pope Pius XII granted a special audience on February 26, 1948 to Father Berti, Father Migliorini and Father Andrew M. Cecchin to express His personal evaluation. The Pontiff ordered the Priests "to publish Maria Valtorta’s writings without omitting anything". Immediately after the meeting, Father Berti, Father Migliorini and Father Cecchin wrote down the exact wording of the Papal order, "Publish this work as it is. There is no need to give an opinion on its origin, whether it be extraordinary or not. Whoever reads it will understand. These days we hear of so many visions and revelations. I am not saying that all of them are true, but there can be some of them that are authentic." Furthermore, this Papal audience with Fathers Berti, Cecchin and Migliorini was witnessed and historically documented by Cardinal Edourd Gagnon in 1948, who referred to Pope Pius twelfth’s action as an official Imprimatur granted before three reliable Priest-witnesses. Furthermore, consider this, that in the United States, a Last Will and Testament is recognized by a court of law with only two witnesses.

    This verbal, valid, infallible, Papal approval was witnessed and documented by Father Romualdo Migliorini, OSM, Father Corrado Berti and Father Andrew Cecchin, the Prior of the International College of the Servites of Mary in Rome. They were three highly credible Priests with impeccable backgrounds as witnesses. Furthermore, The Code of Canon Law: Book II, Part II, Section I, Chapter I, Article I, gives the Pope full and supreme power over all levels of the Church and free use to exercise this power. Canon law clearly requires that this Papal order be embraced with unconditional acceptance and submission. This is why Father Berti was so persistent in assisting in the publishing of Maria's works, despite the later persecutions he suffered at the hands of his superiors.

    The advice given to Father Berti by Monsignor Carinci and Reverend Bea to bypass the levels of Church hierarchy and proceed directly to the Pope came at a great cost. Apparently this circumnavigated Papal Imprimatur snubbed those heading the Holy Office, who considered it their responsibility to discern the nature of this private revelation, and evidently considered it an evasion of the authority of the Magisterium. As any person in a bureaucracy is well aware, going over an administrator's head to the CEO can often have dire consequences. One year later, in 1949, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani who then headed the Holy Office, summoned Father Corrado Berti and Father Andrew Cecchin to the Holy Office. Furthermore, during this meeting both Priests were forbidden to speak or communicate in any way. Monsignor Pepe and Father Berruti, officials of the Holy Office were entrusted with informing both Priests of the new judgment that reversed and undermined the Papal Imprimatur. This reversal commanded Father Berti to deliver to the Holy Office all of Maria Valtorta's manuscripts and typescripts to be destroyed or kept shut away forever. Although Father Berti brought all the typescripts in his possession; he could not deliver all the copies, because some were in the possession of other people who declined to be deprived of them. The Holy Office, headed by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, forbade the publication of these writings and threatened to place them on the Index of forbidden books in the event of a publication. The order of silence cleverly restricted Father Berti from informing Monsignor Pepe and Father Berruti of the Papal Imprimatur given by Pope Pius XII.

    At this point it would be prudent to mention that it has only recently been discovered that this Cardinal Ottaviani is also the highly controversial author of the scandalous 1962 secret Vatican policy that stunned the world. This policy was uncovered by CBS News and disclosed in an August 6, 2003 article entitled, "Sex Crimes Cover Up by Vatican". This Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani policy mandated the Church Hierarchy, under the penalty of excommunication, to protect pedophile priests that repeatedly molested young children. The document imposed an order of absolute silence on the violated child victims, their aggrieved families and witnesses to the crime, also under penalty of excommunication. Furthermore, it served as a guide to insulate pedophile priests from civil authorities by moving them from parish to parish. Many investigating agencies concluded that this Cardinal Ottaviani policy was the single greatest cause of the recent child molestation scandal in the Roman Catholic Church. This 2003 CBS Sex Crimes discovery, coupled with the knowledge that it was under this same Cardinal Ottaviani that a Papal Imprimatur was surreptitiously reversed, gives new light to the grievous persecutions of Maria Valtorta and her writings. It is amazing that some people will give more weight to the condemnation of Maria Valtorta’s writings under this wayward Cardinal, than to a Papal Imprimatur that was witnessed by three priests with signed statements and logged at the Vatican by Cardinal Edourd Gagnon, the Official Vatican Recorder who witnessed the event.

    It is in our opinion that Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani was so blinded by indignation over the circumnavigated Church approval, that he never considered that these revelations could actually be authentic. The sequence of events strongly supports and verifies this premise. Persistent attempts by Fathers Berti, Cecchin and Migliorini to gain another audience with Pope Pius XII was strategically and tightly blocked by the Holy Office.  If Cardinal Ottaviani allowed any of these Priests to have another audience with the Pope, it would be a forgone conclusion that He would realize that His Imprimatur was being subverted. That would put the Cardinal in a very precarious predicament. The Servite Priests were eventually chastised and separated. Ultimately Father Corrado Berti went to the Pisani Publishing Company.  Understandably, obedience to the Papal order takes precedence over lower levels of the Church bureaucracy. The Poem of the Man-God was published in 1956 with Pope Pius XII Imprimatur and statement affixed to the inside cover. This must have made Cardinal Ottaviani furious, but he had no choice but to wait. Placing the Poem on the Index of Forbidden books would require a Papal signature. If Cardinal Ottaviani placed the decree in front of Pope Pius XII for signing, He would certainly recognize Valtorta’s Work and realize the undermining. The Holy Office had to wait four long years. When Pope Pius XII past away on October 9, 1958, the Lion was finally out of the way. As soon as the next Pontiff, Pope John XXIII, took office, the Congregation’s first and foremost action was to have Maria Valtorta’s writings formally condemned on the Index Of Forbidden Books in 1959. Cardinal Ottaviani could then place the decree with the backlog of documents requiring Papal signatures. Obviously the Pope doesn’t scrutinize all the material personally, that task is routinely delegated to the Congregation. It would be easy to have the decree signed with a simple statement, such as, "the Congregation determined that these writings should be placed on the Index, please sign here". It was a long wait, but in 1959, the deed was done. This subversion and undermining of Papal authority may be one of the darker moments in the history of the Roman Catholic Church.

    In 1961, Father Berti was able to secure an audience with Pope Paul VI's private secretary Monsignor Pasquale Macchi. Monsignor Macchi informed Father Berti that Pope Paul VI, when he was Archbishop of Milan, had read the first volume of the Poem and was impressed enough to have Maria Valtorta's works sent to the Milan Seminary library. Father Berti gave Monsignor Macchi a copy of the Second edition of the Poem for review. Later that year, Father Berti was summoned to the Holy Office by Father Mark Giraudo O.P., Commissioner of the Congregation. Father Berti informed the Commissioner of Pope Pius XII’s order to publish the Poem in 1948. Monsignor Macchi directed Father Berti "Continue to publish this second edition. We will see how the world receives it." In 1966, Pope Paul VI took the action of suppressing the Index of Forbidden Books, which liberated the Poem from ecclesiastical restriction. There are many people who argue that this action was taken specifically to liberate the Poem, allowing Church compliance to the original order by Pope Pius XII. Unfortunately, The Roman Catholic Church has on occasion mistakenly condemned innocent victims and later exonerated them when modern science or contemporary deductive reasoning shed new light on the issue. One example would be how Roman Catholic Church hierarchy placed Galileo’s writings on the forbidden book list. They burned his written observations and nearly burned him at the stake in order to force him to retract his ideas regarding the earth being round and orbiting the sun. He was brutally compelled to sign retractions stating that the world was actually flat and located at the center of the universe. In the past, a few Church Officials may have fallen into the trap of persecuting today’s saints, just as the Jewish leaders and the Sanhedrin persecuted the Messiah two thousand years ago. It is important to remember a core teaching found throughout the Bible: That poor fishermen, prostitutes and tax collectors were able to recognize God Incarnate, when the Chief Priests, Doctors of the Law and Pharisees condemned Him.  Once again, the stone rejected by the builders turned out to be the corner stone.

    Before the 2003 CBS Sex Crimes discovery, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger was approached several times to review the Church’s position on Maria Valtorta’s writings, but he refrained from personally reviewing the writings or reconsidering condemnation under Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani. He may have been reluctant because he served directly under Cardinal Ottaviani. He was personally groomed by him, and eventually became Cardinal Ottaviani’s successor in heading the Holy Office. However, after the 2003 CBS Sex Crimes discovery that placed Cardinal Ottaviani as the origin of the shocking pedophile scandal, Cardinal Ratzinger’s position on Maria Valtorta’s writings seems to have vacillated. It has been divulged by the bishop of Birmingham, Alabama, that Cardinal Ratzinger has now acknowledged in a private letter that there is nothing against faith or morals in the Poem of the Man God and the other writings of Maria Valtorta. This change of position is further supported by statements made by Cardinal Ratzinger at a Conference of Italian Bishops, as testified by Bishop Roman Danylak. Now that Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger has become our reigning Pope, those who have been able to recognize the finger of God in Maria Valtorta’s writings are optimistic about a reversal of the Church’s stance. Hopefully, one day the Church may officially acknowledge the original Papal Imprimatur given by Pope Pius XII in 1948 before three distinguished priests that was overturned in 1959.

    Additional positive affirmations come from Medjugorje visionaries Maria Pavlovich and Vicka Ivankovich, who questioned Mary regarding these works and received favorable confirmations. The following is an excerpt from a supporting web site, "Maria Pavlovich and Vicka Ivankovich were specifically requested to ask the Madonna about it. So in 1985, Maria Pavlovich upon hearing someone ask about the Poem, stated that two years previously a Franciscan friar had requested her to ask the Madonna about it. The visionary then became very serious and said: "Maria Valtorta! All true. The Poem of the Man-God. The Madonna said two years ago, all true! Dictated by Jesus!" Likewise, in a recorded interview with Attorney Janice Connell of the Pittsburgh Center for Peace on January 27, 1988, Connell asked the visionary Vicka Ivankovich if there were any other books Our Lady had told her about. Vicka replied, "Yes, The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta. Our Lady says The Poem of the Man-God is the truth. Our Lady said, if a person wants to know Jesus he should read The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta. That book is the truth." Attorney Janice Connell still has the original video of this interview.  The Poem received another Medjugorje related approval during a broadcast interview on Mother Angelica's EWTN cable network, which aired an interview with Medjugorje seer Marija Pavlovich conducted by retired New Orleans Archbishop Philip Hannan. On March 4, 1992 on the Archbishop's Focus program, Bob, a call in viewer from Milwaukee asked Marija, on the air, "What exactly did our Lady say regarding the Poem of the Man-God?" Marija responded that our Lady told her, "You can read it."

     In an interview with Elliot Miller and Kenneth Samples (who turned out to be critical of Medjugorje), Vicka Ivankovic confirmed Our Ladies endorsement of Maria Valtorta’s writings. The testimony can be found in their resulting book, "The Cult of the Virgin", Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI , 1992, p. 150.

    There are several other groups and web sites that oppose Maria's writings. Because of the wonderful insight her work provides, and the appalling state of the world, it would be amazing if there were no opposition. We observed that nearly all of the documents and web sites opposing The Poem jointly attack the Medjugorje visions as well. Apparently because the support and testimony of the visionaries. Upon examination, arguments in opposition to the Poem have been quite easy to counter. Most are simple misleading statements and misquotes that collapse like a house of cards, when scrutinized. The following is a good example of this. One of the first arguments encountered was a hostile letter claiming that Mary, in the Valtorta text, makes a statement that She would like to be a big sinner. The antagonist then argues that the Mary we know, could not have made a statement like that. He goes on to persuade people to avoid the Poem altogether, based on the indication of this quote. The author fails to mention that in this particular vision, Mary is a two year old little girl and had been informed that the Messiah was coming to save sinners. In the Poem, Mary made this statement because She was eager to be saved by the upcoming Messiah. The contender even endeavors to lead the reader to believe that Mary was an adult when making this proclamation.

    Some arguments against the Poem are based upon dogmatic adherence to imperfect annotations. For example: Several challengers cite that Maria Valtorta saw a screwdriver, then proposed verbose arguments that screws were not invented till well over a thousand years afterwards.   The screwdriver contention proposed by Father Mitch Pacwa is one of the most popular arguments used by Valtorta challengers.  Notwithstanding, that it is well known, even amongst the most novice archeologists that complex devices and tools were commonly used during the times of Christ.  Encyclopedia Britannica even credits Archytas of Tarentum as the inventor of the screw years before the birth of Christ.  Another example is the Antikythera Mechanism, a mechanical pocket calculator discovered in southern Greece that dates back to over one hundred BC.  The device contains tiny gears and springs rivaling the complexity of a Swiss watch.  It contains tiny screws, described as fine as those found on modern eyeglasses.  It doesn't take a Rocket Scientist to deduce that; where there are screws, there will be screwdrivers.  "We have used the latest technology available to understand this mechanism, yet the technological quality in this mechanism puts us to shame," project leader Mike Edmunds, professor of astronomy at Cardiff University. "If the ancient Greeks made this, what else could they do?"

    Cruel adversaries to Maria's writings have stooped as low as fabricating bizarre claims that the Poem portrays a homosexual Jesus. This is probably the most outrageous assertion antagonists have promulgated to date. It is a cruel attempt to shock potential readers into avoidance.  Here, F. John Loughnan and other adversaries distort the meaning of the word caress, which is clearly used by Maria numerous times to describe something as simple as a patting on the back, into some form of a lewd act. The act of Jesus kissing his disciples and vice-versa, are also employed to argue improper behavior. Obviously this kissing is a customary greeting of the times. A perfect example would be how we read in our bible about Judas kissing Jesus in the garden in order to identify Christ, to the mob. The Bible is not referring to a lewd act, but to a customary greeting of the era. There was no long separation in this instance. Jesus had recently participated in the Last Supper with Judas only a few hours before. Within some nationalities today, this type of kissing is still a customary greeting. Misquotes were also utilized to further embellish this odious contention. Any reader will quickly find that the Poem is so thoroughly interwoven with illustrations of God's eminent reverence for chastity and virginity, along with His utter repugnance of human sensuality, that this accusation becomes untenable. Furthermore, opponents who espouse such malicious calumny are plausibly recognizing this inclination within themselves, certainly not in a misconstrued subtext from the Poem. Some critics seem to smell their own stench within their nostrils, and are quick to blame the perfumes of virginal chastity emanating from the Poem.

    The very arguments proposed by those wishing to discredit these works, essentially help confirm the antithesis of their contentions. Understandably, the best way to discredit the works would be to highlight contradictions to the Gospels. The Poem of the Man-God consists of ten volumes that were condensed into five books that are over eight hundred pages each, in small text format. It is apparent from several imprecise quotes, that these opponents have reviewed this material meticulously. Since they have been clearly unable to find any contradictions from the Bible, the only remaining method to support their spiteful claims is to form these fallacious arguments. Even the most enthusiastic challengers could not find one Biblical error. That alone speaks volumes.

Bishop Roman Danylak Imprimatur