In Defense of The Poem of the Man-God

In 1961 a little-known Italian woman named Maria Valtorta died after a long illness that saw her bed-ridden for nearly 30 years. Before she died she had written almost 15,000 pages describing visions and dictations she received from Our Lord, the Blessed Mother, her guardian angel and more. Two-thirds of these comprised an account of the life of Our Lord that would come to be known as The Poem of the Man-God. From the very beginning, the publication and dissemination of The Poem met with enthusiastic acceptance but also virulent opposition. Does that mean it’s not authentic?

The true works of God have always met with opposition—we don’t have to look any further than lives of the saints for abundant evidence of that. In fact, we don’t have to look further than the life of Our Lord himself. Did Our Lord meet with universal acceptance?

In 1994 an article by Fr. Mitch Pacwa, S.J., concerning The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta, appeared in the February edition of "New Covenant." This article is still frequently quoted by many against The Poem. I have chosen to respond to his article not as a personal attack against him, but because it is a very good summary of the typical arguments against Maria Valtorta’s work. Therefore, because his article is so often cited by those who claim that the Church has condemned The Poem or that it is disobedient to read or promote it, I will quote from it frequently.

Fr. Pacwa starts his article thus:

"The Poem of the Man-God" is a five-volume "narrative" of the life of Jesus written in the 1940s by a sickly Italian woman named Maria Valtorta. "Poem" purports to fill in the details of Jesus’ life left blank by the four Gospels. Such narratives have been produced since the second century A.D. Some were written by gnostic heretics. Some by New Agers and occultists. And some were produced by pious Christians who made up stories about Jesus to edify their readers and listeners.

The four Gospels do not give a biography of Jesus—or of anyone else in His life. Their purpose is evangelical and theological—to proclaim the Good News that human beings need for their salvation. Thus, for centuries, the "hidden life" of Jesus has been the subject for speculation.

"The Poem of the Man-God" is in this tradition of apocryphal literature on New Testament themes. Valtorta claimed that she was the "secretary" of Jesus and Mary, and was setting down the divinely inspired truth about Jesus’ life. The Church has rejected this claim. Nevertheless, "Poem" has become quite popular, particularly among Catholics as well.

I must disagree with categorizing The Poem of the Man-God as a work in the tradition of apocryphal literary narratives such as those done by Gnostics and New-Agers. The Poem is clearly more in the tradition of private revelations such as those of Catherine Emmerich or Maria Agreda. Apocryphal works, whether orthodox or heterodox in content, were usually touted as equivalent to the Gospels in regards to both historicity and the revelation of the Faith. They either originated from the period of the very early Church or, for works that appeared later, claimed to have preserved ancient, secret knowledge. Private revelations such as those by Emmerich, Agreda and Valtorta, by contrast, make no such claims and are very clear as to their origin and source—in these cases Our Lord, Our Lady or particular saints desired to communicate additional details about their lives for the good of the Church, not to contradict or compete with the Gospels (as apocryphal literature often did and still does).

Fr. Pacwa writes: "The four Gospels do not give a biography of Jesus—or of anyone else in His life. Their purpose is evangelical and theological—to proclaim the Good News that human beings need for their salvation." And so it is with works such as The City of God by Maria Agreda and The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta. They do not exist to fulfill our idle curiosity. Though they have more detail than the Gospels it is never useless and without meaning. The purpose of these revelations is also "evangelical and theological"—to guide the Church and give the faithful spiritual nourishment (see, for example, the revelations of the Sacred Heart to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, which did not create new doctrine but rather manifested a desire on the part of Our Savior that his Church put a new and greater emphasis on devotion to his Sacred Heart, for the good of the Church).

It is often stated that The Poem is condemned, that "the Church has rejected" the claims of Maria Valtorta. There have been negative things written about the work, some of which has been published in L’Osservatore Romano. Nonetheless, it must be emphasized that negative opinions, even by those in the Church hierarchy or those publicly presented in L’Osservatore Romano, do not necessarily constitute a true formal rejection by the Church, and given what we know about the negative statements on The Poem of the Man-God, it would be inappropriate to conclude that they are of the nature of official condemnations.

Fr. Pacwa states: "Remarkably, the book has grown in popularity in part because its champions claim that high Church officials—including one Pope—endorsed it. They haven’t." He goes on to say:

On Feb. 26, 1948, Fathers Migliorini, Berti and A. Cecchin enjoyed a private audience with Pope Pius XII, as listed in L’Osservatore Romano’s daily announcement of audiences. Standing in St. Peter’s Square after the audience, Father Berti wrote down Pope Pius’ words as he remembered them. These words were "not" printed in L’Osservatore Romano, but Father Berti remembered the Pope saying:

"Publish this work as it is. There is no need to give an opinion about its origin, whether it be extraordinary or not. Who reads it, will understand. One hears of many visions and revelations. I will not say they are all authentic; but there are some of which it could be said that they are."

There is no reason for rejecting Fr. Berti’s quotation of Pius XII as a mistake or lie. The fact that Pius XII’s testimonial was not printed in L’Osservatore Romano does not mean he never gave it. Not everything the pope says is recorded, and not everything that is recorded is printed in L’Osservatore Romano.

Fr. Pacwa’s article continues:

Did Pope Pius read the whole manuscript or parts? If only part, which part? Advertisements by the Canadian Central distributors for Valtorta (CEDIVAL) quote Father Bea: "I have read in typed manuscripts many of the books written by Maria Valtorta . . . As far as exegesis is concerned, I did not find any errors in the parts which I examined." Notice, he read only parts of the books. Which were they?

There is nothing in this statement by Fr. Bea that indicates anything negative about the book. What is stated is that an eminent theologian of the Church, later Cardinal, read parts of the book and found nothing wrong in them. Speculation on what he would have concluded had he read the rest of the work will not help us in our discernment. We can only go on what he did conclude. There is no reason to assume that he might have found fault with it had he read more. Given that he had found what he read to be orthodox, the more logical assumption would be that he would have been just as satisfied with the rest.

I would also like to briefly comment on the some of the alleged disobedience of the publishers of The Poem, sketched out in this passage from Fr. Pacwa's article:

CEDIVAL calls this a "Supreme Pontifical Imprimatur," where "he took upon himself to pass the first official judgment on these writings." CEDIVAL glues this inside the cover, though the publisher does not print an imprimatur. The reason: it has none!

Confident of papal approval, Father Berti brought the books to the Vatican press. However, in 1949, two commissioners of the Holy Office, Msgr. Giovanni Pepe and Father Berruti, O.P., condemned the "Poem," ordering Berti to hand over every copy and sign an agreement not to publish it. Father Berti returned the manuscripts to Valtorta and handed over only his typed versions.

Despite his signed promise, in 1952 Father Berti went to publisher Emiliano Pisani. Though aware of the Holy Office’s opposition, Pisani printed the first volume in 1956, and a new volume each year through 1959.

When volume four appeared, the Holy Office examined the "Poem" and condemned it, recommending that it be placed on the Index of Forbidden Books Dec. 16, 1959. Pope John XXIII signed the decree and ordered it published. L’Osservatore Romano, on Jan. 6, 1960, printed the condemnation with an accompanying front-page article, "A Badly Fictionalized Life of Jesus," to explain it.

The article complained that the "Poem" broke Canon Law. "Though they treat exclusively of religious issues, these volumes do not have an "imprimatur," which is required by Canon 1385, sect. 1, n. 2."

I don’t necessarily concede the truth of this account, for there are other versions not so negative to the cause of The Poem. Nonetheless, for the sake of argument let us grant this account full recognition. The truth of the matter is that none of this is relevant to discerning the genuineness of Maria Valtorta’s revelations. Whether those responsible always did exactly what they should have done is immaterial to whether The Poem is legitimate. They were human as we are, and we all make errors in judgment and, yes, even sin. All the apparent conflict between the Holy Office and the publishers had nothing to do with Maria Valtorta herself, who was bedridden through it all. If they were supposed to have an Imprimatur they should have gotten one. If Fr. Berti made a promise not to publish it he should have kept it, and if Mr. Pisani knew about that he should not have printed the book. Yet all this is still irrelevant as to the authenticity of The Poem. Again, I do not concede that that these points are true, only that if they are they still bring us no closer to resolving the issue.

The reality that The Poem was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books is more often than not judged to be the definitive argument against The Poem. However, books were not only put on the Index because they were condemned. We must bear in mind that it was a common practice to put books that were being investigated on the Index until the Church could more thoroughly examine them. Books could also be put on the Index because there was some irregularity in their publication (such as the author not being clearly indicated or the lack of an Imprimatur). It becomes clear, therefore, that having been on the Index does not automatically mean that a book contained material contrary to Catholic faith and morals and was condemned by the Church.

There are many reasons why the Church may issue a prohibition against a certain work, and many types of prohibitions. It is thus prudent to ascertain exactly what took place with a particular work before jumping to the hasty conclusion that it was condemned for all time. A perfect example of this would be Divine Mercy by St. Faustina Kowalska, so dear to the hearts of so many Catholics. This work and the devotion associated with it were once strongly prohibited by the Church. Yet, this same Church came to not only strongly endorse the devotion but canonize the messenger!