"On January 6, 1960, the Osservatore Romano published an article about Il Poema dell’Uomo-Dio as well as a stern censure against it. However, in the article it frankly admitted that we could find in this work ‘lessons in Marian Theology which show a complete knowledge of the latest studies by present day specialists on the matter ... These theological lessons are written in the very terms which a professor of our day would use.’

(In a footnote Fr. Roschini’s editor adds:) "Oddly enough, the officials who used this censure were not even aware of Pope Pius X11’s declaration on February 26, 1948, during the special audience he granted to Fr. Berti and two witnesses ... Within one year, Fr. Berti was able to tell the newly appointed officials of the audience. Within weeks, the censure was tacitly acknowledged to have been invalid and permission was granted to publish the second edition of: Il Poema dell’Uomo-Dio."

* Father Roschini, formerly Professor at the Pontifical Lateran University of Rome, was a philosopher, theologian, writer of saints’ lives, and a mariologist of great renown. An author of over 125 books, he said that his most important one was The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta. He died in 1977.

Thirty-two years of polemics have subsided; the major issues bandied about by various writers, for and against the authenticity of the writings of Maria Valtorta, have been resolved. There are many questions that still await their resolution. Maria herself, in truth and humility, could not ascribe to herself the principle authorship of the Poem of the Man-God – as it was known in the first English translations – or the Gospel of Jesus Christ as Dictated to Me – as Maria requested her publishers to call this work. Church authorities still insist that the publishers ascribe solely to Maria, the authorship, not only of this work, but also the many other writings that issued from Maria’s pen between the years 1943-1954.

And in a sense they are right, for the Church has always ascribed the human authorship of the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and the New Covenants to the authors whose names the different books bear, yet acknowledge the Bible as the work of the Holy Spirit Himself. These, and so many other questions, will have to be addressed when and if a cause for the beatification of this elect victim is presented to the Holy See. This was the case with Padre Pio and with Don Orione of our century, and with many saints of the earlier centuries.

Yet although the vituperatives have subsided, there are some who continue to have problems that arose from the unsettled issues of the past.

The principal objections of the censors, that had placed The Poem of the Man-God on the Index of Forbidden Books, were that the publishers of the first edition, purporting to present private visions and revelations, had not submitted the work to prior ecclesiastical censorship – which is true. Further, they accused the book of archaeological, geographical and biblical inaccuracies, of bad theology, of foppish sentamentalism, etc., etc.

Two Servite theologians - Fr. Corrado Berti, who prepared a scholarly theological and scriptural commentary to the second edition of the Poem, and Fr. Gabriel Roschini, a noted Mariologist, and author of The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta – attest to the orthodoxy of the Catholic faith, the factual accuracy of the biblical geography and archaeology described in The Poem, and the profundity of theological insight in these writings. I wish to include the authority of several other reputable scholars, many of whom were personal friends and admirers of Maria Valtorta in her lifetime. Archbishop Carinci, secretary for many years of the Congregation for Saints; Msgr. Lattanzi, a renowned moral theologian in his time; Card. Augustine Bea, a noted biblical scholar and former president of the Pontifical Biblical Commission; Prof. Corsanego, consistorial advocate for the cause of saints; and many others. For an extensive description of notables and their comments about Maria Valtorta and her work, cf. the second Italian edition of The Poem of the Man-God, edited and annotated by the late Fr. Corrado Berti, Servite and professor of theology. Dr. Emilio Pisani, editor and publisher of the writings of Maria Valtorta, continuing the work of his late father Michele, published a review of these writings until the present, in his study, pro and contra Maria Valtorta.

I wish to add to these testimonies my own experiences in reading these lives of Christ and His Blessed Mother. Though gifted herself with artistic and poetic sensibility, Maria’s masterly treatment of the story - that develops with the conception of the Blessed Virgin to St. Anne, Her birth, the Annunciation and birth of Christ, the public life of Jesus, His teachings and miracles, through the events preceding the passion, the passion itself, the glorious Resurrection and Ascension, the Descent of the Holy Spirit, the early life of the Church until the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin – surpasses the genius of many of the great writers of world literature. Her presentation of the cast of hundreds of characters - the profound insights into the inner life; the psychology and emotions of Jesus as He responded to a multiple variety of situations; Maria’s portrayal of the responsiveness of the apostles; the friends and foes of Jesus – transcends the capacities of even the most genial and gifted of writers. And in all of this, she does not confuse persons, events, and places. Through her, the reader enters into the very hearts of Jesus and His Mother. This work – call it Poem or Dictations of Jesus – is not only faithful to the Gospel, but it is the Gospel of Christ expanded. It is a gift of Christ for these, our days, when Jesus is maligned, denied, spurned, persecuted – in His Church, and in a world that is rapidly becoming submerged in the apostasy of faith.

Listen to the testimony of the noted Mariologist, Fr. Roschini, who availed himself of the writings of Valtorta for his course in Mariology in the 1970s at the Pontifical Gregorian University. His course notes became the basis for his final and definitive book on Mariology, The Virgin Mary in the Writings of Maria Valtorta. Fr. Roschini had been initially very standoffish to the writings of Valtorta. He had a change of heart, overcame his initial reserve, and discovered an immense treasure of insight into the mystery of Mary. He comments in the introduction to this, his last book on Mary (pg. 21 of the English translation), as follows: "On January 6, 1960, the Osservatore Romano published an article about Il Poema dell‘Uomo Dio as well as a stern censure against it. However, in the article it frankly admitted that we can find in this work ‘lessons in Marian theology which show a complete knowledge of the later studies by present-day specialists on the matter … These theological lessons are written in the very terms which a professor of our day would use…’

In conclusion, as a priest and bishop of the eastern Church, as I prayed the Divine Office of the Byzantine Church, that has faithfully preserved the names and the early Christian traditions of the protagonists of the early apostolic community and the disciples of Christ, I was surprised to find them alive, as real living personalities - friends and disciples of Jesus from His infancy, His adolescence, and the mature years of His public life in the life of Christ.

Maria had never studied scriptures, and the archaeology and geography of Palestine. She did not peruse the Divine Office of the Roman, still less of the eastern, Church. The Lord accepted the generous sacrifice of her cross, and of dying to herself, and He gave to us, through her, this precious gift of the total Gospel, for this our day.

+ Roman Danylak,

titular bishop of Nyssa.

Easter 1999

Bishop Danylak's Web-Site

Bishop Danylak Talks further on Maria Valtorta and her work