The Poem of the Man-God

Maria Valtorta was bedridden in Viareggio, Italy, for most of her life due to complications from being struck in the back at random while walking on a street. Valtorta was a member of the Third Order Servites of Mary, affiliated to the order to which her spiritual director, Fr. Romuald Migliorini OSM belonged.

On the morning of Good Friday 1943 she reported having a vision in which Jesus appeared and spoke to her. While Valtorta did not begin writing The Poem of the Man-God until 1944, pre-Poem writings included various topics such as Mariology, Darwinism, and suffering. She reported having many more visions and conversations with Jesus and the Virgin Mary and said that Jesus had asked her to record her visions in writing. She continued to write her visions in her notebooks until 1947.[6]

The Poem of the Man-God is not a sequential transcription of Valtorta's notebooks, because her reported visions (which were dated in her notebooks) were not in the same order as the flow of time in the narrative she wrote. For instance, she reported having a vision of The Last Supper on March 9, 1945, while another on the Beatitudes during the Sermon on the Mount was written more than two months later on May 24, 1945. The book as transcribed by her priest however, follows the life of Jesus in chronological form, with footnotes referring to the dates on which she wrote each episode.[7]

Astronomical analysis

View of the constellation Orion

The narrative of The Poem of the Man-God includes a number of observations of the positions of the heavenly bodies. For instance, in episode written on December 11, 1945, Valtorta wrote of a night Jesus spent at Gadara: "the sky is glistening with countless stars... with its springtime constellations and the magnificent stars of Orion: of Rigil and Betelgeuse, of Aldebaran, of Perseus, Andromeda and Cassiopeia and the Pleiades united like sisters. And Sapphirine Venus covered with diamonds, and Mars of pale ruby and the topaz of Jupiter..."[8]

In 1994 Purdue University physicist Lonnie VanZandt analyzed these events to estimate a date for the event described. Using a computer simulation, VanZandt noted that the only possibilities for the observation Valtorta described during the month of March would be AD31 and AD33, and after considering other elements in the narrative concluded that March AD33 was the only possibility. According to VanZandt the estimation of the joint observability of these three stars and the position of the moon during that time would have been almost impossible without a computer system.[9]

Maria Valtorta was at first reluctant to have her notebooks published but, on the advice of her priest, in 1947 she agreed to their publication. The handwritten pages were typed and bound by Father Romuald Migliorini OSM and fellow Servite Father Corrado Berti OSM.

Shortly after April 1947, Father Berti presented the first copy of the work to Pope Pius XII, who on February 26, 1948, received Fathers Migliorini and Berti, along with their prior, Father Andrea Checchin, in special audience,[10] as reported on the next day's L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.[11]

According to Rookey, at the meeting Pius reportedly told the three priests; "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."[10][12] In his 8 December 1978 account of the events concerning Maria Valtorta's writings, Berti summarized the Pope's words as "Publish this work as it is."[13]

Bishop Roman Danylak says that Cardinal Edouard Gagnon, writing on October 31,1987, to the Maria Valtorta Research Center, spoke of "the kind of official Imprimatur granted before witnesses by the Holy Father in 1948", while writer David Michael Lindsey reports Cardinal Gagnon as saying: "This judgment by the Holy Father in 1948 was an official Imprimatur of the type given before witnesses."[3]

The permission of the author's ordinary or of the ordinary of the place of publication or of printing was required for publishing such books and had to be given in writing.[14] According to Bishop Danylak, the publishers of the first edition purporting to present private visions and revelations, had not submitted the work to prior ecclesiastical approval.[15] Apparently assuming that he had a verbal papal approval, Father Berti presented the work for publication to the Vatican Printing Office.[12] A year later, in 1949, the Holy Office summoned Father Berti and ordered him to surrender all copies[16] and promise not to publish the work. Father Berti handed over his typed copies, but returned the original handwritten text to Maria Valtorta.[12]

In 1950, Maria Valtorta signed a contract with the publisher Michele Pisani, who between 1956 and 1959 printed the work in four volumes,[16] the first of which was titled The Poem of Jesus and the others The Poem of the Man-God.

By a decree of January 5, 1960, published on instructions of Pope John XXIII, the Holy Office condemned the published work and included it in the Index Librorum Prohibitorum.[17] The decree was published also on L'Osservatore Romano of January 6, 1960, accompanied by a front-page, unsigned article under the heading "A Badly Fictionalized Life of Jesus".[18] The book was placed on the Index because of its claim to supernatural guidance.[19]

The Vatican newspaper republished the content of the decree on December 1, 1961, together with an explanatory note, as mentioned by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, in his letter 144/58 of January 31, 1985, in which he entrusted to Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, Archbishop of Genoa, the decision whether to inform a priest of his archdiocese that the Valtorta work had indeed been placed on the Index, which keeps its moral force, and that "a decision against distributing and recommending a work, which has not been condemned lightly, may be reversed, but only after profound changes that neutralize the harm which such a publication could bring forth among the ordinary faithful".[20][21]

In 1992 Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, President of the Italian Episcopal Conference, directed the publisher of the work to state clearly at the beginning of each volume that the "visions" and "revelations" referred to in it "cannot be held to be of supernatural origin but must be considered simply as literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus". His directive, communicated by letter 324/92 of January 6, 1992, was made at the request of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. His letter also recalled the notes about the matter that appeared on L'Osservatore Romano of January 6, 1960, and June 15, 1966.[4][22]

In 1993 Cardinal Ratzinger wrote to Bishop Raymond James Boland of Birmingham, Alabama, that his Congregation had made that request to the Italian Bishops Conference to ask the publisher to have a disclaimer printed in the volumes that "clearly indicated from the very first page that the 'visions' and 'dictations' referred to in it are simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered supernatural in origin."[20]

A 2009 Yale University report further detailed the intricate connection between the Medjugorje apparitions and the writings of Maria Valtorta.[23] The purported Medjugorje visionaries Marija Pavlovic and Vicka Ivankovic have stated that Maria Valtorta's records of her conversations with Jesus are truthful.[24] According to a statement Ivankovic made on January 27, 1988, in 1981 the Virgin Mary told her at Medjugorje: "If a person wants to know Jesus he should read Maria Valtorta. That book is the truth".[24] However Fr. Philip Pavich OFM, an American Croatian Franciscan priest stationed in Medjugorje, sent a circular letter to the Medjugorje fans, questioning the purported visions of Maria Valtorta and the subsequent book.[15]

The Poem of the Man-God is also mentioned in the writings of Ottavio Michelini, from Mirandola, who reported a supposed series of Dictations and Visions also given to him by Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary from 1975 to 1979.

When providing his "imprimatur" in 2002, Bishop Danylak wrote: "Is there anything against faith or morals in her writings? All her critics begrudgingly have acknowledged that there is nothing against faith and morals. …There is nothing objectionable in The Poem of the Man-God and all the other writings of Valtorta."

Archbishop George Hamilton Pearce SM wrote: "I find it tremendously inspiring. It is impossible for me to imagine that anyone could read this tremendous work with an open mind and not be convinced that its author can be no one but the Holy Spirit of God."[25]

According to Father Mitch Pacwa SJ, "the long speeches of Jesus and Mary starkly contrast with the evangelists, who portray Jesus as 'humble, reserved; His discourses are lean, incisive.' In addition, Pacwa writes that the poem has "'many historical, geographical and other blunders.' For instance, Jesus uses screwdrivers (Vol. 1, pp. 195, 223), centuries before screws existed."[26]

• Rookey O.S.M., Peter M., Shepherd of Souls: The Virtuous Life of Saint Anthony Pucci, (Jun 2003) ISBN 1891280449 CMJ Marian Press

• Maria Valtorta, The Poem of the Man-God ISBN 99926-45-57-1.
• Maria Valtorta, The Book of Azariah ISBN 88-7987-013-0.

• Official website
• Medjugorje confirmation of Poem of the Man-God
• Pacwa, S.J., Mitch. "Is 'The Poem of the Man-God' simply a bad novel?"
• EWTN Global Catholic Network 'Expert Answer' by Colin B. Donovan
• Astronomical Dating of The Poem of the Man-God