Rome Renders Its Verdict on Maria Valtorta
The original Italian version of Maria Valtorta's work
The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) has just made public the Vatican's position on Maria Valtorta's writings, ending half a century of debate over the nature of her visions and revelations. However, it is not certain that this clarification will put an end to the aura still enjoyed by the Italian mystic's writings. For once in the current pontificate, the Roman body responsible for ensuring the orthodoxy of the Faith, headed by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, has just issued a statement clarifying the Church's position on a thorny issue: the alleged visions and revelations that Maria Valtorta (1897-1961), supposedly received between 1943 and 1951.
It must be said that the material is abundant: 122 notebooks totaling 15,000 handwritten pages meticulously describing entire sections of Christ's life, some of which were published in a book entitled The Gospel as It Was Revealed to Me.
In 1959, the Holy Office, a distant predecessor of the DDF, placed The Poem of the Man-God on the Index of Forbidden Books, a measure accompanied by a scathing comment in L'Osservatore Romano describing the work as a "poorly fictionalized life of Jesus." This inclusion on the Index, although lifted in 1966 with the suppression of the Index itself by Pope Paul VI, has cast a lingering shadow over the legitimacy of the writings.
Over the decades, figures such as Gabriel Allegra, Fr. Gabriel Roschini, and René Laurentin have defended the work, seeing it as a spiritual treasure and an aid to faith. More lucid, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, believed that Valtorta's visions should not be considered supernatural in origin, but rather a personal literary work.
The DDF statement, signed on February 22, 2025, was made public on March 4, in response to numerous requests for clarification from clergy and laity.
The text states: "The alleged 'visions,' 'revelations,' and 'communications' contained in the writings of Maria Valtorta, or at least attributed to her, cannot be considered of supernatural origin, but must be considered as simple literary forms used by the author to recount, in her own way, the life of Jesus Christ."
The former Holy Office reiterates that the Church adheres to the inspired canonical Gospels and does not accord this normative value to apocryphal or similar texts.
Several factors explain this position. First, the persistent popularity of the work, fueled by reading groups, associations such as the Maria Valtorta Foundation, and a growing online presence, has led some believers to wrongly assume the texts have official Church approval.
Furthermore, theological analyses—such as that of Fr. Guillaume Chevallier—have highlighted certain unorthodox elements in the writings of the alleged seer, such as an often affective or ambiguous vision of Jesus, reinforcing the need for official clarification. More broadly, the DDF has, for some time now, been engaged in a process of clarifying mystical phenomena.
It remains to be seen whether the February 22nd statement will bring an end to the long saga of the writings of Maria Valtorta, who remains a fascinating figure for many believers, although it now seems clear that her writings are more a matter of literary imagination than divine revelation.
(Sources : Le Saint-Siège/Aleteia – FSSPX.Actualités)
