Why the Church Banned This Woman’s Work

From Messenger of God

In 1959 the Vatican put a book on the Index of Forbidden Books without naming its author. The author was a bedridden woman in Viareggio who said Jesus dictated it to her. Sixty-six years later, the same Vatican office is still warning people about it. This is the story of Maria Valtorta (1897–1961): the 15,000 handwritten pages, the 1959 decree, the disputed papal "approval" nobody wrote down, the saints and scholars who defended her. PRIMARY DOCUMENTS – Decree of the Holy Office, 16 Dec 1959 (approved 18 Dec, published 5 Jan 1960). Acta Apostolicae Sedis vol. 52 (1960), p. 60. Condemns an "opus anonymum" in four volumes. https://www.vatican.va/archive/aas/do... https://archive.org/details/AAS-52-1960 – L'Osservatore Romano, 6 Jan 1960, "Una vita di Gesù malamente romanzata" — unsigned. No scan available online; text via https://www.lettereadioealluomo.com/D... – Maria Valtorta's notebooks (Quaderni), Fondazione Maria Valtorta edition: 23 Apr 1943 (first dictation) https://www.valtortamaria.com/operami... 23 Jul 1943 http://www.valtortamaria.com/operamin... 20 Aug 1943 https://www.valtortamaria.com/operami... Scanned notebook + Marta Diciotti's account: https://scrittivaltorta.altervista.or... – The Gospel as Revealed to Me (Il Poema dell'Uomo-Dio), Centro Editoriale Valtortiano. English: https://archive.org/details/gospelasr... – Secretariat of State to Fr G. M. Roschini, N. 250075, 17 Jan 1974, signed G. Benelli — thanks and a blessing, not a judgement on the book. CHURCH RULINGS – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to Cardinal Giuseppe Siri, 31 Jan 1985: https://www.ilcattolico.it/rassegna-s... – Archbishop Dionigi Tettamanzi, Italian Bishops' Conference, prot. 324/92, 6 May 1992. – Doctrinal Commission, French Bishops' Conference, 29 Sept 2021 — unsigned: https://sosdiscernement.org/note-de-l... – Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, press release, 22 Feb 2025 — unsigned: https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/co... TESTIMONY FOR HER (with caveats) – Fr Corrado Berti OSM, sworn affidavit, 8 Dec 1978 — Pius XII's words of 26 Feb 1948, written from memory 30 years later. No contemporaneous record exists. – Fr Gabriele M. Allegra OFM, letter, 1965 — as published by the Fondazione. – Fr Gabriele M. Roschini OSM, La Madonna negli scritti di Maria Valtorta (1973): https://devozioni.altervista.org/test... – Fr Leo Maasburg, Mother Teresa of Calcutta: A Personal Portrait — first-hand but anecdotal. – Padre Pio "I order you to read it": letter from Rosi Giordani to publisher Emilio Pisani, 7 Jan 1989, printed in Padre Pio e Maria Valtorta (CEV). Third-hand, 22 years after the alleged 1967 event. No independent copy located. – Archbishop Paolo Giulietti, homily, Viareggio, 12 Oct 2021 — French