Maria Valtorta - Imprimatur

Imprimatur

Over the years, support for Valtorta's work grew among the mid-levels of the Vatican. Her work has received the imprimature of Bishop Roman Danylak and Archbishop Soosa Pakiam. But the official position of the Holy See with respect to the book is currently less than clear. Since 1993 the Vatican has decided to remain silent on the work

Yet, support for her work continues to appear from unlikely corners of the Vatican, usually from biblical experts who are not at the Holy Office. One such expert was the respected scripture scholar the Venerable Gabriele Allegra, who spent 40 years translating the Bible to Chinese. Allegra wrote:

"I hold that the work of Valtorta demands a supernatural origin. I think that it is the product of one or more charisma and that it should be studied in the light of the doctrine of charisma."

Another expert was the respected Servite Mariologist, Fr. Gabriel M. Roschini, professor at the Pontifical Faculty of Theology in Rome, advisor to the Holy Office and founder of the Marianum (which is both the name of the pontifical school and the prestigious journal of Marian theology) who wrote of Valtorta:

"I must candidly admit that the Mariology found in Maria Valtorta's writings, whether published or not, has been for me a real discovery. No other Marian writing, not even the sum total of all the writings I have read and studied were able to give me as clear, as lively, as complete, as luminous, or as fascinating an image, both simple and sublime, of Mary, God's masterpiece."

Father Roschini, who published over 900 works on Mariology, presided over the relocation of the remains of Maria Valtorta from Viareggio to the Grand Cloister of Santissima Annunziata Basilica in Florence (the mother church of the Servite Order) in 1973.

On the occasion of the 50th anniversary of Maria Valtorta's death on 12 October 2011, a petition has been started to ask the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith/Vatican to actively promote Valtorta's work. On 12 and 15 October 2011 there will also be Masses in memory of Maria Valtorta in the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata in Florence, where Valtorta readers from all over the world will be present.