Maria Valtorta - Popes Pius XII and John XXIII

Popes Pius XII and John XXIII

Maria Valtorta was at first reluctant to have her notebooks published, but on the advice of her priest agreed in 1947 to their publication.

Her priest, Father Romualdo Migliorini and Father Corrado Berti, along with their Prior, Father Andrea Checchin, used their contacts to present the manuscript directly to Pope Pius XII. Among those impressed by the work at the Vatican was the Pope's confessor, Father (later Cardinal) Augustin Bea who later wrote that he found the work "not only interesting and pleasing, but truly edifying". Father Berti presented the first copy of the work to Pius XII shortly after April 1947 and on 26 February 1948 received the three priests in audience, and the papal audience was listed on the next day's L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican newspaper.

At the meeting Pope Pius XII 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" Father Berti then signed an affidavit to that effect, as did the other two witnesses, with written testimony. The three priests understood this permission to publish as a papal imprimatur.

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 that had to be given in writing. Because Pope Pius XII had thus agreed, before the three priests of the Servite Order, to publication of the Poem of the Man God, it was offered for publication in 1948 to the Vatican Printing Office, which however did not publish it.

While Pius XII was alive, the Holy Office did not announce an official position on the manuscript. When Pius XII died in 1958, his newly appointed successor Pope John XXIII, upon taking office, signed in 1959 a decision by the Holy Office (then headed by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani) to place the book on the Index of Forbidden Books, along with a number of other works, such as those of Sister Faustina Kowalska who was later declared a saint, and whose writings are now quoted by the Vatican.

In 1987, Vatican Cardinal Edouard Gagnon was persuaded to locate and evaluate the original minutes from the February 26, 1948 Papal meeting transcribed by the Vatican Recording Cardinal who accompanied Pope Pius XII. Shortly afterwards Cardinal Gagnon wrote from the Vatican, that Pope Pius XII's action was "the kind of official Imprimatur granted before witnesses by the Holy Father in 1948, an Official Imprimatur of the Supreme Authority of the Church". Cardinal Edouard Gagnon served as the Peritus (Expert Theologian Advisor and Consultant) during the second Vatican Council. He had a Doctorate in Theology and taught Canon law for ten years at the Grand Seminary.