The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has pronounced itself on the writings of an Italian, Maria Valtorta, who died in 1961. Her work, especially “The Gospel as it has been revealed to me”, contains alleged divine revelations.
The department, headed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, has pointed out in a statement that the alleged visions narrated
“Cannot be considered of supernatural origin, but simply literary forms used by the author to narrate, in her own way, the life of Jesus Christ.”
Also, it is recalled that the Church
“Does not accept as normative the apocryphal gospels or other similar texts because it does not recognize that they were inspired.”
But this is nothing new. The Church has dealt with it even since the time of John XXIII, when the Vatican included the text in the Index of Forbidden Books.
This list was abolished in 1966, but when Cardinal Ratzinger came to the Doctrine of the Faith he said that the criterion was still valid for moral reasons.
JH
