The Fake Virgin Mary of Medjugorje Endorses a Heretical and Silly Book

The Virgin Mary at Medjugorje reportedly confirmed the truth of the life of Jesus as written by mystic Maria Valtorta. Many mystics have come up with biographies and the Church has not taken them seriously on the official level. And they all contradict one another. And Valtorta will never be declared a saint so it makes no sense for the Church to endorse her version instead of that given by a canonised saint. If the Church says Medjugorje is really blessed by the presence of Mary then it will have to say that the ridiculous story of Jesus in Valtorta's writings is also true. The writings are worse than the gospels in terms of credibility.
 
Our Lady said on September 4, 1982 “Jesus prefers that you address yourselves directly to Him rather than through an intermediary. In the meantime, if you wish to give yourselves completely to God and if you wish that I be your protector, then confide to me all your intentions, your fasts, and your sacrifices so that I can dispose of them according to the will of God.”

We have here an entity claiming to be the Virgin Mary who contradicts Catholic teaching that we should go to Jesus through Mary and that the closer we get to Mary the closer we get to Jesus for he has made her all she is. And bizarrely after saying Jesus doesn't prefer that system, she tells us then to go to her and tell her all that is in our hearts so that she can help us. The message is contradictory. Maria Valtorta's revelations said Jesus wants us to go to him through Mary and bizarrely the Medjugorje vision approves her revelations. Her "inspired" writings glorify Mary as Queen of Heaven and mediatrix of all graces between God and man.
 
Medjugorje "visionary" Vicka: "They are true. Yes, yes, true. Authentic, yes. You can read these, they are true."
(listen to audio recording here)
 
"Visionary" Marija: "You can read it." (EWTN Interview, March 4, 1992, Archbishop Hannan Focus program)
 
Vicka: "Yes. The Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta, ten volumes. Our Lady says The Poem of the Man-God is the truth. Our Lady said if a person wants to know Jesus he should read Poem of the Man-God by Maria Valtorta. That book is the truth." (Interview with Attorney Jan Connell of the Pittsburgh Center for Peace on January 27, 1988).
 
Marija: "Our Lady says The Poem of the Man-God is the truth." [cf. R. Laurentin, Dernieres Nouvelles de Medjugorje No 15, OEIL, 1996, p. 19]

VISION APPROVES POEM OF THE MAN-GOD
 
The Virgin Mary has been reportedly appearing in Medjugorje since 1981. The local bishops have condemned the apparition as false. Church investigations and commissions concluded that it cannot be established that anything supernatural is happening there. Supporters however claim to have evidence that the visions are of Mary and are supernatural. Curiously not a single healing has been accepted as inexplicable. At Lourdes, the Church uncovers lots of inexplicable healings and has categorised some of them as miracles.
 
The vision promotes the Roman Catholic faith as the true faith and invites people to obey the teaching of the Church as infallible and to come back to Mass, prayer and fasting and confession. Yet the vision shows signs of not caring much about correct Catholic faith.
 
The Medjugorje apparition promoted the blasphemous and heretical book, Poem of the Man-God. This book had even been declared officially dangerous and heretical by the Church. It was put on the Index of Forbidden Books.
 
Marija Pavolivic asked the vision about the book and got the reply that, “It makes for good reading” (Medjugorje after Fifteen Years, Michael Davies, page 65 and page 127, Medjugorje, the Untold Story). Mr Colfrancesco, a close friend of hers and top Medjugorje benefactor testified to this.
 
The Wikipedia article on Poem of the Man-God says, “The Medjugorje visions by Marija Pavlovic and Vicka Ivankovic have both stated that Maria Valtorta’s records of her conversations with Jesus are truthful. According to Ivankovic, in 1981 the Virgin Mary told her at Medjugorje: “If a person wants to know Jesus he should read Maria Valtorta”. 
 
Jan Connell wrote in a pro-Medjugorje book, Visions of the Children, that Mirjana had been told by Our Lady that the twentieth century was granted to Satan to try the Church and things would not be so bad after that. But that century is over and it would be a miracle if things got better for the Church. And so many visionaries in the world prophesied terrible troubles for the Church that have not happened yet so the hardest times are still to come. Mary approved of the revelations of Maria Valtorta and here she denies them though they predict amazing successes for the Devil and the reduction of the Church to a tiny sect which are still future. Vicka said according to an advertisement for Poem of the Man-God that Mary told her that the book was the truth and anybody who wants to know Jesus should read it. The advertisement appeared in the Queen of Peace newspaper from Pittsburgh (page 32, Fall, 1995). Now the gospels say Jesus said we wouldn’t have a clue when he would return. If we listen to this book we can rest safe that he won’t be back until this happens to the Church. The book and therefore the apparitions of Medjugorje conflict with the gospels.  
 
The Catholic Planet website rejects the thought that the Poem of the Man-God is true revelation and accuses it of blasphemy and irreverence.
 
Did Mary at Medjugorje approve of The Poem of the Man-God?
 
Marija Pavlovic asked Mary in an apparition about the Poem of the Man-God. A Franciscan friar named Franjo wanted the apparition's view. Marija asked, “Is this book true?” Mary's reply was these words: “You can read it.”
 
(Source: http://www.childrenofmedjugorje.com/medj/pomgC.htm)

Believers in Medjugorje say that such a statement does not have the connotation of approval. They argue that the question demanded a yes or no but Mary didn't say yes or no. The theologians might think that Mary is afraid of taking over the role of the Vatican and the bishops which is to decide what is to be approved and disapproved.
 
It is claimed that her saying it can be read is an answer for the friar and does not imply the rest of us can read it or should read it. 
 
Reply: Not every priest and certainly not every religious brother is permitted to read every forbidden book.
 
And Mary could have said, “He can read it.” She didn't. If Mary meant more than Marija having the right to read the book then clearly she was saying anybody has that right.
 
The religious brother was not in the business of examining the book and so had no right to read it.
 
The Virgin's response to the question about the book being true was that you can read it implying that if you read it you will see for yourself that it is true. As the Virgin stresses avoidance of nonsense like television and endorses Bible reading and the Poem is a heavy read this is the right interpretation.
 
The statement does have the connotation of approval.
 
Marian Times says,
 
The Virgin of Medjugorje never explicitly encouraged the reading of Poem of the Man God. She simply said four words "You may read it". We can reasonably interpret this as something along the lines of "your soul will not be harmed by it", or that it is a pietic work - fostering piety, without necessarily being accurate. It is permitted to both publish and distribute this work as long as it bears a disclaimer that "the 'visions' and 'dictations' referred to in it are simply the literary forms used by the author to narrate in her own way the life of Jesus. They cannot be considered supernatural in origin." . So, this completely refutes Rick's false reporting of the work as being "condemned". It was only the FIRST EDITION in 1959 that was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in shady circumstances and despite Pius XII's imprimaturial statement "Publish it as it is". The reasons for placing it on this list appear to be that it was anonymously authored (Valtorta not desiring any recognition) and because of lack of theological annotations to clarify passages that might lend themselves to misinterpretation. For the full picture on the fluctuating Church response to The Poem of the Man-God, as opposed to Rick's one-sided black-and-white view, please click here]. It is far from simple and far from over. The Virgin's statement at Medjugorje regarding this work is respectful of current Church view on it, i.e. cannot be proven as supernatural, but nevertheless can be published and read by anyone.”
 
The Virgin said more than that.
 
If the Virgin merely permitted the reading instead of encouraging it means nothing. What we are concerned about is that she didn’t think there was any harm in the book. Permitting is encouraging when you know somebody will read the book.
 
Now Marian times is certainly right to say that the Virgin thinks the book fosters piety. The poem claims to be supernatural in origin and its author claimed to be the secretary of Jesus Christ. Would it be pious to read the book and try to follow its spirituality and then refuse to regard it as supernatural which it claims to be? Would the Virgin have said the same thing about say the Book of Mormon?
 
Marian Times is trying to make out that the poem is not condemned but it is merely said that it cannot be considered supernatural. But to say it cannot be considered supernatural is to admit there is no evidence it is really from God and thus it is the same as condemning it.
 
Even if that were all she said, why couldn’t she say, “Ask a priest who knows”? That would have meant she was directed the seers to obedience to the Church and ensuring it. and that she was keeping out of controversy about other revelations. The Church believes God has given it the authority to make decisions about alleged apparitions and miracles – it alone. If apparitions take over then only chaos will ensue.

IS THE POEM FORBIDDEN READING?
 
The Poem of the Man-God was put on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1959.
 
The Index was done away in the sixties but its moral authority remains. Doing away with the Index does not imply that Catholics can read dangerous books.
 
Cardinal Ratzinger now Pope Benedict XVI stated in a letter to Cardinal Siri in 1985 that the Poem was the product of mental illness. We have seen that Medjugorje believers sometimes try to say it was only the first edidtion that was bad. But the Cardinal stated that the work itself not just the editions was nonsense and then condemned the Second Edition (page 128, Medjugorje, the Untold Story).
 
Medjugorje believers respond that what the Church banned was the first edition of the book which was dubious. They say that more accurate editions that are true to the original notebooks and revelations are not banned. But do they wish to deny that the original notebooks contain a lot of irreverence and error?
 
Another response is that the Virgin was only permitting them to read the book and was not saying it was accurate. Why didn’t she just tell them to use some other similar book that hadn’t been in trouble with the Church? There was no shortage of them and they were more popular than the Poem of the Man-God. The revelations about Jesus’ life to Anne Catherine Emmerich who was beatified by John Paul II are universally regarded as wholesome for Catholics. The evidence for her holiness was better than fro that of Maria Valtorta. Anne Catherine is believed to have shown evidence of clairvoyance and stigmata. It is a serious problem that Valtorta’s revelations often contradict hers.
 
One big contradiction is how Poem of the Man-God has Mary being conceived naturally while Emmerich has her being conceived virginally at the temple.
 
The Medjugorje Virgin also contradicts the revelations of Emmerich. Emmerich says that Mary was born on August 24th. The Medjugorje apparition says it was August 5th.
 
This is refuted by the glowing endorsement of the book to Vicka and by the fact that the book is still a forbidden book.
 
It is simply not true that the Vatican condemned not the Poem but an edition of it as if the edition were faulty and not the work itself. Read the following from http://www.ewtn.com/library/scriptur/valtorta.txt:
 
When volume four appeared, the Holy Office examined the "Poem" and
condemned it, recommending that it be placed on the Index of Forbidden
Books Dec. 16, 1959. Pope John XXIII signed the decree and ordered it
published. L'Osservatore Romano, on Jan. 6, 1960, printed the
condemnation with an accompanying front-page article, "A Badly
Fictionalized Life of Jesus," to explain it.
 
The article complained that the "Poem" broke Canon Law. "Though they treat
exclusively of religious issues, these volumes do not have an
"imprimatur," which is required by Canon 1385, sect. 1, n. 2."
 
Second, the long speeches of Jesus and Mary starkly contrast with the
evangelists, who portray Jesus as "humble, reserved; His discourses are
lean, incisive." Valtorta's fictionalized history makes Jesus sound "like
a chatterbox, always ready to proclaim Himself the Messiah and the Son of
God," or teach theology in modern terms. The Blessed Mother speaks like a
"propagandist" for modern Marian theology.
 
Third, "some passages are rather risque," like the "immodest" dance before
Pilate (vol. 5, p. 73). There are "many historical, geographical and
other blunders." For instance, Jesus uses screwdrivers (Vol. 1, pp. 195,
223), centuries before screws existed.
 
There are theological errors, as when "Jesus says" (vol. 1, p. 30) that
Eve's temptation consisted in arousing her flesh, as the serpent
sensuously "caressed" her. While she "began the sin by herself," she
"accomplished it with her companion." Sun Myung Moon and Maria Valtorta
may claim the first sin was sexual, but Scripture does not.
 
Vol. 1, p. 7, oddly claims, "Mary can be called the 'second-born' of the
Father . . ." Her explanation limits the meaning, avoiding evidence of an
authentic heresy; but it does not take away the basic impression that she
wants to construct a new mariology, which simply goes beyond the limits of
propriety." "Another strange and imprecise statement" made of Mary (vol.
4, p. 240) is that she will "be second to Peter with regard to
ecclesiastical hierarchy. . . " Our Lady surpasses St. Peter's holiness,
but she is not in the hierarchy, let alone second to St. Peter.
 
Further, Valtorta did not claim to write a novel, but called herself a
"secretary" of Jesus and Mary, so, "in all parts on reads the words 'Jesus
says. . .' or 'Mary says . . .'" The Church takes this claim to revelation
very seriously, since it has the God-given duty to discern what is or is
not truly from the Holy Spirit. In Valtorta's case, the Church decided
against Divine inspiration.
 
Finally, "Poem" is condemned for reasons of disobedience. Competent Church
authority had prohibited the printing of Valtorta's work. 
 
CONCLUSION
 
The Virgin Mary appearing to promote the Catholic Church is not going to approve of a book banned by the Church.
 
Nor is she going to approve of a heretical book.
 
The Medjugorje entity is not the Catholic Virgin Mary.  Suppose it does not mean it is not Mary though!
 
UNDERSTANDING MEDJUGORJE, HEAVENLY VISIONS OR RELIGIOUS ILLUSION? Donal Anthony Foley, Theotokos Books, Nottingham, 2006
 
To Order Understanding Medjugorje visit http://www.theotokos.org.uk or write to Theotokos Books, PO Box, 8570, Nottingham, England
 
Videos
 
VISIONS ON DEMAND, Network 5 International, 1997
DIVINE OR DECEIVED? COVER-UP, Network 5 International, 1998
 
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