JimG:
Someone left a copy of this book in the adoration chapel, and I have to confess that I did read parts of it. I could only concur with L’Osservatore Romano that it is a piece of bad historical fiction. See
this article for a fuller discussion of the book.
I love Father Pacwa, but there are some errors in this piece he wrote.
First he said “Valtorta claimed that she was the “secretary” of Jesus and Mary, and was setting down the divinely inspired truth about Jesus’ life. The Church has rejected this claim.”
The Holy Office rejected this claim. There is no teaching of the Church that rejected this claim. The Holy Office has been wrong many times before. The Church is never wrong in her teachings.
He wrote,
" 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."
Pope John XXIII once ordered St. Padre Pio not to say mass publically for a number of years. Later on he admitted he had been misled.
Popes are infallible when then teach for the whole Church. Not in administrative matters. In these cases they are often misled.
Think of Pope John Paul II who desired more than anything to appoint holy orthodox priests to become bishops. But in the early years of his pontificate he was totally misled by some advisors and he appointed the opposite, dissident, disobedient bishops.
Father Pacwa, in his article constantly makes the claim that “The Church” condems the work. The members of the Holy Office can only speak for themselves. While it was in effect, we must obey the index. Since it is no longer in effect, we should obey it if the reasons for putting the Poem on the index were sufficient. But so far they have found nothing in it that contradicts Church teaching, but it certainly does enlighten Church teaching. Try reading it.
On the other hand for a number of years Pope Pius X made the Holy Office’s TEACHINGS mandatory, in two official letters. These were the teachings of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. It is MANDATORY that these teachings be held by all Catholics. These teachings hold fast to apostolic and historical tradition and reaffirm that the four Gospels in the bible were authentic, that is they were written authors assigned to them, that is, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The introductions to the New American Bible, on these authors violates and contradicts MANDATORY CHURCH TEACHING. Especially the introduction to John’s Gospel, in which it denies that John wrote that Gospel.
Why are these introductions NOT removed? Why does Father Pacwa not bring up the fact that these introductions contradict Church teachings. These introductions are far more wide spread than the Poem of the Man-God. These introductions contradict historical tradition, contradict scientific methods for deteming authorship and contradict the MANDATORY decisions of the Pontifical Biblical Commission, which by orders of the Pope, ALL Catholics must agree to. They also contradict the teaching of Pope Pius XII in Proventissimus Deus, in which he makes it clear that in determing the books of the bible we must go by the witness of history, external evidence. He said we must reject internal evidence as almost useless. Thus these introductions contradict Church teachings twice, once for the Pontifical Biblical Commission and once against the Pope’s encyclical.
What teaching of the Church does the Poem of the Man-God contradict? NONE. Then why is it on the index??
Because it increases the faith of Catholics who read it.
Why are the introductions to the Gospels in the New American Bible NOT removed? Because they decrease the faith of Catholics who read them.
Code:
I repeat again. ONLY when the Popes teach are they infallible and only those few bishops who teach in union with the Pope's are infallible. The administrative decisions of theologians have always had errors, from those who condemned the writing of Copernicus, Galileo, etc.
The introductions of the Gospels of the New American bible contradict CHURCH TEACHINGS. Why are they not removed??
The Poem of the Man-God contradicts NO CHURCH TEACHING. It is NOT on any index today.
When it was placed on the index it was not because it contradicted any Church teaching. Thus it never had any moral force for placing it on the index.
penWindow(‘cr/66.htm’)
"The Christian economy, therefore, since it is the new and definitive Covenant, will never pass away; and no new public revelation is to be expected before the glorious manifestation of our Lord Jesus Christ."28 Yet even if Revelation is already complete, it has not been made completely explicit; it remains for Christian faith gradually to grasp its full significance over the course of the centuries.
