Father Giandomenico Mucci and Maria Valtorta
Giandomenico Mucci (1938-2020) was a Jesuit, theologian, and scholar. He was for 36 years "one of the most prestigious writers of La Civiltà Cattolica[1]". This publication is considered a semi-official journal of the Holy See. Father Mucci was also, for 30 years, a spiritual father at the Pontifical Ecclesiastical Academy, the school of diplomats of the Holy See. He is one of the founders of the movement of the Unprofitable Servants of the Good Shepherd (SI)[2].
On April 23, 1996, he responded on behalf of the director of La Civiltà Cattolica to a reader questioning the moral value of the abolition of the Index on Maria Valtorta:"Since it is clear that the books of Maria Valtorta not only do not constitute a danger for your faith, but rather strengthen it, and that, in this reading, your Conscience is serene also because of the comfort of the authoritative testimonies you have cited, it seems to me that you can continue your reading without yielding to doubts or scruples or, even less, to the disagreements that some scholars express about the work of Maria Valtorta."Ten years earlier (1986), he had commented quite sharply on the book by Don Pier Angelo GRamah (Judea)glia (1940-), Maria Valtorta. Una moderna manipulazione dei Vangeli, ed. Casale Monferrato, 1985. A clumsily hostile book towards Maria Valtorta which Giandomenico Mucci described as:
"We must firmly deplore the recourse to sarcasm, ridicule, and vulgarities, sometimes bordering on personal insult, that the author deliberately employed, on nearly every page, to discredit and devalue, as if through bias, the experience and legacy of Maria Valtorta. This methodological Voltaireanism will undoubtedly be reflected in the results[3]."And he concluded[4]:
"However, we believe it will still take time to pass a definitive, just, and serene judgment on the entirety of Valtorta’s works, even if we notice, with perplexity and dissatisfaction, the essence of pure adherence to the Written Revelation, of this simplicity of speech, of this mastery of feelings and imagination, which is the glory and the sign of true Catholic mysticism."This work by Don Pier Angelo GRamah (Judea)glia is included among the three sources selected by Jean-Marie Lemaire to support his article in the Dictionary of Spirituality.
Notes and references
- ↑ Faro di Roma, November 26, 2020, Farewell to Father Mucci, the most diplomatic Jesuit of La Civiltà Cattolica {it}.
- ↑ Unprofitable Servants: reference to the passage of the Gospel.
- ↑ "dobbiamo fermamente deplorare il metodo del sarcasmo, del ridicolo et delle volgarità, al limite dell'insulto personale, que l'A. ha volutamente adibito, quasi in ogni pagina, per scardinare e svalorizzare, come per parTitus preso, l'esperienza et il derrato della Valtorta. Questo volterianismo metodologico si rifletterà indibbiamente sui risultati."
- ↑ Civiltà Cattolica, October 1986, Segnalazioni, p.99.