The Very First Sentence of the Dominican's Article is an Easily Provable Factual and Historical Falsehood (and, Furthermore, is, in Fact, Calumny)

The Resistance Dominicans wrote:

Maria Valtorta died in 1961 "in an incomprehensible physical [sic] isolation" (in an insane asylum).

The above sentence contains a blatant falsehood, which is easily proven to be a falsehood to anyone who consults relevant sources, which I will get to shortly. However, I want to address something else first. This statement seems calculated to give the readers the impression that Maria Valtorta was somehow untrustworthy as a person and a Catholic and that therefore, the entire summation of her writings from earlier in her life, is thus somehow untrustworthy or suspect. This is false reasoning and lacks substance. This also constitutes a type of character assassination and calumny since it is inaccurate. Furthermore, it is biased since they do not take into account the testimonies of those who attested to her virtues and holiness, those who assisted at her deathbed, or the high esteem that many trustworthy high-ranking clerics held her in, including after her death. For evidence of this, read what Fr. Gabriel Roschini, O.S.M. (world-renowned Mariologist and pre-Vatican II Consultant to the Holy Office and the Sacred Congregation for the Causes of Saints), did after her death. I'll provide some details below:

Maria Valtorta died on October 12, 1961. An article relates:

"The rector of the Third Order of the Servants of Mary, Fr. Innocenzo M. Rovetti, assisted her at her deathbed. At the very moment the priest recited the words: Proficiscere, anima Christiana, de hoc mundo ("Depart, o Christian soul, from this world"), Maria breathed her last. Ten years after Maria Valtorta's death, on October 12, 1971, her mortal remains were exhumed from the earth and placed in the family niche. On the 2nd of July 1973, however, with civil and ecclesiastic permissions, they were transferred from Viareggio to Florence to be entombed in the Capitular Chapel in the Grand Cloister of the Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation [the mother church of the Servite Order], where the tomb of Maria Valtorta is still venerated."1

Fr. Gabriel Roschini, O.S.M., world-renowned Mariologist, wrote that after her death,

"People noticed that her right hand -- with which she had written so many sublime texts -- contrarily to her left hand, retained the color, suppleness, and beauty of someone alive rather than dead."2

Fr. Roschini presided over the relocation of the remains of Maria Valtorta from Viareggio to the Grand Cloister of the Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation, including presiding over the Mass, giving the appropriate discourse for this occasion, and giving the blessing for her burial.3 The inscription on her tomb reads: "Divinarum Rerum Scriptrix" (Writer of Divine Things).

For more details about Fr. Roschini and Valtorta, see this article: Fr. Gabriel Roschini's Strong Approval of Valtorta and Her Work (Greatest Mariologist of the 20th Century).

As a side note, the Resistance Dominicans start out the very first sentence of their article with a typo. I think they intended to write "psychological", not "physical", because it is most probably the case that they took this expression from the Preface written for The Poem of the Man-God, which uses the exact phrase "psychological isolation", when it mentions her Alzheimer's-like state that she began entering into during the very last part of her life after she had offered also her intelligence to God as a victim soul.4 However, typos are not the least of the errors of their article, because their article's factual errors, methodological and logical fallacies, distortions and misrepresentations, and unsubstantiated subjective accusations are far worse than typos, even though such a basic typo that makes their sentence lose logical sense does shed some evidence on the minimal amount of scholarly effort and review that they put into their article.

The Resistance Dominicans did not provide any evidence that Maria Valtorta was in an insane asylum, which is not surprising since this is a patent falsehood. Maria Valtorta died in her house which is proven not only by the priest who was praying over her in her very last moments, but also by the two men who did an imprint of her face after her death, and you can see the photograph taken right after her death showing her dead body lying on the bed where she had lived for so many years. It is also evident from the testimonies of many others that she died in her own bed in her own house, where she had spent the vast majority of her time during the last decades of her life. Furthermore, Maria's live-in companion and housekeeper for 26 years, Marta Diciotti, wrote a detailed account of Maria Valtorta's life during those 26 years, which has been published in Italian under the title Una vita con Maria Valtorta: Testimonianze di Marta Diciotti (A Life with Maria Valtorta: Testimonials of Marta Diciotti, 528 pages, 1987; not yet translated into English). In this book she describes how the only institution or clinic Maria Valtorta visited for any length of time during the last part of her life was for the second half of September 1961 for some examinations in the clinic of "Suore dell'Addolorata" in Via Manzoni, Pisa. That is the only time she was away from her room in her home for any length of time during the last years of her life when she had succumbed to symptoms of Alzheimer's. If you investigate this clinic, you will see that it was an ordinary medical clinic (and still is) and wasn't even close to being what could be called "an insane asylum".

Furthermore, all the documents regarding the staying of Maria in Pisa (from the 16th to the 29th of September 1961) and all the examination results are in the hands of the CEV (Centro Editoriale Valtortiano) Foundation.

It was Fr. Corrado Berti, O.S.M. (professor of dogmatic and sacramental theology of the Pontifical Marianum Theological Faculty in Rome from 1939 onward, and Secretary of that Faculty from 1950 to 1959) who spoke with the Mother Superior of the Nuns and together agreed to do these examinations in Pisa. The personal doctor of Maria Valtorta wanted these examinations because her ESR (erythrocyte sedimentation rate) was extremely high and therefore he was quite sure that somewhere there was a cancer, and one of the highly aggressive types, but they did not know where without an examination. However, from the examinations done in Pisa, it was excluded that there was any cancer and this made Maria's doctor very disconcerted. Marta recalls how he investigated all the results of the examinations very carefully and then said, "I didn't expect this! The ESR is extremely high. There is a cancer here. Somewhere there must be."5

When Maria Valtorta was back in her house, on the morning of the 30th, her condition was very serious. The ambulance that brought her back home had to go very slowly because Maria had a syncope on the 28th, because the radiologist doing the X-rays did not take into account the serious state of the patient.6

It is very clear from the detailed accounts of Marta Diciotti that Maria Valtorta was not insane. Marta had in fact discovered a letter that Maria Valtorta had written to Madre Teresa wherein she confided to her that she (Valtorta) had offered her intelligence to God as the last thing she could offer Him as a victim soul, after having previously offered her body as a victim soul to God and taken private vows of virginity, poverty, and obedience.7 And Maria Valtorta did indeed make this offering of her intelligence to God. Marta explains many times in detail in her book the condition Maria Valtorta was in and what she did during those last years. For instance, the Sunday before Valtorta's death, when she was already in critically bad condition (she was to die the following Thursday), while Marta was following on the radio a beatification ceremony in Rome, while praying the litanies in Latin, Valtorta answered every invocation with "ora pro nobis" or "orate pro nobis" (appropriately differentiating between these responses and saying them at the correct times), until the end. Also, almost by a miracle, whenever Valtorta was questioned about her work by priests or authorities during the last years of her life, she came out of her Alzheimer's-like state and was able to offer coherent, intelligent responses.8 For most of the rest of the time during the last 8.5% of her life, she was in a state similar to (if not precisely) Alzheimer's. This is not insanity. This was a form of suffering she offered up to God and is a state that many other saints and renowned clerics, religious, and lay faithful have suffered down through the centuries in their later years. Maria Valtorta was extremely holy.

The Fondazione Maria Valtorta newsletter about the 2018 Italian Valtorta Conference describes two doctors who gave talks about this very topic:

Dr. Alberto Pucci is a graphologist who explained the profound aspects of Maria Valtorta's personality; in other words, her temperament and her genetic tendencies. Her past history revealed her character, what was deep inside her soul, and her virtues, which were already there and not influenced by her upbringing. Dr. Pucci could confirm her "perfectly normal status" just like any average person. Even in her deepest fibers, Maria was as normal as anyone else. There was nothing twisted nor different about her.

Dr. Francesco Marciante is a Sicilian freelance physiologist, who reported Maria Valtorta's real psychological status as it is clearly shown in her Autobiography as well as in her published letters. The conference used several slides along with psychological scientific explanations, which only further confirmed what Maria Valtorta's readers knew since the very beginning. She is absolutely normal and far from the falsehoods that books, leaflets, articles, and various rumors have attempted to be spread. The now famous quote of Prof. Geminiani, director of the psychiatric hospital of Maggiano (Lu), who met Maria Valtorta personally states: "Whoever says Maria Valtorta is insane, needs to have a finger pointed at themselves." Once again her sanity was demonstrated. Dr. Marciante cleared Maria Valtorta of any hysteria or psychological affliction, declaring her healthy and an extremely normal person.

Now, just to completely demolish the calumnious insinuation of the Resistance Dominican's (and presumably of Fr. Herrbach's as well if they got this idea from his book), and for the sake of a devil's advocate argument, even if Valtorta had been placed for years in the equivalent institutional care that all other Alzheimer's patients were placed in at the time (whatever label you want to apply to such hospitals), that wouldn't have any bearing on her personal character or the holy life and profound writings she wrote before she developed her Alzheimer's.

It should be noted that there have been numerous saints, victim souls of Our Lord, and even just plain holy and devout ordinary Catholics of notable repute throughout the centuries who suffered a type of suffering as Maria Valtorta had undergone in the latter years of their life (whether it was Alzheimer's or whatever other type of sickness engulfed the life or aging mind of the patient). One famous example is St. Martin, the holy father of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus, who suffered a similar fate as Maria Valtorta (coincidentally, he also offered himself as a victim soul of sorts to God, just like Maria Valtorta). He is known to have lost the faculties of his mind towards the end of his life. Such suffering of St. Martin and Maria Valtorta is not in the least an indication of lack of holiness nor does it cast doubt on the obvious soundness of Valtorta's mind that she possessed during the first 91.5% of her life, prior to her catatonic state that she started entering into during the last 8.5% of her life.9 As a victim soul, she suffered many intense and varied illnesses (attested to by dozens of witnesses). They began with a fatal blow to her spine when she was younger (an injury that eventually caused a cascade of many nervous system ailments). It is very reasonable to infer that her illnesses would consume also her mind later on in life --- not unlike the countless famous and world-renowned people who lived honored lives and suffered the horrible psychological isolation of Alzheimer's later on in life. I doubt that the Dominicans would so carelessly calumniate all the devout Catholics, clerics, and even princes and kings throughout the centuries who suffered from Alzheimer's or a similar illness in their later years.

It is noteworthy that another critic of Valtorta tried to use this same tactic of calculated calumny and failure of distinction against Valtorta. Read the middle section with the heading entitled "Fr. Benedict Groeschel & Mark Slatter" in the following URL: Maria-Valtorta.net: Response to Notable Critics.

If you click the rebuttal, you can read the whole text. I will quote only a short excerpt from it:

Dr. Pisani believed that Maria Valtorta succumbed to Alzheimer's disease in her final days, which affects 1 in 85 people towards the end of their lives. Symptoms of Alzheimer's disease are commonly described as withdrawal, as well as psychological and social isolation. Rev. Mark Slatter writes: "Her personal life raises serious questions". Because she had Alzheimer's? Following this line of reasoning, are we now to consider the "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall" speech to be the ravings of a crazy person? Are we to start questioning the life works of former President Ronald Reagan, Charlton Heston, Rita Hayworth, etc.?

[...] It is important to remember that unethical cynics insulted Jesus to His face when he was alive and walking. Now they insult deceased holy people by diagnosing them with whatever they like without ever meeting them. Notwithstanding that "The Catholic Herald" (Britain's Leading Catholic Newspaper) touts Saint Thérèse of Lisieux as "The Greatest Saint of Modern Times", unethical cynics took the liberty of writing books performing psychological analysis of the saint's character, concluding that she was mentally ill and neurotic:

• Ida Friederike Gorres, "The Hidden Face: A Study of St. Therese of Lisieux", page 83, London, 2003.

• Karen Armstrong, "The Gospel According to Woman: Christianity's Creation of the Sex War in the West", page 234, London, 1986.

• Monica Furlong, "Therese of Lisieux", page 9, London, 2001.

• Jean Francois, "La Verdadera Infancia do Teresa de Lisieux: Neurosis y Santidad", Passim,

Spain, 1976.

You can see the above rebuttal for a further development of the above points, which reinforces the groundlessness of the insinuation and calumny in the Resistance Dominican anti-Valtorta article. The Resistance Dominicans are no better than the anti-Catholic liars and poor researchers who calumniated St. Thérèse of Lisieux in just the same way.

The falsehood that Maria Valtorta was in an insane asylum has not only been thoroughly disproven by evidence, eyewitness accounts, and facts; but these accounts also objectively demonstrate that the Resistance Dominicans did not adequately research the topic at hand, did not consult primary sources, and are guilty of misinformation and calumny against a truly saintly victim soul. If the Dominicans are just and honest, they will publicly correct their falsehood and publicly apologize for their calumny. However, based on their behavior in the past few years, more than a few traditional Catholics wouldn't be holding their breath that the Resistance Dominicans are capable of such acts of humility and honesty at this point, although we should give them the benefit of the doubt in charity and continue to pray for them.

If they got this falsehood and calumny from Fr. Herrbach's book (which they reference for more details), he owes a public correction and apology as well.

In a dictation that Maria Valtorta received from her guardian angel, he said something that seems applicable here:10

"Many are the learned, but few those who join justice to learning. And why? Because they know what God is, but do not want to take this knowledge from the brain to the heart, to the spirit, and they are learned, but they are not just, and do not evolve from human into spiritual creatures. They are great in pride, but they are not great in obedience. Bold in judging, but fainthearted in loving."

The greatest commandment is charity (Matthew 22: 36-40). If the Resistance Dominicans are truly seeking to practice the virtues of charity and justice, they need to publicly correct their falsehood and publicly apologize for their calumny against a saintly victim soul, a public falsehood that has already misled people and for which they need to take responsibility.