The entry into force of the new Norms for discerning alleged supernatural phenomena has allowed a new “green light” from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, this time with regard to spiritual experiences at the Shrine of Maccio in Villa Guardia, near Como in northern Italy.
In 2000, Gioacchino Genovese, a music teacher and choir director, married and the father of two daughters, began to perceive through “intellectual visions,” a “living presence of the mystery of the Holy Trinity.” A serious, discreet person who never sought the limelight, five years later he invited more people to be involved with adoration, supplications, and novenas.
After an initial examination of Genovese’s writings and of the phenomenon more generally, in 2010 the then Bishop of Como, Diego Coletti gave the parish church the status of a Sanctuary with the title Santissima Trinità Misericorida (“Most Holy Trinity Mercy”).
The prefect’s letter
Today, Wednesday, 24 July, a letter addressed to Cardinal Oscar Cantoni, bishop of Como, by the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, was made public.
Cardinal Cantoni had written to the Dicastery concerning the possibility of declaring the “nulla osta” for the phenomenon of Maccio according to the provisions of the new Norms. In the letter, approved by Pope Francis, Fernández offers some clarifications on Genovese’s writings.
The positive elements
First, the DDF Prefect lists the positive aspects present in the messages: “The Trinity is the source of mercy and its perfect realization [italics in original]. In light of this belief, what spiritual writings and the Magisterium have frequently stated about the mercy of God or Christ acquires a strong Trinitarian meaning. The marginalization of the Trinitarian mystery in the theological reflection and spirituality of past centuries is well known. In this sense, Mr Genovese’s spiritual experience is in line with the rediscovery of the centrality of the Most Holy Trinity for the faith and Christian life that occurred in the last century.
“In the writings of Mr. Genovese this truth is expressed insistently and the message of Mercy flowing from the Trinitarian We is full of beauty. In the Son of God made man, from his Incarnation until today, the infinite love of the Trinitarian Communion is manifested for us:
“‘In Me, the incarnate Word, oh my Bride, you see and touch the Love, Charity and Mercy of Me, the one God, and you contemplate, without understanding, except in Me the Word, oh my Bride, the Gift of We Trinity’ (864).”
Further excerpts from the messages are also included in the letter, including the following, such as this one:
“My Incarnation is a gift of Trinitarian Mercy!
My Word is a gift of Trinitarian Mercy!
My Passion is the Gift of Trinitarian Mercy!
My Resurrection is the Gift of Trinitarian Mercy!
I am Mercy!” (49).
Trinitarian prayer
Cardinal Fernández points out, “Even if only the Son assumed human nature, the Church is called to rediscover more and more in the gestures of Christ that infinite mercy of the Triune God, who in the writings of Mr Genovese is called by the name ‘Trinity Mercy’. This is the centre of all the messages because, ultimately, it is the centre of Revelation.”
In his letter, the Cardinal Prefect also reproduces the following “beautiful” prayer:
“It is You who look at me, You look over me, You attract me to You and, taking my lowered face, you raise it towards Yours and tell me to fix You in the Heart, in Your Heart, where the Love that You have for me pulsates, so that I can sink my ear into that eternal beat and be able to rest my head peacefully. And again, lift My Face so that I fix Your Face. In You, man Jesus, who are God, the very Face of the Trinity Mercy so that, staring into your eyes, I can truly Trust in You, my Lord and My God. So, behold, even though I am a sinner, I can, in You, raise and fix the Gaze without fear. To the Mercy, to the Infinite Love of You, my only God, Impenetrable Trinity of the Infinite Mystery of Love in Yourself, which You are! I love You and in You I feel made new and cleansed from the weighty filth of sin” (1331).
Aspects to be clarified
Cardinal Fernández’s letter also deals with aspects that need to be clarified. The Cardinal notes, “It is certainly never easy to express oneself with precision on the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity; and if this applies to the great theologians and to the Magisterium of the Church itself, it becomes even more complex when one tries to express in human words what is lived in a spiritual experience. Mr Genovese clearly recognizes this when, referring to his words, he says that he is ‘aware of their imprecision, just as everything I have written so far has been imprecise’” [underlining in original].
Specifically, the letter highlights as “the most complex issue”, expressions that use the Trinitarian plural “We” even to refer to the incarnation, as, for example, “We Mercy […] have become incarnate” (541). “Such expressions are not acceptable,” Cardinal Fernández states, “and their diffusion must be avoided, as they can easily be interpreted in a way contrary to the Catholic faith” [italics in original], since only the Son became incarnate.
Nonetheless, the letter continues, “This does not mean attributing errors to all of Mr Genovese’s writings. In many of them, in fact, especially in the subsequent ones, we find clarifications that lead us towards the correct interpretation.”
Cardinal Fernández gives several further texts as examples, including the following: “In the Incarnation the Trinity did not assume humanity, but in the Humanity of the Word, we also contemplate and touch His Divinity (1407).”
The Prefect explains, “It remains clear, then, that, on the one hand, only the Word became incarnate and that all the texts that include a Trinitarian ‘We’ refer to the common and constant presence of the three Persons, and on the other that, even if it is only the Word who becomes incarnate, all three Persons are manifested as Mercy in the Mystery of Christ.”
The correct interpretation
“We can maintain,” Cardinal Fernández writes, “that the spiritual proposal that arises from the experiences narrated by Mr Gioacchino Genovese in relation to the ‘Trinity Mercy’, if interpreted in light of what has been said [italics in original], as supported by the various experts consulted, does not contain theological or moral elements contrary to the doctrine of the Church. In any case, it is necessary to proceed in such a way that, in the publication of an anthology of writings, texts containing confusing expressions […] are avoided and that this letter is placed as an introduction to the collection.”
Finally, the letter specifies that, “various texts referring to the devil must be interpreted as an expression of a God who never forgets his beloved creature, even when that created being has freely and definitively become distanced from God”; and that “ texts that offer indications to the Bishop or to other people (details on dates, times, places, and other detailed or minute details) are not useful for the faithful and cannot even be considered as divine indications for some, without careful discernment of the people involved.”
And it is added that other texts, containing “pointed indications to the bishop or other persons (details about dates, times, places, and other circumstantial or minute details) are of no use to other faithful and cannot even be considered as divine indications for some, without careful discernment of the persons involved.”
The letter also states that by “the diocesan Bishop in dialogue with this Dicastery.”
The bishop’s decree
The value of the messages received by Genovese, with their symbolic language, consists in trying to overcome an excessive separation between Christology and Trinitarian theology, calling for a rediscovery of the “Trinity Mercy” reflected in every gesture of Jesus.
At the same time as the publication of the Dicastery’s letter, the Bishop of Como published the decree establishing the “nulla osta” according to the provisions of the new Norms.
The Vatican News
