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Servant of God Luisa PiccarretaFor the cause of beatification to begin on November 20th, 1994, Day of the Solemnity of Christ, it first had to undergo many difficulties.

The first difficulty was the sentence that the writings received in 1938.

The history of the whole process from its beginning until now has been long and sad.

It all begun with the following decree from the Supreme Congregation of the Holy See (13 de Julio de 1938):

 

With the general approval of the Supreme Congregation of the Holy See, the Most Eminent and Reverend Cardinals responsible for protecting matters of faith and morals, with the approval of the Most Reverend Assessors, condemned, and placed on the Index of Forbidden Books, some of the books written by Luisa Picarreta. The books are listed, as follows:

1º The Hours of the Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ, with a treaty on the Divine Will;

2º In the Kingdom of the Divine Will;

3º The Queen of Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will.

Next day, on the same day and year, the Most Holy Pio Pope XI, by Divine Providence, in his regular audience granted to the Most Reverend Assessor to the Holy See, approved the decision of the Most Eminent Fathers, that was submitted to him, confirmed it and had it published.

Rome, Palace of the Holy Office.
August 31, 1938

Romolo Pantanetti,
Notary to the Supreme Congregation.

 

A few days later, on September 11, the Vatican’s Newspaper, known as “The Roman Observatory” published an anonymous article, warning the public and denigrating Luisa along with her Writings.

Luisa responds to the Church promptly and spontaneously with the following letter:

“With humility, I spontaneously and promptly fulfill my duty as a Christian soul, of offering my unconditional, unhesitating, full and absolute submission to the judgment of the Roman Holy Church. Therefore, without any restriction, I disapprove and condemn everything that the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Holy See disapproves and condemns in said books, in the same sense and with the same intentions as the Supreme Congregation.

At the same time, I humbly submit this declaration to my beloved Archbishop Giuseppe M. Leo, praying him in his paternal charity to remit it to the Holy See.”

Corato, Bari
Luisa Piccarreta

Here is what Our Lord himself tells Luisa in the last volume (September 18, 1938) in view of the sentence:

I (Luisa) find myself in the sea of the Divine Will, amid the greatest bitterness and the most humiliating humiliations, like a poor condemned person. If it were not for Jesus, who makes himself my support, my strength, and my help, I do not know how I would go on living.

Then, my sweet Jesus, taking part in my sufferings, suffered together with me. And in the violence of his pain and love, He said to me:

«My dear daughter, ¡If you knew how much I suffer, if I were to show you, you would die from the pain! Therefore, I must hide everything: all the atrocity, the cruelty and the pain I feel so as not to inflict more pain upon you. You must know that it is not you whom they have condemned, but Me, together with you. I feel my condemnation renewed. When good is condemned, it is to condemn Me. For your part, unite in my Will your condemnation and mine, to that which I suffered when I was crucified and I will give you the merit of my condemnation and all the good that it produced. It made me die, but It called my resurrection to life, in which everyone was to find life and the resurrection of every good.»

«With this condemnation of theirs, they think they are putting to death everything that I have said about my Divine Will. Instead, I will allow such punishments and sad calamities, and so I will make my truths rise more beautiful, more majestic among the peoples.”
“Therefore, as far as you and I are concerned, let us not change anything. Let us continue to do as we have been doing, even if everyone turns against us. This is my divine way of acting: No matter how much wrong creatures do, I never modify my works. Instead, I conserve them with my power and my creative virtue, out of love for those who offend me, and I love them always, without ever stopping...»

«I will make use of every means: love, grace, punishments. I will touch creatures from all sides, in order to make my Will reign. And when it seems like true good is dying, it will rise more beautiful and majestic than before.»

We must note that the same Supreme Congregation of the Holy See and SS Pio XI who condemned Luisa’s books in 1938, were also the same Congregation, under the Head of Cardinal Ratzinger and the approval from SS John Paul II that abolished the condemnation in 1966.

The condemnation was as unexpected and inexplicable from a human point of view but from a divine, it could not be missing for it is not possible for a work of God not to be honored with the crown of persecution. Moreover, the persecution had to be proportional to the greatness of the mission.

Many efforts were made to obtain information from the Supreme Congregation of the Holy See as to what they had considered contrary to sound faith and doctrine, in order to take it away from the books and continue publishing them.

How gladly had they declared what was wrong in the Writings in order to justify the condemnation, but they could not do it because nothing was wrong! Otherwise, the honor of Bishops, Cardinals and Ecclesiastical authorities had been at stake including St. Hannibal Di Francia. In a letter from Luisa, she writes the following:

« ... Sorry about Fr. Beda; why did the manuscripts –this is a letter sent by Fr. Beda to the Supreme Congregation of the Holy See, to find out what was wrong, arguing the possibility to have been mistaken– did not make it to Rome? Who was responsible for it? While I know, from a reliable source, that the Holy See received requests from many places, asking for the writings to be made public. It seems to me that the Lord wants to do everything by himself, if not today, then tomorrow... »

Many years passed by before everything was clear. As soon as Luisa Picarreta died, her last Confessor, Fr. Don Benedetto Calvi, devoted himself to collecting and organizing everything that was necessary to initiate the Cause for the Beatification. He must be very happy now that his efforts have proven fruitful. Certainly, without everything that he did, much of what we have today had been lost.

Our Lord had disposed otherwise. Fr. Calvi did not start the Cause for the Beatification of Luisa for it was not easy to beatify someone who had been recently condemned although history is full of cases like these. We already mentioned one of the most recent ones, Sr. Faustina Kowalski, whose writings were also put in the Index of Forbidden Books. However, we do not consider it appropriate to cite other cases at this moment.

Fr. Benedetto Calvi passed away in 1968 and practically everything died with him. Rosario Bucci was the only witness left to whom Luisa said, as Rosario later testified, that someday she would be the first to give her testimony.
Luisa also told Rosario that some day a couple of priests dressed in white would come from far away to bring her writings into the light as well as the doctrine of the Divine Will. And so it was. She was quite surprised when one day she opened the door to two priests dressed in a white habit who introduced themselves as Sons of the Divine Will.

In 1974, the community “White Legionaries of Our Lady” that was established 4 years earlier arrived to Corato. This Community changed its name to the Sons of the Divine Will, with the approval of their Bishop, in order to continue reading the writings of Luisa Picarreta, which had completely transformed their spirituality. Founded in Frascati, nearby Rome, they asked their Bishop to allow them to move to Corato, where Luisa was born, in order to intensify their studies of Luisa’s writings and investigate the reasons why her Beatification Process had not yet started.

This is how the members of this Community learned that the Holy See had put some of Luisa’s Writings on the Index of Forbidden Books. Not only were the books of Luisa condemned but also the Community was condemned. They were treated as the sons of a “condemned” person for many years and many places of the world.

Nonetheless, knowing that there was nothing condemnable in such writings, they decided to investigate and make everything possible to begin the beatification process. The Bishop from the Dioceses of Trani, to which the City of Corato currently belongs to, authorized the Community members to gather all the information necessary to initiate the Beatification Process. This includes the elaboration of the document on the convenience of the Cause for the Beatification of Luisa Picarreta.

The greatest obstacle was always the condemnation. In order to start the process it was necessary for the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith to grant their “Nihil Obstat”to the cause, but there seemed to be an obstacle and it was precisely the condemnation.

Several years went by and the Community had to leave the Dioceses, leaving everything behind as if buried but “buried” in the same way a seed is planted in the ground in order to become fruitful in due time.

God had also planted the seed of the Divine Will in the hearts of the Community Members and they constantly nourished it in silent by meditating on Luisa’s Writings, and praying for the abolishment of the condemnation. Obviously, the persecution continued, as they were still the sons of a condemned person!

Years later, the Divine Providence had Fr. Hannibal Maria Di Francia beatified in 1991. In view of this, Mgr. Giuseppe Carata, Bishop of the Dioceses of Trani, said, “with the Beatification of Fr. Hannibal Di Francia, the Church has also approved his writings along with the Prefaces that he did for Luisa’s Writings.” Blessed Hannibal Di Francia (canonized on May 16, 2004) was the first person that published Luisa’s Writings and granted them his “Nihil Obstat.” [See: Luisa's writings]

Nevertheless, they still needed to clarify everything and to abolish the condemnation. A few years went by and finally the Holy See abolished the condemnation on Holy Saturday, April 2, 1994, with the unanimous vote of the Cardinals and the different Roman Dicasteries, including the vote and approval of His Holiness Pope John Paul II.

With this, they could proceed to begin the Beatification Process for Luisa Picarreta, officially. Everything was prepared and His Excellency Mons. Carmelo Cassati, Bishop of the Dioceses of Trani, began the Beatification Process with a Solemn Ceremony on November 20, 1994, Day of the Solemnity of Christ the King.

On January 30, 1996, after 58 years of captivity the Writings of Luisa, which had been sequestered, were liberated. The Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith authorized some of the members of the Tribunal for the Cause of Beatification of Luisa Picarreta to make copies of the original manuscripts, which were kept in the secret archive of the Vatican, to use them for her cause.

In June 2005, the Diocesan Phase of the Cause of Beatification for Luisa Picarreta concluded, as the Archdiocesis of Triani Bisceglie- Barlette- Nazaret officially communicated it on June 4, 2005:

COMUNICATO

La "Divina Volontà" ha guidato l'Arcidiocesi, in questo ultimo decennio, per il compimento dei lavori circa il processo della Causa di Beatificazione della Serva di Dio Luisa Piccarreta. La Postulazione Diocesana annunzia di aver completato questo itinerario.

Si comunica che nei giorni 27 - 28 - 29 ottobre 2005 sarà celebrato il 2° Congresso Internazionale con la conclusione del processo diocesano.

La Pia Associazione Luisa Piccarreta Piccoli Figli della Divina Volontà, in Corato, è incaricata ad assolvere i compiti di Segreteria per la celebrazione e l'accoglienza degli ospiti.

In seguito sarà pubblicato il programma della celebrazione in modo definitivo.

Gesù Cristo presente nell'Eucaristia ci guida come ha guidato la Serva Luisa.

Il Vicario Generale
(Mons. Savino Giannotti)

 

Read the last communication from the Secretariat of the Cause of Beatification of the Servant of God Luisa Piccarreta (april 23, 2007).

 

We hope that history will make justice to the Little Daughter of the Divine Will, but most of all to Our Lord himself, whom, as he expressed to Luisa, “It is to condemn me.” We know that the best way to rehabilitate the Writings of Luisa completely and therefore Our Lord himself is by living in the fullness of the Kingdom of the Divine Will as Our Lord taught it to Luisa.
Many souls are already enjoying the positive effects that Living in the Divine Will provides, and giving God the glory that from all eternity he has been wanting to receive from all his creatures; the glory worthy of a God.

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« My daughter I repeat, do not look at the earth. Let the creatures do whatever they want. Do they want war? Let them make war. When they get tired, then I too will have my war. Their tiredness in evil, their disenchantments, their deceptions, and their painful losses, will dispose them to receive my war. Mine will be a war of love; my Will will descend from heaven amid all creatures.

All your acts done in my Will and the acts of those who will live in my Will will make war against the creatures. They will not make a war of blood but they will make war with the arms of love, by giving them surprising gifts and graces, and they will do amazing things that will fill ungrateful man with amazement.

My Will, Celestial Army with divine weapons will confuse man, it will overwhelm him and it will give him light so that he can no longer see evil but the gifts and the riches with which I want to enrich him.”
“The acts done in my Will, containing the Creative power, will be a new salvation for man, and descending from the sky will bring all the goods to the earth.

These acts will bring upon the earth the “New Age” and the triumph of love over the human iniquity that He has prepared for us. (* this New Era that Our Lord speaks about that does not have anything to do with the so-called movement New Age or New Era)

For this reason, multiply your acts in my Will in order to form the weapons, the gifts, the graces to be able to descend in the middle of all creatures and wage a war of love to them.»

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