(Pray The Angelus)

BEWARE OF "IMPROVED" RELIGION

(Warning on Vassula)

(Fr. Mitch Pacwa on Maria Valtorta)

Divine Will is a cult verging on heresy, that is attempting to attach itself to the Catholic Church. The cult is sapping strength away from the modest recovery presently under way from the damage that was done to the Church from the mid-60s onward. It maintains the outward trappings of Catholicism with great pomp and sense of importance, replete with Archbishops, "Canonization Commissions" and "Imprimaturs"; but buried deep within its writings is a false theology that threatens to separate those who follow it from the Church.

This Divine Will cult is taking a tremendous toll among the faithful remnant - especially among the older believers - who accept all that the Catholic Church has taught from the time of the Apostles. But instead of helping them along the straight and narrow path to eternal happiness, the cult is diverting them to a dangerous fanaticism under guise of a super-Catholicism.

The Divine Will cult does, indeed, appear to honor many traditional Catholic beliefs and devout practices; but it is said that satan will give you 99 truths if he can get you to buy just one lie. The cult is the purveyor of some dazzling innovations, glittering and beguiling, false-theological baubles that serve to detract from regular practices of spiritual growth. It is the few, very false teachings of this cult that tell the story of just what the Enemy is up to in using this so-called "Divine Will" to subvert the faithful - the very people who would otherwise be the most effective against him in the Church's sacraments. 

"When I am sacrificed, the soul that lives with Me in my Will is         
sacrificed with Me, not only in one Mass, but in all Masses from the     
first to the last. Since she lives in my Will the soul is consecrated    
in all the Hosts."                                                       
                - Pseudo-Jesus to Luisa Piccarreta, "Book of Heaven."

The Divine Will cult represents itself as faithfully continuing the Church's ancient teaching, but it is really attempting to add to the deposit of the faith. The cult implies that it exceeds and completes the Revelation that, actually, was already fully complete at the time of the death of the last of the original Apostles. (The interpretation of that tradition, for various, particular times and conditions, has continued to develop what was already present, though without adding anything essentially new).

A closer reading of Luisa Piccarreta's own account of her "messages" shows that they are unconnected with the "[t]radition received....coming from outside what has been handed on" and departing from "genuine development of doctrine within the Church" (Fr. Terrence Staples, PetersNet: http://www.petersnet.net/bulletins.cfm?recnum=21). 

"[I]t is certain that I have called you first over other souls. Because  
to no other souls, however much I have loved them, have I shown How to   
live in my Will, the effects, the marvels, the riches that the creature  
receives who acts in my supreme will. Search the lives of the Saints as  
much as you wish or in books of doctrine and you will not find the       
wonders of My Will working in the creature and the creature acting in    
my will. The most you will find will be resignation, abandonment, the    
union of wills, but the divine will working in the creature and the      
creature in my will, you will not find this in anyone. This signifies    
that the time had not arrived in which my kindness would call the        
creature to live in such a sublime state. Moreover, even the way I ask   
you to pray is not found in any other... ."                              
                    - Pseudo-Jesus to Luisa, "Book of Heaven," p. xix.   
 "I want to tell you my secrets which until now I have not revealed to   
anyone because the hour of God had not yet sounded. God wanted to        
bestow surprising graces upon creatures which in all the history of the  
world He had not conceded to anyone."                                    
                   - Pseudo-Mary to Luisa, "A New Era of Grace," p. 10.

Among the false teachings of the Divine Will cult:

"The first principal error in Luisa's writings is that they clearly
violate the Catholic notion of Divine Revelation....She claims to be
the founder of a totally new dispensation, a new way of holiness, a new
way of being united with God which has only been lived by three people
before Luisa: Adam and Eve (before the Fall) and Mary. These
'revelations' cannot be true because they contradict the church's
teaching on the nature of divine revelation and the role of private
revelation in the Church."
- Fr. Terrence Staples, PetersNet.
http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?RecNum=225

While denying that these novel and false teachings are adding to Revelation and claiming they were always implicitly present (especially through misinterpreting the Lord's Prayer), the cult portrays them as necessary for belief by the whole Church, including Priests and the hierarchy, in order to fulfill the call to holiness made to us all by God. And the supposedly advanced spiritual understanding this cult claims to possess, can only be had by purchasing a great number of their books, at some cost. 

"The Third FIAT will give creatures such grace that they will return     
almost to their original state. Only when I have seen man as he emerged  
from Me, will my work be complete. Then will I enjoy perpetual repose    
in this, my last FIAT. Only the Life of my Will shall return man anew    
to his original state."                                                  
                     - Pseudo-Jesus to Luisa, "Book of Heaven," p. 125.

"[T]here is a threefold state of mankind; the first was under the Old
Law; the second is that of the New Law; the third will take place not
in this life, but in heaven....[W]e are not to look forward to a state
wherein man is to possess the grace of the Holy Ghost more perfectly
than he has possessed it hitherto... ."
                         - St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, 1-11, 106.
                                                    http://www.knight.org/advent/summa/

"The Church has always taught and continues to proclaim that God's
revelation was brought to completion in Jesus Christ, who is the
fullness of that revelation, and that 'no new public revelation is to
be expected before the glorious manifestation of Our Lord (Dei Verbum,
4).' The Church evaluates and judges private revelations by the
criterion of conformity with that single public Revelation."
                      - John-Paul II, Homily at Mass in Fatima, May 13, 1982.
                  http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?RecNum=225

The Divine Will cult is attempting to establish an alternate millenium, in effect co-opting the immanent Triumph of the Immaculate Heart of Mary; as such it gives assistance to the general satanic warfare presently raging against Our Lady in her effort to save the world in this critical hour. 

"I [Luisa]...said to myself: 'Soon He will say that his Will is more      
than Sacramental Communion Itself.' Then He [Pseudo-Jesus] immediately    
added: 'Right! Right! Because Sacramental Communion lasts a few minutes.  
It is temporary. My Will, on the other hand, is perennial Communion.      
...[M]y Will is Sacrament and surpasses all the sacraments together'."    
                                - "Book of Heaven," pp. 36-37, 106.

The Divine Will cult treats their teaching as a new sacramental order which encompasses and exceeds the Holy Eucharist, something that no one can believe while holding to Catholic truth.

"From the liturgy, therefore, and especially from the Eucharist, as
from a font, grace is poured forth upon us; and the sanctification of
men in Christ and the glorification of God, to which all other
activities of the Church are directed as toward their end, is achieved
in the most efficacious possible way."
                                                         - Sacrosanctum Concilium, para. 10.
                                            http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?RecNum=225

The body of the Seven Sacraments was publicly instituted, once and forever, unable to be reduced or added to, fully developed within the lifetimes of the original Apostles; common sense is aroused to suspicion when an individual - Luisa - claims to receive the institution of a new "sacrament" in a private revelation. "[T]he deposit of faith, 'everything that we need for holiness and increase of faith,' can stand on its own without any private revelation; this is the teaching of the Church....One cannot be obligated through necessity to follow a private revelation" (Fr. Terrence Staples, PetersNet. http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?RecNum=225)

"Because of [the] sublime dignity which God conferred on His most faithful servant, the Church has always most highly honored and praised blessed Joseph next to his spouse, the Virgin Mother of God, and has besought his intercession in times of trouble....The Catholic Church rightly honors with its highest cultus and venerates with a feeling of deep reverence the illustrious patriarch blessed Joseph, now crowned with glory and honor in Heaven, whom Almighty God, in preference to all His saints, willed on earth to be the chaste and true spouse of the Immaculate Virgin Mary as well as the putative father of His only-begotten Son. He indeed enriched him and filled him to overflowing with entirely unique graces, enabling him to execute most faithfully the duties of so sublime a state."
                                                                           - Pope Pius IX 

"[T]here are no special paths, nor doors, nor keys to my Will. A soul    
has but to desire it and all is done. My Will assumes all the work."  
                    - Pseudo-Jesus to Luisa, "Book of Heaven," p. 123.

This is an absurd proposition refuted by the writings of such great saints as St. John of the Cross, who recounts higher states of spiritual development reached only after arduous, all-consuming effort. St. John describes the highest experience of the Spiritual Marriage as beginning with a particular state of calm, detached awareness of God - not a mindless possession. This is a state that, for the favored few who reach it, God puts upon the person; but the Divine Will cult believes, in practice, that all that is necessary for complete sublimation into God's will is for the person to will it.                                                   http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/DIVWILL.TXT 

"[A]bandoning oneself completely in my Will destroys one's own essence   
and causes one to re-acquire the Divine Essence....When a soul acts in   
my Will her humanity is as it were suspended. Then the Divine Life of    
my Love takes its place."                                                
                - Pseudo-Jesus to Luisa, "Book of Heaven," pp. 29, 86.   
 "Perhaps it does not seem that my sacrifice was great, that of living   
without my will....[T]o sacrifice one's self in each instant, in each    
act, in the very good that one wishes to do for all one's life without   
ever giving life to one's own will is the sacrifice of sacrifices. It    
is the greatest proof one can offer and the purest love, drawn from the  
Divine Will Itself that can be offered....[I]t was not even fitting      
that He find in Me a human will operating. It would have been too        
unbecoming for God to descend into a creature in which the human will    
reigned." - Pseudo- Mary to Luisa, "The Virgin Mary in the Kingdom of    
                                          the Divine Will," pp. 15, 17.

This false proposition has been explicitly refuted by the Church at many different times.

"If anyone shall say that the will of man, moved and aroused by God,
does not cooperate at all in assenting to God calling and arousing, by
which it might prepare itself to obtain the grace of justification, and
that neither could it dissent if it willed, but that like a lifeless thing it
does not act at all but is merely passive: Let him be anathema."
                                                    - The Council of Trent, DS 1554.
                                       http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/LUISA.TXT

"[I]t has been brought to the attention of our apostolic office that a
certain Miguel de Molinos, under pretext of the prayer of quiet, but
actually at variance with the teaching and practice of the holy fathers
from the very beginnings, was teaching false doctrines by word and
writings, and in practice was following them; these doctrines were
leading the faithful from true religion and from the purity of Christian
piety into terrible errors....
"The [condemned] Propositions:
" '1. It is necessary that man reduce his own powers to nothingness,
and this is the interior way.'
" '2. To wish to operate actively is to offend God, who wishes to be
himself the sole agent; and therefore it is necessary to abandon
oneself wholly in God and thereafter to continue in existence as an
inanimate body. ...'
" '5. By doing nothing the soul annihilates itself and returns to its
beginning and to its origin, which is the essence of God, in which it
remains transformed and divinized, and God then remains in himself,
because then the two things are no more united, but are one alone,
and in this manner God lives and reigns in us, and the soul annihilates
itself in operative being. ...'
" '13. After our free will has been resigned to God, reflection and care
about everything of our own must be left to that same God, and we
ought to leave it to him, so that he may work his divine will in us
without us.' " - Pope Innocent XI, Apostolic Constitution Coelestis Pastor,
[Condemning the Errors of Quietism (Molinism)], November 20, 1687.
http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/I11COEL.TXT Copyright (c) Trinity Communications 1995.

(Concerning the support by several theologians for the Divine Will cult's claims about Luisa Piccarreta's writings: It should be noted from http://www.ewtn.com/library/HOMELIBR/10441A.TXT that books of Miguel de Molinos were "approved by various theologians and by ecclesiastical authority, so much so that twenty editions appeared in twelve years"; yet they were later condemned by the Holy Father.)

"[Monothelitism] denied that [Christ] had two wills....[but only] one
will and one activity, i. e. only one principle of action and of suffering
in Jesus Christ and that one principle Divine....[This] error was
condemned by the Sixth General Council (the Third Council of
Constantinople, 680). It [correctly and for remediation] defined that
in Christ there were two natural wills and two natural activities, the
Divine and the human, and that the human will was not at all contrary
to the Divine, but rather perfectly subject thereto (Denzinger, n. 291)."
                                  - The Catholic Encyclopedia, "The Incarnation."
                                     http://www.ewtn.com/library/christ/ceincarn.txt

Free Will, which man can best exercise by choosing to cooperate with God's plan of salvation, is one of God's chief gifts by which He offers us a share in His very divinity. Man's possession and fulfillment of Free Will, which was attacked by Calvinism and other heresies, is one of the distinguishing marks of God's creation of us in His image and likeness.

"306. God is the sovereign master of His plan. But to carry it out He
also makes use of His creatures' cooperation. This is not a sign of
weakness, but rather a token of almighty God's greatness and goodness.
For God grants His creatures not only their existence, but also the
dignity of acting on their own, of being causes and principles for each
other, and thus of cooperating in the accomplishment of His plan.
"307. To human beings God even gives the power of freely sharing in His
providence by entrusting them with the responsibility of 'subduing'
the earth and having dominion over it. God thus enables men to be
intelligent and free causes in order to complete the work of creation, to perfect
its harmony for their own good and that of their neighbors. Though often
unconscious collaborators with God's will, they can also enter
deliberately into the divine plan by their actions, their prayers, and their sufferings.
They then fully become 'God's fellow workers' and co-workers for His kingdom.
"308. The truth that God is at work in all the actions of His creatures is
inseparable from faith in God the creator. God is the first cause Who
operates in and through secondary causes: 'For God is at work in you,
both to will and to work for His good pleasure.' [Phil 2:13] Far from
diminishing the creature's dignity, this truth enhances it."
                                            - Catechism of the Catholic Church, 306-308.
                                                   http://www.ignatius.com/books/ccc-p.htm
                                     http://www.christusrex.org/www1/CDHN/ccc.html

However closely a person advancing along the path of salvation comes to conform with God's will, it has never been described by the Saints as involving a complete loss of the person's will. But if someone gives their will over so completely to a spirit as it is done in the Divine Will cult, against the Church's tradition and the past practices of all the Saints, such surrender is liable to be to a demon.

It has been observed that it is those very people who are keeping all the commandments, the Remnant Faithful, who are prone to subversion by the Divine Will cult, by means of Spiritual Pride - satan's actual crime against God. This is a danger that is encountered at a higher level of spiritual development, as described by St. Theresa of Avila as "the fourth mansion." (See The Fire Within, Fr. Thomas Dubay, S.M., Ignatius Press, http://www.ignatius.com/books/fw-p.htm .)

Many faithful people today become afflicted with anxiety about the rest of the world that has fallen away from faith, and in that fearfulness want a quick, complete and guaranteed solution to the present, bad situation; but such anxiety actually reveals a lack of trust in God's ability to set all aright on the last day.

During times in history when God's purpose was being shown forth most plainly for all the nations to see, there was usually only a small remainder of those faithful to God, often only a single individual - Noah, Abraham, Moses, each of the Prophets. And when all Our Lord's friends deserted Him during His passion, there was only Veronica who dared show her devotion to ease His abandonment a bit.

During the Church's heyday in America during the 40s and 50s, when it was easy for people to go along with the Church's successes, there was less challenge for them to remain faithful. Now that the tide has turned, the prediction appears almost coming true that "there will seem to be no Catholics left in the old sense of the term" except a few praying silently and alone (Ven. Anna Katerina Emmerick, 1820). [Some of her writings are published in Dolorous Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ, http://www.tanbooks.com/.] This is a great test, one that can only be passed by those who trust that the Catholic Church is not a manmade thing, but that it is as immortal as the Risen Savior who founded it, and that the Gates of Death will not prevail against it.

The faithful community has always had to go through this life as a pilgrimage, keeping to the straight path to God - but a narrow path down the middle. We're used to the idea that most people who stray, veer off in the direction of sins of the flesh; Our Lord was a scandal to the hypocritical religious authorities of His day, for consorting with that very type of sinner, to offer them His forgiveness and mercy.

The Divine Will cult strays from the path that Our Lord wants us to walk, off on the spiritual rather than the carnal side - by an excessive emphasis on apparent holiness itself! This is spiritual pride, on the part of those who declare themselves to be the Elect, lording their supposed holiness over the common sinners. This is a fall that any of us can take as we attempt to follow the path set for us by Our Lord; and every one of the Saints has had to overcome just this temptation.

This vicious trap is baited with a false expectation of easily and quickly receiving the fruits of holiness, ahead of the time that God has ordained for our trials to be over. It's like trying to win a race by taking shortcuts across the course - shortcuts that actually become long-cuts to perdition.

" 'Condemnation: On July 14,1938 Pope Pius XI
approved the decision of the Holy Office to
condemn and place on the Index of Forbidden of
Books, three writings Luisa Piccarreta
['The Watch of the Passion of Our Lord
Jesus Christ, with a Treatise on the Divine Will;
In the Kingdom of the Divine Will; The Queen of
Heaven in the Kingdom of the Divine Will']. The
decree is published in the Acta Apostolicae Sedi,
1938 volume, p. 318.

"The semi-official L'Osservatore Romano in reporting this
said: 'The principal subject...is the Divine Will conceived
in an exaggerated and erroneous manner and presented
in a language and with a terminology where often
absurd inaccuracies and extravagances abound.' "
PetersNet http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?RecNum=229

The Divine Will cult would have been resolutely suppressed in other ages of the Church; but with all the other rebellions and apostasies the Church presently has to deal with, the cult is liable to continue leading the unwary away from the Church for some time. Writings of Luisa Piccarreta were banned by the Vatican; but the cult has apparently removed itself from these restrictions with the excuse that the condemned editions were only those altered by Luisa's last spiritual director, against her wishes. Nevertheless, the finding presented in L'Osservatore Romano that "absurd inaccuracies and extravagances abound" in her writings, never substantially addressed or refuted by the cult, continues as the true and apt characterization of their publications overall. (Even works of apostasy have Imprimaturs; the stamp has little force these days. Sr. Faustina's orthodox, Divine Mercy writings, were restricted by the Vatican, but were later approved. Luisa Piccarreta's heretical writings have never been removed from the Index; they were merely freed by default, when the Index was abolished in 1966.)

People who have fallen into this Divine Will cult just as they are on the verge of approaching a higher state of holiness, need to be prayed for, especially by being remembered and offered to God when we receive the Holy Eucharist. And they need to be charitably, but fearlessly, admonished against their errors.

It may be of little use to argue with the cult members on the basis of theology, for their ears have been caught with a perversion of that science that sounds very sweet to them. The best that may be done is to quietly witness to the truth, and pray for them.

The Divine Will cult is split into several factions which, however, are threatening to unite at any moment. (The term "cult" is employed here in the common usage; Divine Will would be more correctly termed a sect.)

The cult has been advancing the beatification cause of Luisa Piccarreta, but that motion has apparently been put to a stop. See "'Divine Will' be Done?," Our Sunday Visitor, 2/1/98, pp. 6-7. Copyright (c) 1998, Our Sunday Visitor.

Link to "Letter from Fr. Martin (Capuchin Friary, San Giovanni Rotondo)" refuting "the connection between Padre Pio and Luisa Piccarreta": http://transporter.com/apologia/pio_ltr.htm. Copyright (c) 1997 Transporter Info Services, All Rights Reserved.
Link to "Letter from Fr. John A. Hardon, S.J., to Catholics United for the Faith providing a concise evaluation of the 'The Kingdom of the Divine Will' movement": http://transporter.com/apologia/cuf_ltr.htm. Copyright (c) 1997 Transporter Info Services, All Rights Reserved.
Letter from Archbishop Cassati of Trani, Italy, instructing that promotion of Divine Will cease. http://www.petersnet.net/research/retrieve.cfm?recnum=266

To subscribe to a mailing list discussing issues surrounding the "Kingdom of the Divine Will" movement with Father Terrence Staples and others, send an e-mail message as follows:
E-mail to: listserv@transporter.com. Text in body: SUBSCRIBE KDW-L {yourname}
You may also send a message to KDW@transporter.com without subscribing to the list.

4/17/98, 3rd edition
3/22/98, 2nd edition
2/21/98
Last Updated: 4/23/98
CMC logo

Approved by California Marian Center spiritual director Msgr. Patrick Nolan.
Compiled by William Keevers
California Marian Center
P.O. Box 660422
Sacramento, CA 95866
(916) 483-7729 [483- PRAY]
e-mail: William_Keevers@bbs.macnexus.org

Thanks to Jeffrey A. Mirus Ph.D, Trinity Communications/PetersNet
Become a Member of PetersNet
Document at http://www.ewtn.com/library/PAPALDOC/I11COEL.TXT Copyright (c) Trinity Communications 1995.
Thanks to Fr. Terrence Staples,Diocese of Arlington.

Thanks to Fr. William Most
Fr. Most's writings attributed here,
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/DIVWILL.TXT
http://www.ewtn.com/library/ANSWERS/LUISA.TXT
http://www.ewtn.com/library/SCRIPTUR/2KDOMWLL.TXT
Copyright (c) 1996, 1997 EWTN Online Services.

Thanks to
Audrey Frank, Rocklin CA
and
Maureen Perry,
St. Dominic Catholic Church, Colfax, CA
http://www.diocese-sacramento.org/parish/sd-col.htm

"Eternal Father, I offer Thee the most precious blood of Thy Divine Son, Jesus, in union with the Masses said throughout the world today, for all the holy souls in Purgatory. Amen."
(Our Lord told St. Gertrude the Great that this prayer would release 1000 souls from Purgatory each time it is said.)

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