ARTICLES

Divine Revelation, or Satanic Ploy?

The Divine Will Movement in San Diego

BY ROBERT KUMPEL

In 1997, Bishop Brom granted permission for local parishes to celebrate the Feast of Divine Mercy, even though the Church would not officially declare the Feast of Divine Mercy (and canonize its apostle, St. Faustina Kowalska) until the year 2000. Almost immediately after its approval, another devotion began showing up at local parishes with an eerily similar name: Divine Will.

The Divine Will movement began with Luisa Piccarreta (1884-1947), a woman who lived in Corato, a small town near Bari, Italy and spent most of her adult life ill and bed-ridden. Under obedience, she wrote two small volumes, Life of the Blessed Virgin and Hours of the Passion as well as 36 numbered manuscripts, which discuss "living in the Divine Will."

While most Catholics have never heard of Piccarreta or Divine Will, her followers soon found that their message was not entirely welcome. Patrick Sullivan was instrumental in getting approval for Divine Mercy Sunday celebrations and couldn't believe it when he began to hear about Divine Will. "I was so mad about this that I couldn't see straight. All that work that we did to get the Divine Mercy recognized at the parishes and suddenly we hear about 'Divine Will' -- I had to take a deep breath, step back, and say, "No. It's not Divine Will, It's Divine Mercy. It's just a brilliant, brilliant ploy from Satan to counteract Divine Mercy and mislead people."

Sullivan says that the deception is the result of the similarities of the two names. "It's a mask. It's masking the real, legitimate Divine Mercy devotion, which everyone needs to know about. A lot of what she said was utter blasphemy -- her supporting point was that she, Luisa, was the new and improved Immaculate Conception and that we will all rise to the level of our Blessed Mother -- forget about the fact that she's the Queen of Heaven and Earth. Bishop Brom said that this was not approved, don't do it anymore, in 1997. When he said that, I thought, 'Halleluia! Anyone who attacks the bishop, count to ten please.' This guy did the right thing."

While Bishop Brom did restrict the activities of Divine Will prayer groups, he did not outlaw them altogether. A source in the chancery explained that the groups were still permitted to function in parishes where they already had approval, but they had to restrict their activities and membership to current devotees, as well as not distribute any writings. In doing so, the diocese is apparently cooperating with the retired Archbishop of Trani, Carmelo Cassati, who in 1998 ordered the suspension of all Divine Will conferences in the United States because of various contro versies. He has authorized only "certain qualified individuals conversant in the totality of the writings and Catholic theology" to speak on Luisa's writings. At present, the only individual approved for that task is Capuchin Father Bernardo Bucci. Father Bucci is the promoter of the faith (an office once called "Devil's advocate") in the diocesan phase of the investigation of Piccarreta's cause for Sainthood.

Depending on who is asked, the controversies about Piccarreta's writing are either grave errors or the typical obstacles many saints have shared on the road to canonization. In 1938 her published writings were placed on the Vatican's Index of Forbidden Books and the rest of her writings were confiscated by the Holy Office (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) until 1994. Piccarreta's supporters are quick to point out that Saint Faustina's writings were also once placed on the index. They also point out that Luisa is being investigated for sainthood. Yet problems remain.

In When the Divine Will Reigns in Souls, Book of Heaven, Piccarreta writes that Jesus told her: "Having sent forth from the bosom of my Creative Power the first two FIATs, I wish to emit the third FIAT, since I cannot contain my Love any longer. This will complete the work that poured forth from Me. Otherwise, the work of Creation as well as Redemption would remain incomplete."

Other alleged messages from Jesus also seem to be in contradiction to Church doctrine on Mary, the plan of salvation, and the Eucharist. Some examples: "Now, daughter, you also [i.e. along with Mary] are unique in my Mind; and you will be unique in history," and, "it 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."

In one exchange, Piccarreta said that, "I [Luisa], upon hearing this, said to myself: 'Soon He will say that his Will is more than Sacramental Communion Itself.' Then He [Christ] immediately added: 'Right! Right! Because Sacramen tal Communion lasts a few minutes. It is temporary. My Will, on the other hand, is perennial Communion."

A hallmark of the Divine Will movement is the divisiveness that seems to accompany it. The Mission San Diego Young Adult Group suffered infighting about Divine Will in 1998. When members began introducing materials to other members, the group's leadership stopped it cold.

One local Catholic, Evelyn Miller (not her real name), says that the Divine Will devotion has divided local parishes and religious orders. "The Missionaries of Charity Society forbids any membership. There were so many lay women involved in it and they were getting the nuns interested in it, that their superior in Rome, Fr. Sebastian, told them that you cannot be a consecrated layman or laywoman in the society and also be in the Divine Will organization. Two years ago May, the Missionaries were told that they could not renew their vows if they were in the Divine Will organization. Many women left [the order]in San Diego alone and many other parts of the country. San Diego was the biggest problem, because there are so many Divine Will groups here. They left on their own accord, and some of them had been in their vows for years."

Miller says that the Divine Will appeals to a certain type of Catholic. "It seems that many are attracted to it because it's like a cult. I've seen people become holier because of it and I've also seen people become very arrogant. In our parish, we've had divisions over this. People who have been friends for years have stopped being friends with members because of what they perceive as a spiritual arrogance or spiritual egotism. It's like, 'You're not on my path so I can't be friends with you.' The whole attitude is holier than thou. They just say, 'Someday you'll get it.'"

Marvin Coduti (not his real name) is a member of a Divine Will prayer group in the city of San Diego. He says that Piccarreta has been misquoted and that many of the translations of her writings are inaccurate, thus causing the confusion. "Jesus speaks to Luisa just like he spoke to Saint Faustina about Divine Mercy," he says. "Divine Will spirituality will do nothing but draw a soul closer to God. The revelations given Luisa do not oppose scripture, the teachings of the Church, or her traditions. [Piccarreta] lived on the Eucharist for 64 years and spoke at least every week to Jesus and it was all by His grace."

Coduti says Divine Will groups exist in "several" San Diego parishes. "There's Saint John the Evangelist in Encinitas, Saint Brigid in Pacific Beach and several others that I don't know about."

Father Terrence Staples is the pastor of Saint Louis Parish in Alexandria Virginia. He began investigating the Divine Will movement and Pic carreta's writings when someone came to him for spiritual direction and began quoting Piccarreta. Fr. Staples has spoken to Archbishop Cassati and met with Father Bucci. His concerns have still not been eased. "The problem is that it's hard to pin them down on exactly what they believe. You have all kinds of outrageous things being taught. I told Archbishop Cassati about my concerns and shortly after he sent out a letter putting all the conferences on hold. In his letter he acknowledged that there were distorted interpretations of her writings at large. So my question to her followers is, 'How do you know that what you're hearing is not the distorted message that went out?' Because all of the original literature that was published in this country was completely wrong (inaccurate). I'll say, 'Look, even the bishop who supports her cause says that the writings are tainted, so where is the tainted version and where is the real version?' I asked Fr. Bucci that question and if we could put together some sort of guide that indicates what is not right, but he didn't want to do that. I thought it would be helpful to have a warning that says, 'You can't say this. It's a bad interpretation of it.' But he didn't want to go there and do that at all. I haven't heard the 'correct' version of anything yet and even Fr. Bucci was fudging on some of the things I brought up. He tried to give it the right interpretation somehow, but I have still not yet heard the orthodox presentation of it."

Besides examining Piccarreta's writings, Fr. Staples has tapes of Divine Will conferences which he has carefully analyzed and used for questions when he met with Fr. Bucci. "He just said, 'Well, that's crazy.' He was the most levelheaded of any Divine Will people that I've talked to. He dismissed a lot of my arguments. I've met with other officials from the archdiocese who were involved and they were just completely off. They were teaching heresy left and right and they were teaching completely false things. If you can interpret her writings in a correct way, it was clear that they did not, and they were teaching things that were very wrong. I've never heard anyone in the movement put her writings forth in such a way that it's orthodox."

In examining Luisa's writings, Fr. Staples has heard a lot of different explanations of why they apparently clash with the Catholic faith. "They'll say it's a bad translation or that you can't really take it literally or you have to be careful because she wasn't educated and she was just writing. And that's [a good point], because uneducated saints will often try to articulate their revelations without having a theological vocabulary. But when I wrote about her, it was being clearly presented by these official representatives (from the Archdiocese of Trani) and what they were saying was what I wrote against. All of her writings are being re-worked and they're going to have a commentary out with her writings. If you look on their website, they had a commission with a couple of theologians looking at her writings, but both of them were devout followers of Luisa."

One of the writings that troubles Fr. Staples the most is Piccarreta's alleged message from Jesus that God has revealed a new way of doing His Will that was previously unavailable except for the Blessed Mother and Adam and Eve before the fall. "They say that through Luisa this whole new era has come, and now the Divine Will acts in us in a new way. She says somewhere in her writings that one act in the Divine Will is 'worth more than all the works of all the saints put together.' And she says very explicitly that no one else has revealed this and Jesus was revealing this to her. I've talked with people in the movement and told them, 'If you believe this is true, this is dangerous."

Fr. Staples has also noticed the divisive effects of the Divine Will movement. "Except for Fr. Bucci, most of the official representatives of Divine Will have been dismissed from communion with the diocese and they're off on their own. At their U.S. headquarters in Jacksonville, Florida they've had all kinds of problems -- splits and money problems. The original group from Italy that I spoke with, almost to a man has dispersed and gone their own ways. Even talking to them, they'd talk about each other and say, 'This other guy's gone crazy.'"

Piccarreta's cause for sainthood does not impress Fr. Staples. "A bishop can do that on his own. He has the authority to initiate a cause and that's as far as it's gotten. You can have a bishop do that and begin the cause officially and he doesn't need support from Rome, but the Church has not said her writings are okay."

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