A True Letter of Our Savior Jesus Christ

[Matthias]

It has been suggested in this thread by a non-Catholic that non-Catholics shouldn’t read Catholic writings. I find that suggestion appalling. I’ve learned much from Catholic and from non-Catholic scholarship. Generally speaking, I find Catholic scholarship to be superior to non-Catholic scholarship.

Now that the reader knows where I’m coming from, do others see any benefit or advantage in knowing and understanding what those outside of their own religious circle know and understand?

 

[Matthias]

It seems to never end, does it...?

It doesn’t. I don’t think it will end until Jesus returns.

 

[Matthias]

It has been suggested in this thread by a non-Catholic that non-Catholics shouldn’t read Catholic writings. I find that suggestion appalling. I’ve learned much from Catholic and from non-Catholic scholarship. Generally speaking, I find Catholic scholarship to be superior to non-Catholic scholarship.

Now that the reader knows where I’m coming from, do others see any benefit or advantage in knowing and understanding what those outside of their own religious circle know and understand?

The suggestion I referenced in this post is, to my way of thinking, TABU* -> Total Abandonment of Better Understanding.

What good can come from better understanding? What good from encouraging people to totally abandon it?

*The acronym borrowed, not stolen, from The Outer Limits, 1963, Season 1, Episode 8, “The Human Factor”*

 

[Just Some Poster]

To first answer your question about how common it is among Catholics, the answer as far as I can tell is that it isn't. Some do believe in it and share it online, most certainly. But it's not very common and I'm pretty sure most Catholics have never even heard of it, much less practiced it. There definitely are Catholics who are aware of it and even spread it, as you've demonstrated in some of your subsequent posts, but it's definitely a minority. When I see it posted in places, it's random websites and such, not anything formally authorized by the Catholic Church in any way.

This letter has actually been declared false by the Catholic Church--in fact, by Leo XIII, the very pope who (supposedly) approved of it. Unfortunately, the declaration of it being false is buried in older documents and few are aware of it. I certainly didn't find it by myself; I found it because I saw someone else mention it. I don't know how in the world the person who happened to find the document that condemned it managed to find it, but someone did at any rate, and I'll now share it.

The relevant information is found in the Acta Sanctae Sedis, a journal of the Vatican which was published by the Vatican until 1908, when it was replaced by the Acta Apostolicae Sedis. The archives are available online on the Vatican's website (I can't post a direct link due to restrictions on new members posting links, but it's pretty easy to find).

More specifically, it's "ASS 31" (1898-1899) that has it. If someone scrolls down and reads pages 727-728, it mentions how they found various leaflets were being distributed that promised indulgences, and so the "Holy Congregation in charge of Indulgences" looked into them. They unanimously declared that they were to be banned and were false. This was confirmed by Pope Leo XIII. It's in Latin there, but here's an automated translation of the relevant text:

To this Holy Congregation in charge of Indulgences and Sacred Relics, several folios were brought which relate prayers with indistinct indulgences attributed to them, and consequently, by right and merit, grave doubt has arisen as to their authenticity. Moreover, this holy Congregation, that the faithful may not be led into error for a long time, and that, especially in these times, the enemies of the Church may be removed from the midst of every pretext of mocking the inestimable gold of the Indulgences, which is to be administered piously, holyly, and incorruptibly, it is its duty to recall these leaves for examination , and since it was found that false, apocryphal, and completely indiscernible Indulgences were being promulgated in them, he thought that there would be no hesitation that the aforesaid leaflets should be prohibited, and that the alleged Indulgences in them should be declared to be apocryphal and false.

Wherefore the Fathers of the Fathers assembled at the Vatican on the 5th of May, 1898, having considered all early, by unanimous vote re-written: the aforesaid leaflets brought to this Sacred Congregation should be completely proscribed, and the Indulgences attached to them, as it is said, to be denounced as apocryphal and falsities.

Of which then the report made to SSilius Our Lord Leo Pp. 13 In the audience held on May 26, 1898 by the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, His Holiness approved and confirmed the opinion of the Emor Fathers, and ordered the preparation of a general Decree whereby the leaflets inserted below, or if there are any other slight discrepancies from these even if issued in different types, were to be proscribed and Indulgences in the same those related would be condemned as completely false and apocryphal.

It then goes on to give the various pamphlets that were declared false. The one that concerns us is the 8th pamphlet, found on page 740. It's too long to post it all, but here's an excerpt that should probably tell you everything you need to know without any translation:

Sappiate che i soldati armati furono 150, quelli che mi condussero legato furono 23, gli esecutori di giustizia 83, i pugni che ricevei alla testa furono 150 e nel petto 108, i calci nelle spalle 80, e fui trascinato con corde e per i capelli 23 volte, natte e sputi nella faccia furono 180, battiture nel corpo 6666, battiture nel capo 110, mi diedero un urtone, notate nel cuore, fui alzato in aria per i capelli ad ore 21, ad un tempo mandai 120 sospiri, fui trascinato e tirato per la barba 23 volte, piaghe nella testa 20, spini di giunchi marini 72, punture di spine nella testa 100, spine mortali nella fronte 3, dopo flagellato e vestito da re di burla, piaghe nel corpo 1000. I soldati che mi condussero al Calvario furono 908, quelli che mi guardavano 3, goccie di sangue che sparsi furono 28430 e chi ogni giorno recita 7 Pater, Ave e Gloria per lo spazio di 15 anni per compiere il numero delle goccie di sangue che ho sparso, gli concedo 5 grazie :

I . L'indulgenza plenaria e remissione di tutti i peccati ;
2°. Sarà liberato dalle pene del purgatorio ;
3°. Se morrà prima di compire detti 15 anni, per esso sarà come li avesse compiti ;
4°. Sarà come fosse morto ed avesse sparso il sangue per la Santa Fede ;
5°. Scenderò io dal cielo a prendere l'anima sua e quella dei suoi parenti fino al quarto grado.

And so the whole account of the letter was declared false by Leo XIII. It is possible that Leo XIII did approve it in 1890 and then later on changed his mind and condemned it in 1898. However, I think it's more likely that the claim of him approving it in 1890 was a fabrication put into the letter to try to give it more authenticity.

Unfortunately, communication was obviously a whole lot worse back in the 1890's than it is nowadays, and it seems some people weren't aware of this decree. I'm not sure exactly how it made its way into English, but I'd guess that because there was a lot of Italian immigration in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, some people brought the letter over with them and, thinking it was legitimately approved, reproduced it and translated it into English.

Ordinarily I think this would have just been forgotten like the various other pamphlets that were condemned, but there was something that preserved it, namely it being included in the "Pieta Prayer Book" (as you mention in a subsequent post), a Catholic book of prayers I believe first published in the 1970's, though I don't think the book ever received any kind of ecclesiastical approval. In any event, the Pieta Prayer Book is a mixture of actually approved prayers and some more dubious ones, with the letter being among the latter group; presumably the authors of it saw the claim it was approved by Leo XIII and decided to include it for that reason. At some point afterwards someone must have taken the account from the book and posted it on the Internet, which caused it to spread a little more. And thus you end up with a few well-meaning people online spreading it around who think this was approved by Leo XIII.

But in any event, the bottom lines are that I'm pretty sure only a few Catholics have actually heard of it, and it was actually condemned by Pope Leo XIII in 1898 as being false.

I post this so hopefully if someone who finds this topic when looking for information on this letter, they'll get this information.

 

[BlessedPeace]

I’ve heard of this document but hadn’t gotten around to reading it until this evening. Catholic members of the board may be familiar with it but I doubt that very many non-Catholics are. For those who are, or might be, interested in reading and discussing it:

”A TRUE LETTER OF OUR SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST

Consecrating the Drops of Blood which Our Lord lost on His way to Calvary.

Copy of a letter of the Oration found in the Holy Sepulchre of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Jerusalem, preserved in a silver box by His Holiness and by the Emperors and Empresses of the Christian Faith.

St. Elizabeth, Queen of Hungary, with St. Matilda and St. Bridget, wishing to know something of the Passion of Jesus Christ, offered fervent and special prayers, upon which there appeared to them Our Lord Jesus Christ Who spoke to them in the following manner:

I descended from Heaven to the Earth in order to convert you. In olden times people were religious and their harvests were abundant; at present, on the contrary, they are scanty.

If you want to reap an abundant harvest you must not work on Sunday, for on Sunday you must go to Church, and pray to God to forgive your sins. He gave you six days in which to work and one for rest and devotion and to tender your help to the poor and assist the Church.

Those people who brawl against My religion and cast slurs on this Sacred Letter, shall be forsaken by Me.

On the contrary, those people who shall carry a copy of this letter with them shall be free kf death by drowning and from sudden death. They shall be free from all contagious diseases and lightening; they shall not die without Confession, and shall be free from their enemies and from the hand of wrongful authority, and from all their slanderers and false witnesses.

Women in peril at child-birth will, by keeping this Oration about them, immediately overcome the difficulty. In the houses where this Oration is kept, no evil will ever happen: and forty days before the death of a person who has this Oration about him or her, the Blessed Virgin will appear to him or her. So said St. Gregorius.

TO ALL THOSE FAITHFUL WHO SHALL RECITE FOR 3 YEARS, EACH DAY, 2 PATERS, GLORIAS AND AVES, IN HONOR OF THE DROPS OF BLOOD I LOST, I WILL CONCEDE THE FOLLOWING 5 GRACES:

1. The plenary indulgence and remittance of your sins,
2. You will be free from the pains of Purgatory.
3. If you should die before completing the said 3 years, for you it will be the same as if you had completed them.
4. It will be upon your death the same as if you had shed all your blood for the Holy Faith.
5. I will descend from Heaven to take your soul and that of your relatives, until the fourth generation.

Be it known that the number of armed soldiers were 150; those who trailed me while I was bound were 23. The executioners of justice were 83; the blows received on my head were 150; those on my stomach, 108; kicks on my shoulders, 80. I was led, bound with cords by the hair, 24 times; spits in the face were 180; I was roughly pushed, and at 12 o’ clock I was lifted up by the hair; pricked with thorns and pulled by the beard 23 times; received 20 wounds on the head; thorns of marine junks 72; pricks of thorns in the head, 110; mortal thorns in the forehead, 3. I was afterwards flogged and dressed as a mocked king; wounds in the body, 1000. The soldiers who led Me to the Calvary were 608; those who watched Me were 3, and those who mocked Me were 1008; the drops of blood which I lost were 28,430.

BENEDETTA DA SS., POPE LEO XIII, IN ROMA 5 APRILE 1890

The following list of miracles and promises or warnings attached are published here, but with the caution that we do not know if the approval of Pope Leo XIII was for this portion as well. …”

A TRUE LETTER OF JESUS CHRIST

Genuine words of Jesus or not? Seriousness / consequences for believing or not believing that the letter is genuine?

Nonsense.

Those responsible for taking our Lord's name in vain,having penned a lie in his name,shall pay eternally a great price for their sin.

 

[Jethro2]

Genuine words of Jesus or not? Seriousness / consequences for believing or not believing that the letter is genuine?

Not only was it known fake for all the generations,
but the consequences are simple the same, or perhaps worse,
as for all the gentiles who are not in Christ Jesus - no life.