Stefano Gobbi

Father Stefano Gobbi (born March 22, 1930) is a Roman Catholic priest.

He is best known for founding the worldwide Catholic movement, the Marian Movement of Priests (MMP) following an interior locution that he reported in 1972 at the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

He was born in the Province of Como, Italy and was ordained as a priest in 1964. He later obtained a doctorate in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of the Lateran in Rome.

The pivotal event

The pivotal event that transformed the course of Father Gobbi's life took place on May 8th 1972 while he was on a pilgrimage to Fátima, Portugal and was praying in the shrine of Our Lady of Fatima.

On that day he reported an interior locution from the Virgin Mary. He did not claim a Marian apparition, but a locution, i.e. an internal voice. According to Father Gobbi he later prayed to Saint Mary for a confirmation of the inner voice, which he reported as receiving in May 1972 while praying in the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.

Given that in 1972 some priests had given up their vocations and were reportedly planning to rebel against the Catholic Church, the inner voice urged him to gather other priests that would be willing to consecrate themselves to Immaculate Heart of Mary and be strongly united with the Pope and the Catholic Church.

Based on this event, on October 13, 1972, on the 55th anniversary of Our Lady of Fatima he and two other priests formed the Marian Movement of Priests in a church in Gera Lario near Como, Italy.

Growth of the movement

The Marian Movement of Priests grew rather quickly and by September 1973 included over 80 priests when it held its first national meeting at San Vittorino, near Rome. In 1974 Father Gobbi started to hold prayer cenacles in Italy for priests and laity. He now holds prayer cenacles all over the world. During the cenacle Catholics are called to pray to Jesus through Saint Mary, since it was through her that the Church, the Body of Christ, was born. Some cenacles are for a few seminary students, while others are attended by over 20,000 people.

The MMP is now based in Milan Italy, with branches worldwide. The Marian Movement of Priests in the United States was established in 1975, is based in St. Francis, Maine, and received an official papal blessing from Pope John Paul II in November 1993.

According to the MMP, its members now include over 400 Catholic cardinals and bishops, more than 100,000 Catholic priests, and several million lay Catholics worldwide.

The messages

In July 1973, Father Gobbi began to write his reported interior locutions as messages which he attributed to the Virgin Mary. The messages from July 1973 to December 1997 were published in the book: "To the Priests, Our Lady's Beloved Sons." These messages have now become the defacto hand book of the MMP.

Relationship with the Vatican

To date, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has not taken an official position on the authenticity of Father Gobbi's interior locutions.

In October 1994, Archbishop Agostino Cacciavillan wrote a critical letter about the messages, but several other Roman Catholic Cardinals belong to the MMP and attribute the messages to the Virgin Mary. Cardinal Bernardino Echeverría Ruiz, OFM, Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud and Cardinal John Baptist Wu provided their imprimatur for Father Gobbi's messages. The MMP meets regularly in Rome with the permission and participation of Catholic cardinals and bishops.

Father Gobbi had a close relationship with Pope John Paul II, who also had a personal devotion to the Virgin Mary. Pope John Paul II used to meet with and celebrate mass with Father Gobbi in his private papal chapel in the Vatican on an annual basis for several years.

Current activities

Currently, Father Gobbi is officially based in Milan Italy, but continues to travel worldwide to hold prayer cenacles and promote the cause of the MMP.

Sources

* [http://www.ewtn.com/expert/answers/MMP.htm EWTN Network]
* [http://www.catholicculture.org/library/view.cfm?recnum=4182 Catholic Culture]
* [http://www.biblio.com/details.php?dcx=62405378&aid=frg Interview with Stefano Gobbii]

External links

* [http://www.msm-mmp.org/ MMP website]
* [http://www.mmp-usa.net/ MMP USA]