Marian Movement of Priests

The Marian Movement of Priests (MMP) is a private association of Catholic clergy and lay associate members founded by Italian priest Fr.

priests, and several million lay Catholics worldwide.^{[citation needed}

]

Origins

On May 8, 1972, Father Gobbi, an Italian priest from

Saint Mary for a confirmation of the inner voice, which he reported as receiving later in May 1972 while praying in the Church of the Annunciation in Nazareth.^[2]

After consultations with his spiritual advisor, in October 1972 he and two other priests met in a church in

Como, Italy and published a notice of the movement in some Catholic and local newspapers. In September 1973, twenty-five of the eighty Catholic priests who had by then joined the movement held the first national gathering of the MMP in San Vittorino near Rome. Beginning in 1974, Father Gobbi began holding cenacles

of prayer for priests and Catholics in general.

The MMP is now based in Milan, Italy, with branches worldwide. The Marian Movement of Priests in the United States was established in 1975, and is based in St. Francis, Maine.

Handbook

In July 1973, Father Gobbi began to write his 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 de facto hand book of the MMP.

There are 604 messages in the book and they span over 24 years of Father Gobbi's life. The book shows the dates (and if relevant the locations) of the messages and is thus also a record of Father Gobbi's travels as he holds prayer cenacles.

Most messages have a somewhat maternal tone and they often ask the faithful to follow Jesus and not deviate from His path. For instance, message number 110 of September 25, 1976, warns against diluting the words of the Gospel and creating “your own Gospel with your own words” rather than following the original teachings of Jesus.

The View from the Vatican

In October 1994, Archbishop

Virgin Mary. To that end, Father Gobbi was asked to refer to the locutions as his own meditations rather than messages from the Virgin Mary. But Father Gobbi said that he could not, in good conscience, do so for he believed the messages to be true interior locutions and he sought further clarification from the Holy See

.

To date, there is no formal record that the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has taken an official position regarding Father Gobbi's messages. The MMP therefore continues to meet regularly in

cardinals and bishops

who attribute the locutions to Holy Mary.

Pope John Paul II, who had a personal devotion to the Virgin Mary, met with and celebrated mass with Father Gobbi in his private papal chapel in the Vatican on an annual basis for several years. In November 1993, John Paul II provided an official papal blessing for the American branch of the MMP in St. Francis, Maine, but did not offer an imprimatur for the book.

Spiritual Values

The fundamental concept of the MMP today remains the same as the basic concept expressed in the initial interior locution that Father Gobi reported on May 8, 1972, in Fátima, Portugal. The concept is to encourage priests and laity to unite with the Pope through the Immaculate Heart of Mary to strengthen the Catholic Church.

The three fundamental spiritual values of the MMP are formally expressed in Father Gobi's circulars 21, 23, and 24 as: personal

consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

, unity and devotion to the Pope, and leading the faithful to trust the Virgin Mary.

The MMP does not have its own distinct doctrine for consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary but relies on the general consecration doctrine provided by the

Virgin Mary

is essentially expressed in message number 25 of November 1, 1973, in which priests are asked to gather the faithful around them as "invincible cohort" to follow the path of Jesus.

The MMP places special emphasis on the power of praying the

Eucharistic Adoration

as effective means of strengthening the Church.

Cenacles

In the tradition of the MMP, Saint Mary calls the members of the MMP to meet in "Cenacles" as the

Holy Eucharist in the upper room (cenacle) when the Holy Spirit descended upon them. They are called to pray to Jesus through Saint Mary. They are also called to include after each rosary decade two prayers: the Act of Love ("Jesus, Mary, and Joseph! We love you! Save souls! We offer up every heartbeat and every breath as a thousand Acts of Love") and the Prayer for the Holy Spirit

("Come Holy Spirit, by the most powerful intercession of your dearly beloved spouse, the Immaculate Heart of Mary"). Furthermore, during Cenacles they are to make personal consecrations to Mary.

Father Gobbi has held cenacles of varying sizes on every continent. The cenacle he held in

Ōita, Japan, on June 2, 1978, was for a few priests and nuns while the cenacle he held in Mexico City

on November 27, 1994, was attended by 20,000 people in the city stadium.

References

^ "Marian Movement of Priests". EWTN Global Catholic Network. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018.
^ MMP Worldwide Archived 2008-05-11 at the Wayback Machine

External links

"Home page". Marian Movement of Priests in the United States. 17 February 2023.
MMP Spain – Marian Movement of Priests on Spain
MMP Canada – Marian Movement of Priests, Canada website
Catholic Answers article about the MMP
Kremski, Mary Beth. "The Marian Movement of Priests: Is It Safe for Faithful Catholics?", 2001

[1] "Marian Movement of Priests". EWTN Global Catholic Network. Archived from the original on 3 December 2018.

[2] MMP Worldwide Archived 2008-05-11 at the Wayback Machine

[2]

Authority control databases
International	VIAF
National	Germany