(LifeSiteNews) — One of the world’s most prominent groups of Mariologists published a sweeping critique of the Vatican’s doctrinal note on Marian titles, calling its rejection of Mary’s title “Co-Redemptrix” an “anti-development of doctrine.”
On December 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the International Marian Association Theological Commission (IMATC) published a correction of the Vatican’s document Mater Populi Fidelis, which declared the Marian title “Co-Redemptrix” to be both inappropriate and theologically “unhelpful,” and discouraged the use of the title “Mediatrix of All Graces.”
The Mariologists, which include cardinals, bishops, and over 40 internationally respected theologians and including U.S. scholars Scott Hahn and Mark Miravalle, called for a re-evaluation of Mater Populi Fidelis, pointing out that it discourages titles representing “precisely” the “teachings that constitute the perpetual doctrine of the Church.”
The theologians first took aim at the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF)’s description of the title “Co-Redemptrix” as “always inappropriate.” If this is the case, the Mariologists noted, “then the popes who approved or used the title were acting in an inappropriate and imprudent manner.” Likewise, it means the “saints and mystics who used this title were irresponsible and inappropriate.”
The group slammed the claim by the DDF as an apparent “anti-development of doctrine.”
In response to the DDF’s claim that an expression that “requires many, repeated explanations … becomes unhelpful,” the IMATC pointed out that many terms of the Catholic faith require ongoing explanation, including the title “Mother of God,” the Trinity, and transubstantiation.
Moreover, by rejecting Mary’s title of “Co-Redemptrix,” Mater Populi Fidelis ignores the warnings of experts such as Father Rene Laurentin, considered “one of the world’s foremost students” of Mariology, who wrote in 1951 that it would be “gravely temerarious to attack the legitimacy” of the title Co-redemptrix. The Mariologists also pointed out another Mary expert, Father J. A. De Aldama, wrote in 1950 that it is “not permitted to doubt its appropriateness.”
The IMATC refuted the DDF’s claim that the Second Vatican Council “refrained from using the title” Co-Redemptrix as “not entirely accurate,” because Lumen Gentium “explicitly affirms the doctrine of Mary as Co-redemptrix without using the term.” No. 58 of Lumen Gentium states that at Calvary, Mary “associated herself with (Christ’s) sacrifice in her mother’s heart,” and was “enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering.”
Mater Populi Fidelis also minimizes popes’ references to Mary as Co-Redemptrix, noted the Mariologists, who by contrast highlighted Pope Pius XI’s explanation of the title in a 1933 speech in which he taught, “By necessity, the Redeemer could not but associate His Mother with His work, and for this reason, we invoke her under the title of Co-redemptrix.” (L’Osservatore Romano, December 1, 1933, p. 1)
The Mariologists called out the Vatican note for “not merely discouraging the Co-redemptrix title” but “also failing to teach in a positive way Mary’s truly redemptive role with and under Jesus in Redemption as put forth by the Papal Magisterium.”
The theologians also dismantled the claims of Mater Populi Fidelis that the title “Mediatrix of all graces” is “not clearly grounded in Revelation” and “does not favor a correct understanding of Mary’s unique place.”
This assessment entirely ignores “consistent papal teachings on Mary’s universal mediation of grace” which span 12 popes and four centuries, the IMATC argued. The theologians highlighted 14 clear references by 13 different popes to Mary’s universal mediation of grace, often using the specific term “Mediatrix of All Graces.” Several of these references are “authoritative encyclical instructions of the Papal Magisterium,” noted the IMATC.
The popes, they concluded, have perennially affirmed the fact that “every grace which originates in God comes to us through at least the willed intercessory mediation of Mary as a true secondary cause must remain our foundation for doctrinal belief.”
Contrary to the suggestion of the DDF, Mary’s role as Mediatrix of All Graces “does not take away from Christ, the one divine Mediator.”
“Popes, saints, and theologians who universally teach Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces make it clear that Mary’s universal mediation of grace is not by some inner necessity but by the will of God,” the IMATC added.
The group concluded that the supposed “risks” of using the Marian titles “Co-Redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of All Graces” seem “more theoretical than real,” because it is difficult to find “a single reputable Catholic author in the last three centuries who taught that the Co-redemptrix title denotes that Mary is divine or an equal redeemer parallel to Jesus.”
Commenting on the Vatican Marian note to LifeSiteNews, Fr. Dave Nix said, “Mary is not just the object of our sweet devotion. She is also known as the exterminatrix of all heresies.”
“This is why the modernists despise her. And those bad guys in the Vatican know their time is limited as we quickly approach the Triumph of the Immaculate Heart.”
