https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/...04_mater-populi-fidelis_en.html#_Toc201667053 Well let’s just say it’s not very good. Sometimes it reads like the person behind it is supportive of “sola scriptura”. This is so different from anything that John Paul II would have written. It makes me strangely uncomfortable. Per this document Our Lady is not Co-Redemptrix and we really shouldn’t say she’s Mediatrix either.
I don’t understand sola scriptura because the document refers to the first-millennium councils (Ephesus and Chalcedon), where oral law or tradition (lex orandi) was made into dogma. She is the Theotokos, the Virgin Mother who presents her son Jesus, the Christ, and at the same time the Hodegetria who points with her hand to the only Way, which is Christ. The letter is very well argued, and in principle, the Virgin Mary is the Co-operator of Salvation; on the other hand (which has nothing to do with this topic), she is the Mediatrix of all the graces requested by her children (us). Jesus said, "I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life." No one comes to the Father except thru me.
Why downplay Mary, though? Does anyone really love her more than Jesus? I've never known anyone to be in danger of that. I am disheartened by the Vatican News article about it. I'm reading the actual document now. St. John Paul II called Mary "co-redemptrix." And St. Maximilian Kolbe used even stronger language for her. And this REALLY doesn't seem like a good time to downplay Mary's role as the lightning rod for God's justice. But again, I haven't finished reading the document.
In the strict sense that the Body and Blood of Christ save us. There is no doubt that the author of salvation is Christ, true man and true God. The Virgin is a necessary cooperator. On the other hand, the Virgin also suffered her own Passion, and afterward she agreed to adopt all men as her children (even those who had crucified Christ). The term "Cooperadora" falls short, but we also can't worship the Virgin. Catholics worship God and venerate the Virgin Mary. For the time being, there is no new dogma. I am not a Doctor of the Church, so I accept it. That doesn’t prevent it from being declared dogma in the future. Let us remember that the Virgin is the spouse of the Holy Spirit. It is, without a doubt, a very special case.
Exactly. There’s also the fact that the document seems very concerned that certain Marian devotions are not “biblical” (same argument used by Protestants) and again the argument that we need to be “ecumenical” instead of speaking the truth is entirely contrary to the nature of Our Lord in His life. He didn’t beat around the bush. I want to hear what Dr. Mark Miravalle has to say.
Mary Co-redemptrix is Catholic Tradition Mary Co-redemptrix is Catholic Tradition During an interview in June 2024, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, Prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, announced that the DDF was working on a second document concerning Marian Apparitions and Mariology in further commentary on the new Norms released in May 2024. Vatican observers have now reported that this document also discusses the title and doctrine of Mary as Co-redemptrix. The same Vatican observers report that Pope Leo has stopped the publication of the DDF document, and is requiring significant changes to the Marian document. The specific issues calling for major revision by the Holy Father are presently unknown, but the fact that the Co-redemptrix title and doctrine are dealt with in the DDF document makes it an opportune time to reiterate that the doctrine of Mary’s unique human cooperation with and under Jesus, our divine Redeemer, constitutes a doctrine as ancient as the Church. This is the Marian doctrine denoted in the traditional term, Co-redemptrix. In Genesis 3:15, Mary is foreshadowed as uniquely participating in the work of Jesus Christ in the crushing of the head of Satan. At the Annunciation, the Virgin gives her free fiat which brings the divine Redeemer into the world by giving him flesh (Lk. 1:38; Gal. 4:4; Heb. 10:10). At Calvary, Mary is “spiritually crucified”, as Pope St. John Paul II teaches, and her maternal suffering joined with that of Jesus constituted “a contribution to the Redemption of all” (Homily of Guayaquil, Ecuador, January 31, 1985; Salvifici Doloris, 1984, n. 25). The Fathers of the Church immediately taught Mary’s role as the New Eve: that as Eve was secondary though instrumental with Adam in the loss of graces for humanity, so Mary, the New Eve, was secondary though instrumental with Christ, the New Adam, in the restoration of grace to humanity. In the second century, St. Irenaeus, Doctor of the Church, taught that Mary, through her obedience, became the “cause of salvation for herself and the whole human race” (Adv. Haer. III, 2,4; Vatican II, Lumen Gentium, 56). By the 10th century, Mary was being referred to as the human “Redemptrix”, associated with Christ the divine “Redemptor”, (Litanies de saintes, Salzburg, P. 173), while at the same time, John the Geometer taught the inseparability of Son and Mother in the suffering at Calvary (Annunciation, PG 106, 846A). By the 15th century, Mary was referred to as the “Co-redemptrix” with and under Jesus in the Redemption (Orat. Ms S. Petri Slaisburgens, Codex Petrin,a III, 20). The title Co-redemptrix in Church Tradition has never placed Mary on an equal level with Jesus, the only divine Redeemer, but has consistently denoted Mary’s unparalleled sharing in the redemptive work of Jesus like no other creature. This doctrine and/or title has been taught throughout the late medieval and early modern periods by theologians and saints such as St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Arnold of Chartres, St. Bonaventure, St. Albert (or pseudo-Albert), St. Bernadine of Siena, St. Antoninus, Alphonsus Salmeron, St. Peter Canisius, Francisco Suarez, St. Lawrence of Brindisi, St. Alphonsus Liguori, St. John Henry Cardinal Newman, and many others (cf. With Jesus: The Story of Mary Co-redemptrix, pp. 77-145). The Papal Magisterium has repeatedly used and approved the Co-redemptrix title, while consistently teaching Mary’s unique role in Redemption for the last three centuries. The Co redemptrix title was approved three times by Vatican Congregations under Pope St. Pius X, (AAS, 1, 1908, p. 409), including two times specifically by the Holy Office itself, the same doctrinal congregation as the present DDF (AAS 5, 1913, p. 364; AAS 6, 1914, p. 108). It would be inconceivable to have a present DDF ever teach in direct opposition to a previous doctrinal teaching of a past “DDF.” Pope Benedict XV taught in his 1918 Apostolic Letter, Inter Sodalicia, that “we may rightly say that she [Mary] redeemed the human race together with Christ” (AAS 10, p. 181). Pope Pius XI specifically used the Co-redemptrix title on three occasions, and in one address defended the legitimacy of the Co-redemptrix title: “By necessity, the Redeemer could not but associate [Italian, non poteva, per necessitá di cose, non associare] his Mother in his work. For this reason, we invoke her under the title of Co-redemptrix. She gave us the Saviour, she accompanied him in the work of Redemption as far as the Cross itself, sharing with Him the sorrows of the agony and of the death in which Jesus consummated the Redemption of mankind” (L’Osservatore Romano, Dec. 1, 1933, p. 1). read the rest at the link https://www.motherofallpeoples.com/post/mary-co-redemptrix-is-catholic-tradition
Thanks for posting this video, I would like to listen to what bright minds have to say about the matter. I read most of the document and found it unclear, which is never a good sign. I say this as someone who doesn't lean in either direction on the matter.
It's a wet rag document, a limp, spiritually anemic, modernist understanding of our Lady an appeasement to Protestant sentiments. They have lost the plot.
Well he is the author of a salacious book one wonders how a mind like that can ever fathom or plumb the depths of the ever pure, Immaculate and holy virgin?
As I investigate this further I see no reason why Our Lady could not be titled Co-Redemptrix. Jesus established this while on the Cross and when the Holy Spirit empregnated Our Lady with Jesus. It follows the paradoxical nature of God. He chose to move through Her, fully humble and reliant nature, in contrast to His All Powerful Nature.
Here is my problem with this and so much going on with our Church 'leaders' right now. It is all about ecumenical which is an attempt to bring Christian faiths together. Do I agree with the concept? of course 100%. It is the goal we should have. BUT, the issue with the way we are doing it is maddening. We don't bring others together by watering down Jesus' Church. We need to bring them together by bringing them into the trueness of the faith. We can't have our priests attend prayer services and get prayed over and roll on the ground like it's a great thing (yes that was my priest), we go to the prayer services to preach the truth and to open their eyes up to what they are not understanding. The Church leaders are failing us, and they are failing Christians around the world. And now they are failing Jesus and his mother.
Sister Lucia said that Our Lord is a very good son and He does not look favorably on those who insult or ignore His Mother. Just sayin'.
co in this context does not mean equal to. it means "with". Our Lady suffered an interior crucifixion, she suffered with her Divine Son in union with Him. If St Paul could say, "I rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up those things that are wanting of the sufferings of Christ, in my flesh, for his body, which is the church" how much more his mother? She is co-redemptrix because she suffered in a unique way with her Son.
Mary had the unique privilege, through the merits of her son, of being immaculately conceived, in order that the Word would be made flesh, immaculate and pure. In cooperating with the salvation of the world, Mary can truly be considered mediatrix and ‘co-redemptrix’, which means that she cooperated ‘sui generis’ with Christ’s unique and singular sacrificial death’. All her merits flow from the grace gifted to her by her Divine Son.
It was through a woman that God’s plan of salvation has been revealed through the Blessed Virgin Mary, thus sowing the seeds of a civilization of love. It is possible to say, ‘where Mary is honoured, there is civilization’. It is the will of Christ, in this particular era, in the twenty-first century that the role of His mother, as mediatrix be recognized and honoured both within the Church and in the world. Mary is God’s solution to a civilization in crisis. The Church must follow the ‘Marian Option’ of consecration so that individuals, families, nations (and especially Russia) are consecrated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in order to bring forth the triumph of the Immaculate Heart, which will usher in an era of peace to the world. The triumph will come through her, with Him and in us.
I had a PROTESTant argue with me recently about in the Bible he never even called her mom. He thought so little of her he called her women. I was like... Aren't you supposed to know your bible? Eve was called WOMEN until the fall, then after the fall she was Eve. Mary fulfills the vocation of the first Woman. And we are told the WOMEN and her seed will crush the head of the serpent. Mary is the new WOMEN. How do PROTESTants not see the obvious. But this is the perfect example, we can make them feel more comfortable or we can try to show them the obvious truth.
