In a 23-page response, the International Marian Association Theological Commission (IMA) highlights what it sees as significant errors and omissions in Cardinal Tucho Fernández’s doctrinal note Mater Populi Fidelis. Key phrases:
- If the title Co-redemptrix is always inappropriate or inopportune to use, then the popes, saints and mystics who approved or used the title were acting in an inappropriate and imprudent manner.
- Members of the IMA Theological Commission who have taught Mariology for decades certainly do not find the title Co-redemptrix ‘unhelpful’.
- While it is appropriate that Mater Populi Fidelis acknowledges papal uses of the title Co-redemptrix, it is unfortunate that these papal uses are not given greater respect or presence in the actual text.
- It is unusual that a doctrinal note of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith would quote at length a secular interview by a cardinal prefect, and at the same time, not include over ten papal usages of the same title.
- It is also unusual that Mater Populi Fidelis essentially omits Lumen Gentium n. 58, which is arguably the most co-redemptive passage of Vatican II concerning Mary.
- It is inaccurate for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to say that ‘Some popes have used the title “Co-redemptrix” without elaborating much on its meaning’. Pius XI and John Paul II explain Mary’s role as Co-redemptrix quite clearly, and they do so in terms that the Dicastery describes as ‘immediate, Christo-typical or maximalist cooperation’.
- One of the prominent doctrinal omissions in Mater Populi Fidelis is that, while it speaks of Mary’s unique active role in the Redemption, it never states that Mary’s unique active role is redemptive.
- The text seeks to reduce Mary’s maternal mediation only to intercession.
- Such an assessment, however, fails to take into account the consistent papal teachings on Mary’s universal mediation of grace going back to the 18th century and up to and including the pontificate of Pope Francis.
- Mater Populi Fidelis speaks in general of the spiritual motherhood of Mary, but it reduces it to a type of intercession that only encourages us ‘to open our hearts to Christ’s activity in the Holy Spirit’. What is missing is a true presentation of Mary’s authentic spiritual motherhood, which includes her maternal role in the spiritual conception, generation, birth and nourishment of souls.
- It is unfortunate that the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith would choose to omit repeated teachings and references of twelve popes over four centuries of what constitute numerous higher-level expressions of ordinary Papal Magisterium concerning the Catholic doctrinal teaching of Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces.
- What new insights have emerged in the few years since these great post-conciliar saints, as well as St. John Paul II, that make a title used by these popes, saints, and mystics to be described now as ‘always inappropriate?’ This, rather, appears to be an anti-development of doctrine.
- The emphasis on Christ’s merit is used against the legitimacy of the true human merit of Mary.
- Minimizing Mary’s merits also undermines all human merit and cooperation in the work of Redemption.
- Mater Populi Fidelis repeatedly speaks of the ‘risks’ of using the Co-redemptrix title… It likewise warns of the dangers in seeing Mary as the Mediatrix of all graces… However, it is precisely these teachings that constitute the perpetual doctrine of the Church—from their seed form in Scripture, to the Patristic model of Mary as the New Eve, up to modern and contemporary popes.
- The ‘risks’ posited appear more theoretical than real. It would be difficult to find within the Church 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.
- To propose, instead, a Redemption based on ‘Jesus alone’ bereft of any human redemptive value on the part of Mary, seems to resemble more a Protestant theology of Redemption than that of the Catholic Church.
For the record:
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