Mater Populi Fidelis

DICASTERY FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH Mater Populi Fidelis Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation

8. The Gospel of Luke presents Mary as the new “Daughter of Zion,” who receives and transmits the joy of salvation. Luke collects the prophetic promises that foretold the messianic joy (cf. Zeph 3:14-17; Zech 9:9). In Mary, those promises find their fulfillment, making John the Baptist leap for joy (cf. Lk 1:41). Elizabeth presents herself as being unworthy to receive Mary’s visit, saying “who am I that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” (Lk 1:43). She does not say, “who am I that my Lord should come to me?” but refers directly to the mother, thereby pointing to the inseparable connection between Christ’s mission and Mary’s mission. Elizabeth speaks filled with the Holy Spirit (cf. Lk 1:41), so that her attitude toward Mary is presented as a model of faith. Then, moved by the Spirit, Elizabeth says: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Lk 1:42). It is striking that, under the action of the Spirit, it is not enough for her to call Jesus “blessed”; she also calls his mother “blessed,” perceiving them as intimately united in this moment of messianic joy. Mary appears here as the one who is eminently blessed: “Blessed is she who believed” (Lk 1:45); “my spirit rejoices” (Lk 1:47); “all generations will call me blessed” (Lk 1:48). This description takes on even greater significance when we note that, in Luke’s Gospel, such blessedness is not seen as a state of mind but as the fulfillment of the messianic promises among the little ones (cf. Lk 6:20-22), who will receive a “great reward” (Lk 6:23).

9. Regarding the theological development of these themes in the first centuries of Christianity, the Church Fathers were primarily concerned with Mary’s divine motherhood (Theotokos), her perpetual virginity (Aeiparthenos), her perfect holiness as one who was free from sin throughout her life (Panagia), and her role as the New Eve,[11] reflecting upon Mary’s association with Christ’s Redemption in the context of the mystery of the Incarnation. Mary’s “Yes” to Gabriel’s message — so that the Word of God might become flesh in her womb (cf. Lk 1:26-37) — opens for humanity the possibility of divinization. For this reason, Saint Augustine calls the Virgin “cooperator” in Christ’s Redemption, thereby emphasizing both Mary’s action at Christ’s side as well as her subordination to him, for Mary cooperates with Christ so that “the faithful might be born in the Church.”[12] For this reason, we can call her the Mother of the Faithful People of God.

11. The teaching of the first Ecumenical Councils began to delineate the dogma of Mary, Mother of God, which was later proclaimed in the Council of Ephesus. The Christian East has always upheld the dogmas defined by these early councils, at least among those Churches that accepted the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon. At the same time, in its liturgical, hymnographic, and iconographic traditions, the Christian East received the popular Marian narratives and legends about Jesus’ infancy and death. Such accounts seek to nourish the piety of the People of God by giving voice to the lyricism of poetic images, whose sole purpose is to awaken wonder. This veneration of the Mother of God is also manifested through iconography, which offers a visual depiction of Mary and the Incarnate Word. It is significant that the traditional icons of these Churches — linked to the Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon — mostly portray Mary as the “Theotokos” (“Mother of God”).[16] Icons of this type were created to contemplate the Virgin Mother, who presents her Son, the child Jesus, to the world and who embraces him while also interceding for humanity before him. Thus Eastern Marian iconography, as a kerygma and full-color visual reminder of the theology of the early Councils and the Church Fathers, seeks to be a visual translation of the titles that are uniquely applied to the Virgin.[17] For this reason, the icons must be “read” in light of the Church’s liturgy and hymns. Mary is not the object of a devotion that is placed next to Christ, but she is inserted into the mystery of Christ through the Incarnation.[18] She is the icon in which Christ is venerated. She is the Theotokos, the Virgin Mother who presents her Son, Jesus Christ, to us. At the same time, she is also the Odēgētria who points with her hand to show us the only Way, which is Christ.

13. The cooperation of the Mother with her Son in the work of Salvation has been taught by the Magisterium of the Church.[22] As the Second Vatican Council states, “rightly, therefore, the holy Fathers see Mary not merely as a passive instrument in the hands of God, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience.”[23] This cooperation is present not only in Jesus’ earthly life (at his conception, birth, death, and Resurrection) but also throughout the life of the Church.

14. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception highlights the primacy and unicity of Christ in the work of Redemption, for it teaches that Mary — the first to be redeemed — was herself redeemed by Christ and transformed by the Spirit, prior to any possible action of her own.[24] From this special condition of being the first redeemed by Christ and the first transformed by the Holy Spirit, Mary is able to cooperate more intensely and profoundly with Christ and the Spirit, becoming the prototype,[25] model and exemplar of what God wants to accomplish in every person who is redeemed.[26]

17. The title “Co-redemptrix” first appeared in the fifteenth century as a correction to the invocation “Redemptrix” (as an abbreviated form of the title, “Mother of the Redeemer”), which had been attributed to Mary since the tenth century. Saint Bernard assigned Mary a role at the foot of the Cross that gave rise to the title “Co-redemptrix,” which first appears in an anonymous fifteenth-century hymn from Salzburg.[31] Although the designation “Redemptrix” persisted throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it disappeared entirely in the eighteenth century, having been replaced by the title “Co-redemptrix.” Theological research on Mary’s cooperation in Christ’s Redemption in the first half of the twentieth century led to a deeper understanding of what the title “Co-redemptrix” signifies.[32]

19. In the Feria IV meeting on 21 February 1996, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who was the Prefect of the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was asked whether the request from the movement Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici to define a dogma declaring Mary as the “Co-redemptrix” or “Mediatrix of All Graces” was acceptable. In his personal votum, he replied: “Negative. The precise meaning of these titles is not clear, and the doctrine contained in them is not mature. A defined doctrine of divine faith belongs to the Depositum Fidei — that is, to the divine revelation conveyed in Scripture and the apostolic tradition. However, it is not clear how the doctrine expressed in these titles is present in Scripture and the apostolic tradition.”[37] Later, in 2002, he publicly voiced his opinion against the use of the title: “the formula ‘Co-redemptrix’ departs to too great an extent from the language of Scripture and of the Fathers and therefore gives rise to misunderstandings… Everything comes from Him [Christ], as the Letter to the Ephesians and the Letter to the Colossians, in particular, tell us; Mary, too, is everything that she is through Him. The word ‘Co-redemptrix’ would obscure this origin.” While Cardinal Ratzinger did not deny that there may have been good intentions and valuable aspects in the proposal to use this title, he maintained that they were “being expressed in the wrong way.”[38]

21. On at least three occasions, Pope Francis expressed his clear opposition to using the title “Co-redemptrix,” arguing that Mary “never wished to appropriate anything of her Son for herself. She never presented herself as a co-Savior. No, a disciple.”[39]Christ’s redemptive work was perfect and needs no addition; therefore, “Our Lady did not want to take away any title from Jesus… She did not ask for herself to be a quasi-redeemer or a co-redeemer: no. There is only one Redeemer, and this title cannot be duplicated.”[40] Christ “is the only Redeemer; there are no co-redeemers with Christ.”[41] For “the sacrifice of the Cross, offered in a spirit of love and obedience, presents the most abundant and infinite satisfaction.”[42] While we are able to extend its effects in the world (cf. Col 1:24), neither the Church nor Mary can replace or perfect the redemptive work of the incarnate Son of God, which was perfect and needs no additions.

22. Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it would not be appropriate to use the title “Co-redemptrix” to define Mary’s cooperation. This title risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Christian faith, for “there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). When an expression requires many, repeated explanations to prevent it from straying from a correct meaning, it does not serve the faith of the People of God and becomes unhelpful. In this case, the expression “Co-redemptrix” does not help extol Mary as the first and foremost collaborator in the work of Redemption and grace, for it carries the risk of eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ — the Son of God made man for our salvation, who was the only one capable of offering the Father a sacrifice of infinite value — which would not be a true honor to his Mother. Indeed, as the “handmaid of the Lord” (Lk 1:38), Mary directs us to Christ and asks us to “do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5).

Mediatrix

23. The concept of mediation appears in the Eastern Church Fathers starting in the sixth century. In the following centuries, Saint Andrew of Crete,[43] Saint Germanus of Constantinople[44] and Saint John Damascene[45] employed this title with different meanings. In the West, this expression gained more frequent use starting in the twelfth century, although it was not formally articulated as a doctrinal thesis until the seventeenth century. In 1921, Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Mechelen — with the scholarly collaboration of the Catholic University of Louvain and the support of the bishops, clergy, and laity of Belgium — petitioned Pope Benedict XV to issue a dogmatic definition of Mary’s universal mediation. However, the Holy Father did not grant this request; he only approved a feast with its own Mass and the Office of Mary Mediatrix.[46] From then until 1950, theological research on this question continued to develop up to the preparatory phase of the Second Vatican Council. The Council did not enter into dogmatic declarations[47] but preferred to present an extensive synthesis “of Catholic doctrine on the place to attribute to the Blessed Virgin Mary in the mystery of Christ and the Church.”[48]

37. Mary’s spiritual motherhood has some defining characteristics:

a) It is grounded in the fact that she is the Mother of God and her motherhood is extended to Christ’s disciples[74] and even to all human beings.[75] In this respect, Mary’s cooperation is singular and distinct from the cooperation of all “other creatures.”[76] Her intercession does not have the characteristic of priestly mediation (such as Christ’s), but is instead situated in the order and analogy of motherhood.[77] By associating Mary’s intercession with Christ’s work, the gifts given to us by the Lord are presented with a maternal aspect, imbued with the tenderness and closeness of the Mother[78] whom Jesus wanted to share with us (cf. Jn 19:27).

Intercession

38. Mary is united to Christ in a unique way by her motherhood and by being full of grace. This is hinted at in the angel’s greeting (cf. Lk 1:28), which uses a word (kecharitōmenē) that is found only here and nowhere else in the Bible. She, who received in her womb the power of the Holy Spirit and became the Mother of God, by that same Spirit, becomes Mother of the Church.[91] Because of this singular union in motherhood and in grace, her prayer for us has a value and an efficacy that cannot be compared to any other intercession. Saint John Paul II connected the title “Mediatrix” with this role of maternal intercession, noting that Mary “puts herself ‘in the middle,’ that is to say, she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother. She knows that, as such, she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind.”[92]

Maternal Closeness

43. The various Marian invocations, images, and shrines show Mary’s true motherhood, which draws near to the lives of her children. An example of this can be seen in how she appeared to Saint Juan Diego on Tepeyac Hill and addressed him with the tender words of a mother: “My dearest and youngest son, Juan.” When Saint Juan Diego expressed his difficulties in carrying out the mission entrusted to him, Mary showed him the strength of her motherhood: “Am I not here, who am your mother?... Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, in the crossing of my arms?”[94]

44. That experience of Mary’s maternal affection, which Saint Juan Diego lived, is the personal experience of all Christians who receive Mary’s affection and place “their daily necessities” into her hands, trustfully opening “their hearts to implore her motherly intercession and obtain her reassuring protection.”[95] Beyond the extraordinary manifestations of her closeness, there are constant and daily expressions of her motherhood in the lives of all her children. Even when we do not request her intercession, she shows herself near to us as a Mother to help us recognize the Father’s love, to contemplate Christ’s saving self-gift, and to receive the Spirit’s sanctifying action. The value of this maternal closeness to the Church is so great that pastors must not let it be misused for political purposes. On various occasions, Pope Francis warned about this and showed concern over “various ideological and cultural proposals that seek to appropriate for themselves the encounter of a people with their Mother.”[96]

Mother of Grace

45. This understanding of the title “Mother of Believers” enables us to speak of Mary’s role in relation to our life of grace. However, it should be noted that certain expressions that could be theologically acceptable can easily become laden with concepts and symbolism that convey less acceptable notions. For example, Mary is sometimes portrayed as if she possessed a repository of grace separate from God. In such a notion, it is not so clear that it is the Lord who — in his generous and free omnipotence — willed to associate her with the sharing of that divine life which springs forth from the sole center that is the Heart of Christ, not that of Mary.[97] She is also frequently portrayed or imagined as a fountain from which all grace flows. If one considers the fact that the Trinitarian indwelling (uncreated grace) and our participation in the divine life (created grace) are inseparable, we cannot think that this mystery depends on a “passage” through Mary’s hands. Such notions elevate Mary so highly that Christ’s own centrality may disappear or, at least, become conditioned. Cardinal Ratzinger already affirmed that the title “Mary, Mediatrix of All Graces” was not clearly grounded in Revelation.[98] In line with this conviction, we can recognize the difficulties this title poses, both in terms of theological reflection and spirituality.

46. To avoid these difficulties, Mary’s motherhood in the order of grace must be understood as a help in preparing us to receive God’s sanctifying grace. This can be seen in how, on the one hand, her maternal intercession[99] is the expression of that “maternal help”[100] which allows us to recognize Christ as the sole Mediator between God and humanity. On the other hand, her maternal presence in our lives does not preclude various actions from Mary aimed at encouraging us to open our hearts to Christ’s activity in the Holy Spirit. In this way, she helps us — in various ways — to prepare ourselves to receive the life of grace that only the Lord can pour into us.

47. Our salvation is solely the work of the saving grace of Christ and of no one else. Saint Augustine affirmed that “this reign of death is only destroyed in any man by the Savior’s grace,”[101] and he explained this point clearly in light of the redemption of the unjust man: “Who would want to die for an unjust man, for an ungodly man, save Christ alone, he who was so just as to be able to justify even the unjust? So, my brethren, we had no meritorious works, but only demerits. Although the works of men were of such a sort, his mercy did not forsake them and… instead of the punishment that was owed, he gave them the grace they did not deserve… [He did this] to redeem us, not with gold or silver, but at the price of the shedding of his blood.”[102] Thus, when Saint Thomas Aquinas asks whether anyone can merit for another, he answers that “no one can merit for another his first grace, save Christ alone.”[103] No other human being can merit it in the strict sense (de condigno), and on this point, there can be no doubt: “no one can be just unless the merits of the Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ are imparted to him.”[104] Likewise, Mary’s fullness of grace exists because she received it freely, before any action on her own part, “in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race.”[105] Only the merits of Jesus Christ, who gave himself up to the end, are applied to us for our justification — which, since it “ends in the eternal good of divine participation, is a greater work than the creation of heaven and earth.”[106]

49. As at Cana, Mary does not tell Christ what he should do. Instead, she intercedes by presenting him with our deficiencies, needs, and sufferings so that he may act with his divine power:[110] “They have no wine” (Jn 2:3). Even today, she helps to prepare us for God’s action:[111] “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Her words are not a simple suggestion but become a true maternal pedagogy that, under the action of the Holy Spirit, introduces us into the profound meaning of Christ’s mystery.[112] Mary listens, decides, and acts[113] to help us open our lives to Christ and to his grace,[114] because it is God alone who works in our innermost being.

53. No human person — not even the Apostles or the Blessed Virgin — can act as a universal dispenser of grace. Only God can bestow grace,[135] and he does so through the humanity of Christ[136] since “the man Christ possessed supreme fullness of grace, as being the only-begotten of the Father.”[137] Although the Blessed Virgin Mary is preeminently “full of grace” and “Mother of God,” she, like us, is an adopted daughter of the Father and, as Dante Alighieri writes, “daughter of your Son.”[138] She cooperates in the economy of salvation by a derived and subordinate participation. Therefore, any expression about her “mediation” in grace must be understood as a distant analogy to Christ and his unique mediation.[139]

55. As the Second Vatican Council teaches, “the Blessed Virgin’s salutary influence… does not hinder in any way the immediate union of the faithful with Christ but, rather, fosters it.”[141] For this reason, one should avoid any description that would suggest a Neoplatonic-like outpouring of grace by stages, as if God’s grace were descending through various intermediaries (such as Mary) while its ultimate source (God) remained disconnected from our hearts. Such interpretations carry a negative impact on a proper understanding of the intimate, direct, and immediate encounter that grace effects between the Lord and the believer’s heart.[142] The fact is that only God, the Triune God, justifies.[143] Only God raises us to overcome the infinite disproportion that separates us from divine life; only he acts in us with his Trinitarian indwelling; only he enters into us and transforms us, making us sharers in his divine life. It does not honor Mary to attribute to her any mediation in the accomplishment of this work that belongs exclusively to God.

69. Through her intercession, Mary can implore God to grant us those internal impulses of the Holy Spirit that are called “actual graces.” These are the aids given by the Holy Spirit that operate even in sinners to prepare them for justification,[174] and that encourage those already justified by sanctifying grace to further growth. It is in this specific sense that the title “Mother of Grace” must be understood. She humbly cooperates so that we may open our hearts to the Lord, who alone can justify us through the action of sanctifying grace: that is, when God pours his Trinitarian life into us, dwells in us as a Friend, and makes us sharers in his divine life. This is exclusively the Lord’s own work. At the same time, it does not preclude the possibility that the words, images or various prompts that we receive through Mary’s maternal intercession might help us to persevere in life, to prepare our hearts for the grace that the Lord infuses, or to grow in the life of grace that we have freely received.

70. These aids that come from the Lord are presented to us with a maternal aspect, filled with the tenderness and closeness of the Mother whom Jesus wanted to share with us (cf. Jn 19:25-28). In this way, Mary carries out a unique activity to help us open our hearts to Christ and to his sanctifying grace, which elevates us and heals us. Whenever she brings us various “motions,” these should always be understood as promptings to open our lives to the One who alone works in our innermost being.

73. She is “the first disciple, the one who best learned Jesus’ ways.”[177] Mary is the first of those who “hear the word of God and keep it” (Lk 11:28). She is the first to place herself among the lowly and poor of the Lord, to teach us confidently to wait for and to receive the salvation that comes only from God. Thus, Mary “as Mother became the first ‘disciple’ of her Son; the first to whom he seemed to say: ‘Follow me,’ even before he addressed this call to the Apostles or to anyone else (cf. Jn 1:43).”[178] She is a model of faith and charity for the Church by her obedience to the Father’s will, her cooperation in her Son’s redemptive work, and her openness to the action of the Holy Spirit.[179] For this reason, Saint Augustine said that “it means more for Mary to have been a disciple of Christ than to have been the mother of Christ.”[180] Pope Francis insisted that “she is more disciple than Mother.”[181] Mary is, ultimately, “the first and the most perfect of Christ’s disciples.”[182]

74. Mary is, for every Christian, “the one who first ‘believed,’ and precisely with her faith as Spouse and Mother she wishes to act upon all those who entrust themselves to her as her children.”[183] She does so with an affection filled with signs of closeness that help them to grow in the spiritual life, teaching them to let Christ’s grace act more and more. In this relationship of affection and trust, she, who is “full of grace,” teaches each Christian to receive grace, to preserve the grace already received, and to meditate on the work God is doing in their lives (cf. Lk 2:19).

77. The faithful People of God do not distance themselves from Christ or the Gospel when they draw near to Mary; rather, they can see “in this maternal image all the mysteries of the Gospel.”[192] In her motherly face, they see a reflection of the Lord who seeks us out (cf. Lk 15:4-8), who comes to meet us with open arms (cf. Lk 15:20), who pauses before us (cf. Lk 18:40), who bends down and raises us up to his cheek (cf. Hos 11:4), who looks upon us with love (cf. Mk 10:21), and who does not condemn us (cf. Jn 8:11; Hos 11:9). In her motherly face, many of the poor recognize the Lord who “has cast down the mighty from their thrones and has lifted up the lowly” (Lk 1:52). Her countenance sings the mystery of the Incarnation. In the face of the Mother who was pierced by the sword (cf. Lk 2:35), the People of God recognize the mystery of the Cross, and in that same face — bathed in paschal light — they perceive that Christ is alive. And it was she, who received the Holy Spirit in plenitude, who sustained the Apostles in prayer in the Upper Room (cf. Acts 1:14). Therefore, we can say that “Mary’s faith, according to the Church’s apostolic witness, in some way continues to become the faith of the pilgrim People of God.”[193]

78. As the Latin American bishops affirmed, the poor “find God’s affection and love in the face of Mary. In it, they see reflected the essential gospel message.”[194] The people, in simplicity and poverty, do not separate the glorious Mother from the Mary of Nazareth whom we find in the Gospels. On the contrary, they recognize the simplicity behind the glory and know that Mary has not ceased to be one of them. She is the one who, like any mother, carried her child in her womb, nursed him, and lovingly raised him with Saint Joseph’s help — but who also experienced the upheavals and uncertainties of motherhood (cf. Lk 2:48-50). She is the one who sings of God who “has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty” (Lk 1:53); who suffers with the newlyweds who run out of wine for their wedding feast (cf. Jn 2:3); who knows how to go in haste to lend a hand to her cousin in need (cf. Lk 1:39-40); who allows herself to be wounded, as if pierced by a sword, on account of the history of her people, where her Son is “a sign of contradiction” (Lk 2:34); who understands what it means to be a migrant or an exile (cf. Mt 2:13-15); who, in her poverty, can offer only two young pigeons (cf. Lk 2:24); and who knows what it means to be looked down upon for coming from a poor carpenter’s family (cf. Mk 6:3-4). The suffering people recognize Mary as walking side by side with them, and so they seek out their Mother to implore her help.[195]