Vatican document affirming scriptural understanding of Mary and her role prompts reflection

(OSV News) -- A new Vatican document on Mary affirms a Scripture-based understanding of her person and her pivotal role in salvation history, according to several experts -- although some lament the document failed to confirm two key titles popularly associated with her over the centuries, while commending renewed attention to the role of Mary.

On Nov. 4, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith officially released "Mater Populi Fidelis" ("Mother of the Faithful People of God"), the text for which had been approved by Pope Leo XIV Oct. 7.

The doctrinal note is now part of the Catholic Church's "ordinary magisterium," or official teaching and must be considered authoritative, said dicastery prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández during the Nov. 4 presentation of the document in Rome.

In his presentation text, Cardinal Fernández said the note was a response to "numerous requests and proposals" made to the Vatican over the decades regarding both Marian devotion and, in particular, two Marian titles: "co-redemptrix" or "co-mediatrix," neither of which have been formally defined in Catholic teaching.

"Co-redemptrix" has generally referenced either Mary's divine motherhood or her union with Christ at the Cross, said the doctrinal note. "Co-mediatrix" has typically sought to describe "Mary's role in our life of grace," the note said.

The titles were rejected by the dicastery in its doctrinal note, which -- while commending the love and devotion underlying their use over time -- cited Scripture, tradition and concerns raised by the late Pope Benedict XVI, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, on the risk they posed to an accurate understanding of Mary's role.

Citing Scripture and tradition, Cardinal Ratzinger had warned of potential doctrinal errors in the use of the terms, saying the "precise meaning" of the two terms is "not clear, and the doctrine contained in them is not mature."

He stressed that "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."

Overall, the new Vatican document "affirms the importance of Marian devotion and how Marian devotion must never be separated from Christ, our Redeemer and Lord," Robert Fastiggi, chair of dogmatic theology and Christology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, told OSV News.

Fastiggi said that he believed both the dicastery and its predecessor, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "have been studying the questions of Marian coredemption and mediation of graces for some time."

He described "Mater Populi Fidelis" as being "very cautious" about petitions to have the titles of "co-redemptrix" or "co-mediatrix" officially recognized in Catholic teaching.

"It's clear that the DDF wishes to affirm Marian devotion without proclaiming any new Marian dogmas," he said.

However, Mark Miravalle, president of the International Marian Association -- whose members, including theologians and bishops, work to promote Marian devotion worldwide -- said that several points in the document "call for greater examination and clarification within an authentic spirit of respect and dialogue."

Writing in a Nov. 5 commentary, Miravalle -- who also leads the lay nonprofit Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici, dedicated to fostering Marian devotion and to seeking "papal definition of our Lady as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate" -- stressed that he and his colleagues "emphatically agree" with the Vatican document's "absolute imperative" to uphold "the infinite primacy of Jesus Christ as our only divine Mediator and Redeemer," based on Scripture and tradition.

At the same time, he wrote, "we also seek to properly acknowledge the subordinate and unparalleled human participation and cooperation of the Immaculate Virgin Mary, Mother of Jesus Christ, in the historic work of Redemption."

In his commentary, Miravalle pointed to the "numerous usages" of "co-redemptrix" by "popes and their respective magisteriums." He also cited "long tradition" of both the "redemptrix" and "co-redemptrix" titles "dating back to the 10th and 15th centuries" -- which the doctrinal note also highlighted -- as well as more modern invocations of the "co-redemptrix" title by a number of saints, and asked whether the document intended to classify these references as "inappropriate."

He advanced similar arguments for the title of "co-mediatrix," stating that "it has always been acknowledged that Mary’s role as Mediatrix of all graces does not include her own Immaculate Conception, but rather denotes her secondary distribution of redemptive graces at the service of Christ, the one divine Mediator, to fallen humanity."

Neomi De Anda, professor and executive director of the International Marian Research Institute at the University of Dayton, Ohio, told OSV News the doctrinal note indicated a return to Scripture in understanding Mary.

"What I am seeing as a move from many Marian scholars, and a very strong move from the Vatican, is a (move to a) Mary that is scripturally based, very scripturally based," said De Anda. "And that is strong in this document. I see many scholars and the Vatican moving toward a scripturally-based Mary that is more human."

The document also presented Mary as "very connected to the church," and as "a model of the church, the first disciple and mother of the church," De Anda said, adding, "I think it's really important to highlight that piece -- Mary as disciple, and what that looks like and means in following Jesus."

She also highlighted the doctrinal note's citations from the pastoral document of the Fifth General Conference of the Bishops of Latin America and the Caribbean at Aparecida, Brazil, in 2007 (often known simply as the Aparecida Document), to which the late Pope Francis, as Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, had contributed.

"I really loved that it began and ended with the Aparecida Document," said De Anda. "I found that so interesting in that they bookended this document with that document … very much placing Marian devotion in the vein of the way the Latin American bishops have been thinking about popular devotion, as being on a journey for years, and of the people."

"I think Pope Francis and now Pope Leo (with his experience in Peru) wish to encourage popular Marian piety focused on Mary as our spiritual Mother and model disciple," said Fastiggi.

He added, "I think 'Mater Populi Fidelis' will stimulate a greater awareness of Mary's role in salvation history even though it discourages certain titles. I think theologians should study Mary's role in salvation history more deeply. ... I am happy that greater attention is now being given to these themes."