What did the popes say about Mary as Co-redemptrix?
The teaching of the Church on this topic has been clear and positive, especially since the late 1800's.
(PerMariam) — Despite the argument of Mater Populi Fidelis last week that the title of Mary Co-redemptrix is “always inappropriate,” the Church’s own teaching defends that title most clearly.
As is now most well known, Mater Populi Fidelis weighed into the Mariological debate and came down against the use of the term Co-redemptrix, despite the theology behind the title being consistently expounded and taught by the Church over many centuries.
Two prominent Mariologists have already critiqued the text, and to lend further weight to their arguments is the Church’s teaching on this topic from the last 200 years.
Below is an extract from the latter half of my book on Mary as Co-redemptrix, presenting the magisterial teaching from recent popes regarding the title. {Readers wishing to read the book in full may find the book online, published with an imprimatur, and a recommendation from Bishop Athanasius Schneider.}
Teaching from the 1800’s
In defining the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pius IX issued the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus (1854), containing a synthesis of Marian teaching regarding the Mother of God, of which some naturally pertained to her as Co-redemptrix. He refers back to the Fathers and their exegesis of Genesis 3:15, stating that: “They also declared that the most glorious Virgin was Reparatrix of the first parents, the giver of life to posterity.”
Here the pope uses the word which was employed by many medievals and equated with Co-redemptrix. His teaching was furthered by his successor, Pope Leo XIII, renowned for his multitudinous encyclicals and also styled as the ‘Rosary Pope’. In Jucunda Semper (1894), the pope refers to the rosary as being a thorough meditation upon Mary as the Co-redemptrix throughout her life: “In it [the rosary], all the part which the Virgin played in acquiring the salvation of men returns, as set forth and as having its effect now.”
In his brief meditation upon the Crucifixion, Leo XIII notes the proximity of Mary to the Cross and the meaning of such nearness:
“there stood by the Cross of Jesus His Mother, who, in a miracle of charity, so that she might receive us as her sons, offered generously to Divine Justice her own Son, and died in her heart with Him, stabbed with the sword of sorrow.”
Further he continues, in remarking how she is the mediator of man’s salvation: “To thee we lift our prayers, for thou art the Mediatrix, powerful at once and pitiful, of our salvation.”
In 1901, the pope taught that, “Every time we, with the angel, greet Mary as full of grace…we remember all the most singular merits by which She has become a partaker with her Son Jesus in the Redemption of humanity.”
Pius X and the start of the 20th century
Pope St. Pius X continued the use of such language in his encyclical, Ad Diem Illum (1904), which was released to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Ineffabilis Deus. The pontiff mentions that she has the office of, “presenting [Christ] for the sacrifice” and that “from this community of will and suffering between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world.”
By drawing from St. Bernard and the spirituality of St. Louis de Montfort, Pius X describes Christ as the source but Mary as the channel, who “merits for us de congruo, as they say, what Jesus Christ merits for us de condigno, and she is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces.” This technical language is also that of St. Thomas as outlined earlier and hence the pope is denoting that “Mary merits for humanity in the order of ‘fittingness’ or congruous merit, that which Jesus merits for us in the order of ‘justice’ or strict condign merit.”
On another occasion, in response to a dubium regarding the weight of the feast of the Seven Sorrows of Mary, the Congregation of Rites declared the wish that, “the devotion of the Sorrowful Mother may increase and the piety of the faithful and their gratitude toward the merciful Co-Redemptrix of the human race may intensify.”
Such usage of the title is a great development in the promulgation of the doctrine of Co-Redemption. Since the reply was issued from the Congregation and recorded in their official acts, it lends the title yet further weight.
Indeed, in 1913 the Holy Office granted a partial indulgence to a prayer of reparation to Our Lady, which ended with the words, “I bless thy holy Name, I praise thine exalted privilege of being truly Mother of God, ever Virgin, conceived without stain of sin, Co-Redemptrix of the human race.” Here the Holy Office quite liberally uses the term in an indulgenced prayer, very positively expressing the implicit approval of the devotion and the title.
Pope Benedict XV greatly promoted the devotion to Our Lady under this title, by clearly explaining her role in the redemption. In his letter, Inter Sodalicia (1918), he wrote on the unity of sacrifice of Mother and Son:
With her suffering and dying Son, Mary suffered almost to the point of death; she renounced her maternal rights over Him and, for the purpose of appeasing the Divine Justice inasmuch as it was dependent upon her, she offered up her Son so that it can truly be said of her that with her Son she ransomed mankind.
However, it fell to Pius XI to first use the title Co-redemptrix in a papal address. In speaking to a group of pilgrims from Vicenza in 1933, he uttered these words:
By necessity, the Redeemer could not but associate his Mother in his work. For this reason we invoke her under the title of Coredemptrix. She gave us the Savior, 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.
In 1934 and 1935 he repeated the explicit use of the term twice, clearly demonstrating his ardent belief in Mary’s role.
Vatican II: Affirming but avoiding the title
Whilst not a primarily Marian document, Lumen Gentium (1964) contains a great deal of teaching regarding Mary. Before the Second Vatican Council, a multitude of requests were made by bishops regarding Mary’s mediation, with fifty bishops specifically requesting a definition of Mary as Co-Redemptrix. A note sent in response to this petition stated that any such definition would not occur, due solely to ecumenical reasons, not any theological problems. The note reads:
“Certain expressions and words used by supreme Pontiffs have been omitted, which, in themselves are absolutely true, but which may be understood with difficulty by separated brethren. Among such words may be numbered the following: ‘Co-redemptrix of the human race.’”
Hence whilst a definition did not occur, a condensed presentation of Mariology is nevertheless contained in the final chapter of Lumen Gentium. Chapter eight details a brief history pertaining to Co-Redemption theology, starting with the Scriptures and then moving onto the Fathers and their teaching on Mary as New Eve.
The Council Fathers write that:
Embracing God’s salvific will with a full heart and impeded by no sin, she devoted herself totally as a handmaid of the Lord to the person and work of her Son, under Him and with Him, by the grace of almighty God, serving the mystery of redemption. Rightly therefore the holy Fathers see her as used by God not merely in a passive way, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience.
The document also refers to Mary as the “cause of salvation” and employs the words of St. Irenaeus regarding Mary being the New Eve as found in the Adversus Haereses. Only a few lines later, the document continues in the best lines of Co-redemptive theology:
After this manner the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only-begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with His sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth. Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross as a mother to His disciple with these words: ‘Woman, behold thy son’.
Lumen Gentium describes Mary’s role in light of the concept of de congruo merit, when it discusses her mediation being not only pleasing to God, but also aiding to “foster the immediate union of the faithful with Christ”. So also does the text state that Mary was united with Christ throughout His life, but pivotally on Calvary:
She conceived, brought forth and nourished Christ. She presented Him to the Father in the temple, and was united with Him by compassion as He died on the Cross. In this singular way she cooperated by her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in giving back supernatural life to souls. Wherefore she is our mother in the order of grace.
The entirety of the chapter is awash with Co-redemptive language. The Council Fathers teach that her maternity began with her Fiat and lasts until the end of time. They also refers to Mary as having a “salvific duty” and bringing to man the gifts of salvation. Through the heavy use of the language of co-operation, Lumen Gentium thus implicitly teaches the doctrine without using the actual term, yet quoting terms from previous papal Co-redemptrix teaching: “Advocate, Auxiliatrix, Adjutrix, and Mediatrix.”
John Paul II
Whilst the Council avoided using the term, Pope John Paul II used the title prolifically in his writings and addresses. Greatly inspired by the Marian spirituality of St. Louis-Marie, the pope penned the encyclical Redemptoris Mater (1987), in which he states: “Mary is perfectly united with Christ in his self-emptying…Through faith the Mother shares in the death of her Son, in his redeeming death.”
He frequently uses words referring to her sharing in the life and death of Christ and teaches that “interceding for all her children, the Mother cooperates in the saving work of her Son, the Redeemer of the world.” The pope released this Marian encyclical nine years into his papacy, but in the years prior to this he had already referred to Mary under the title of Co-redemptrix many times. Most notable among those is his homily in Guayaquil, Ecuador in 1985, in which he discourses on Mary “having suffered for the Church”:
The silent journey that begins with her Immaculate Conception and passes through the ‘yes’ of Nazareth, which makes her the Mother of God, finds on Calvary a particularly important moment. There also, accepting and assisting in the sacrifice of her son, Mary is the dawn of Redemption…Crucified spiritually with her crucified son, she contemplated with heroic love the death of her God… In fact, at Calvary she united herself with the sacrifice of her Son that led to the foundation of the Church…Nevertheless, as she was in a special way close to the Cross of her Son, she also had to have a privileged experience of his Resurrection. In fact, Mary’s role as Coredemptrix did not cease with the glorification of her Son.
In reading the text of this homily, one becomes very clearly acquainted with a theological explanation of Scripture and the words of Lumen Gentium. But a few months later, the pope gave a homily on Palm Sunday, in which he commended devotion to Mary: “May Mary our Protectress, the Co-redemptrix, to whom we offer our prayer with great outpouring, make our desire generously correspond to the desire of the Redeemer.”
In a general audience given on October 25, 1995, the pontiff gave a brief history of the development of Co-redemptive teaching in the Church where he traced its origins from the Fathers through to the time of St. Bernard. In another audience given in 1996, he noted the woman of the Apocalypse as Mary at the Cross, and also repeated Mary’s role as the New Eve:
“This [Rev 12:2] refers to the mother of Jesus at the Cross, where she shares in anguish for the delivery of the community of disciples with a soul pierced by the sword…It was fitting that like Christ, the new Adam, Mary too, the new Eve, did not know sin and was thus capable of co-operating in the Redemption.”
John Paul II delivered a series of seventy catechetical teachings on Our Lady between 1995 and 1997, of which a key part was the General Audience of April 2 1997 where he gave a very insightful meditation on Mary’s compassion:
With our gaze illumined by the radiance of the resurrection, we pause to reflect on the Mother’s involvement in her Son’s redeeming passion, which was completed by her sharing in his suffering. Let us return again, but now in the perspective of the Resurrection, to the foot of the Cross where the Mother endured ‘with her only-begotten son the intensity of his suffering, associated herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consented to the immolation of this victim which was born of her.’ … In her heart reverberates all that Jesus suffers in body and soul, emphasising her willingness to share in her Son’s redeeming sacrifice and to join her own maternal suffering to his priestly offering.
Pope John Paul II not only uses the title Co-redemptrix with great frequency, but he also writes and preaches explaining Co-redemptive theology. Influenced by St. Louis, he is devoted to Mary as being intimately united with Christ in the redemptive act and thus recognizes that closeness to Mary is closeness to God.