A new Vatican document addressing certain devotional titles for the Blessed Virgin Mary has prompted renewed discussion about how Catholics speak of Mary’s role in salvation history. In comments detailed by Catholic News Agency via ACI Prensa, Father Maurizio Gronchi, a Christology expert and consultant to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, cautioned that referring to Mary as “Co-Redemptrix” or “Mediatrix” risks confusing the faithful about the nature of God and the Gospel.
“It is superstition to think that the Virgin Mary has the role of holding back God’s wrath. Whoever thinks this way is not in accordance with the Gospel,” Gronchi said, according to Catholic News Agency (CNA). He explained that assigning Mary the role of convincing God to show mercy “undermines the Trinity: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.”
The doctrinal note, titled Mater Populi Fidelis (“Mother of the Faithful People”), urges Catholics not to use these titles when speaking of the Blessed Mother. Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, presented the document this week, and it includes a doctrinal clarification signed by Pope Leo XIV.
According to CNA, the new text recalls that St. John Paul II once asked then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in 1996 to study whether the titles “co-redemptrix” and “mediatrix” could be considered truths of the faith. Gronchi noted that John Paul II had used the term earlier from a devotional standpoint, but “as soon as ‘Ratzinger said it was inappropriate, John Paul II never used it again.’” He also emphasized that the title does not appear in John Paul II’s 1987 Marian encyclical Redemptoris Mater.
Gronchi told CNA that Church history provides further context: neither Pius XII, St. John XXIII, nor St. Paul VI used these expressions, and the Second Vatican Council did not propose them as dogma. Because the Church has already defined the major Marian dogmas — Divine Motherhood (431), Perpetual Virginity (649), the Immaculate Conception (1854), and the Assumption (1950) — the priest said that “it does not seem that new truths [about Mary] ought to be affirmed.”
The theologian also pointed to an unusual aspect of the document’s drafting process. According to Gronchi, it is typical for the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith to consult widely with internal and external experts. But in this case, he said that “no collaborating Mariologists could be found.” He noted that neither professors from the Marianum Theological Faculty nor members of the Pontifical International Marian Academy (PAMI) took part in the presentation of the document, a silence he suggested “can be understood as dissent.” CNA reported that when it contacted PAMI for comment, the academy declined.
Gronchi referenced earlier discussions within the Church, including the XII International Mariological Congress in Czestochowa in 1996, which concluded that defining Mary as “mediatrix,” “co-redemptrix,” or “advocate” would be inappropriate.
The release of Mater Populi Fidelis continues the Vatican’s long-standing effort to clarify Marian devotion while ensuring it remains anchored in the Gospel and the Church’s teaching on the Trinity.
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