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If we were to list the great Marian Popes, we might include pontiffs like Bl. Pius IX, who defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, or Leo XIII, who issued twelve encyclicals on the Rosary. We might also include Pius XII, who defined the dogma of the Assumption, or St. John Paul II and his extensive Marian corpus. Joseph Ratzinger\/Benedict XVI, however, should also be considered a Marian Pope, though this might not be evident to many people. In an article entitled, \u201cMary, \u2018Personal Concretization of the Church\u2019: Elements of Benedict XVI\u2019s Marian Thinking\u201d (Marian Studies Vol. 57, 2006), Fr. Johann Roten, SM, provides a comprehensive list of publications of Joseph Ratzinger with a Marian aspect from 1961\u20132000.<\/p>\n
Although Joseph Ratzinger never published a treatise on Mariology, two books have been published that synthesize his Marian vision. The first is Daughter Zion: Meditations on the Church\u2019s Marian Belief, which was translated by J. Michael McDermott, SJ, and published by Ignatius Press in 1983. This book is based on three lectures given by Fr. Joseph Ratzinger in the spring of 1975, and it shows the Virgin Mary\u2019s central role in Scripture as a type of bridge between the Old and New Testaments. The second book is Mary, the Church at the Source, which was translated by Adrian Walker and published by Ignatius Press in 2005. This book is a compilation of significant articles of Joseph Ratzinger and Hans Urs von Balthasar on the Virgin Mary. The five texts of Ratzinger cover some important themes such as \u201cthe place of Mariology in the whole of theology\u201d; \u201cMarian piety\u201d; and Mary, \u201cthe sign of the woman.\u201d For Ratzinger, like von Balthasar, it\u2019s essential to understand the Marian profile of the Church.<\/p>\n
There have also been two recent books that provide key insights on the Marian vision of Joseph Ratzinger\/Benedict XVI. The first is Innovation within Tradition: Joseph Ratzinger and Reading the Women of Scripture by Mary Frances McKenna (Fortress Press, 2015). In this book, McKenna shows how Ratzinger highlights the central role of women in the Bible and salvation history. The Blessed Virgin Mary is the supreme embodiment of this female line of Scripture. Mary\u2019s \u201cyes\u201d to be the Mother of the Word Incarnate shows that \u201cit is through Jesus and Mary\u201d that sin, which \u201cnegatively affects humanity, is overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
The second recent book is Mary, Daughter Zion: An Introduction to the Mariology of Joseph Ratzinger (Benedict XVI)<\/i> published by Peter Lang in 2022. Written by Fr. Martin Ifeanyi Onuoha of Nigeria, this volume provides a detailed analysis of Joseph Ratzinger\u2019s vision of Mary in the Old Testament, the Infancy narratives, the New Testament as a whole, and in the Marian dogmas. Like Dr. McKenna, Fr. Onuoha points to how Mary\u2019s \u201cyes\u201d is central to the Marian vision of Joseph Ratzinger\/Benedict XVI. This emphasis on the \u201cyes\u201d of Mary is evident in Cardinal Ratzinger\u2019s June 26, 2000 Theological Commentary on the Message of Fatima: \u2022 I would like finally to mention another key expression of the \u201csecret\u201d which has become justly famous: \u201cMy Immaculate Heart will triumph.\u201d What does this mean? The Heart open to God, purified by contemplation of God, is stronger than guns and weapons of every kind. The fiat of Mary, the word of her heart, has changed the history of the world, because it brought the Savior into the world \u2013 because, thanks to her Yes, God could become man in our world and remains so for all time.<\/p>\n
The \u201cyes\u201d of Mary is so important to Joseph Ratzinger because his theological vision is supremely Incarnational. Out of this Incarnational\/Christocentric vision there emerges a Mariology that is Scriptural, Patristic, Liturgical, and Ecclesiological. In his interview with Vittorio Messori, published as The Ratzinger Report (Ignatius Press, 1985), Cardinal Ratzinger lists six points for understanding \u201cthe importance of Mary with regard to the equilibrium and completeness of the Catholic Faith:\u201d 1) The place assigned to Mary by dogma and tradition helps to root us in solid Christology. 2) The Mariology of the Church shows the right relationship between Scripture and tradition. The four Marian dogmas\u2014Mother of God, Ever-Virgin, Immaculate Conception, and Assumption\u2014have their clear foundation in Scripture, but \u201cit is there like a seed that grows and bears fruit in the life of tradition, just as it finds expression in the liturgy, in the perception of the believing people and in the reflection of theology guided by the Magisterium.\u201d 3) As a Jewish girl who becomes the Mother of the Messiah, \u201cMary binds together, in a living and indissoluble way, the old and the new People of God, Israel, and Christianity, synagogue and church.\u201d 4) Correct Marian devotion shows \u201cthe coexistence of indispensable \u2018reason\u2019 with the equally indispensable \u2018reasons of the heart,\u2019 as Pascal would say.\u201d The contemplation of the surpassing dignity of the Mother of God \u201cassures faith its full human dimension.\u201d 5) Mary is \u201cfigure,\u201d \u201cimage\u201d and \u201cmodel\u201d of the Church.\u201d Without Mary, theology can \u201creduce faith to an abstraction,\u201d and \u201can abstraction does not need a Mother.\u201d 6) Mary\u2019s destiny as Virgin and Mother \u201ccontinues to project a light upon that which the Creator intended for women of every age \u2026 through her virginity and her motherhood, the mystery of woman receives a very lofty destiny from which she cannot be torn away \u2026As a creature of courage and obedience she was and still is an example to which every Christian\u2014man and woman\u2014can and should look.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Marian vision of Benedict XVI was shaped by Vatican II and St. Paul VI\u2019s proclamation of Mary as \u201cMother of the Church\u201d in his address at the end of the third session of Vatican II (November 21, 1964). For Benedict XVI, Mary as the \u201ctype of the Church\u201d was essential. He was clearly influenced by the renewed interest in this Patristic and medieval theme, which was emerging in the middle of the twentieth century. In his homily of December 8, 2005, Benedict XVI commemorated the fortieth anniversary of the solemn closing of Vatican II. In this homily, he notes that the Council \u201ctook place in a Marian setting. It was actually far more than a setting: it was the orientation of its entire process.\u201d He recalls Paul VI\u2019s proclamation of Mary as Mother of the Church, and he says, \u201cIndelibly printed in my memory is the moment when, hearing his words: \u2018Mariam Sanctissimam declaramus Matrem Ecclesiae<\/i>\u2019 \u2014 \u2018We declare Mary the Most Holy Mother of the Church,\u2019 the Fathers spontaneously rose at once and paid homage to the Mother of God, to our Mother, to the Mother of the Church, with a standing ovation.\u201d He continues by stating that with this title, Paul VI \u201csummed up the Marian teaching of the Council and provided the key to understanding it. \u2026 Mary is so interwoven in the great mystery of the Church that she and the Church are inseparable, just as she and Christ are inseparable.\u201d<\/p>\n
The intimacy of Mary with the Church was an important theme at Vatican II, especially in chapter eight of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. As a theological advisor to Cardinal Frings at Vatican II, Fr. Ratzinger was no doubt present at the August 26\u201329, 1963 meeting that took place in Fulda, Germany that was attended by Cardinal Frings and various bishops and theologians \u2014 mostly from northern Europe. During this meeting, theologians such as the Jesuit Karl Rahner raised objections to the 1962 schema on the Blessed Virgin Mary, which referred to Mary as \u201cMediatrix of all graces\u201d in the text and \u201ccoredemptrix\u201d in two footnotes. In Lumen Gentium 62, Mary is referred to as \u201cMediatrix\u201d but not \u201cMediatrix of all graces.\u201d The footnotes referring to Mary as \u201cco-redemptrix\u201d are absent.<\/p>\n
Before becoming Pope, Cardinal Ratzinger distanced himself from the Marian title \u201cco-redemptrix\u201d because it departs too much \u201cfrom the language of Scripture and the Fathers\u201d (see God and the World: A Conversation with Peter Seewald, Ignatius Press, 2000, p. 306). Pope John Paul II, however, had used the title at least six times, but not after 1991. Some believe Cardinal Ratzinger persuaded the Polish Pope to stop using the title and to avoid defining Mary as \u201cCo-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all Graces, and Advocate\u201d as the movement, Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici, was asking. As Pope, though, Benedict XVI showed himself in favor of recognizing Mary\u2019s universal mediation of grace. In his homily of May 11, 2007 at Campo de Marte, S\u00e3o Paulo, for the canonization of Frei Ant\u00f4nio de Sant\u2019Ana Galv\u00e3o, he stated that \u201cthere is no fruit of grace in the history of salvation that does not have as its necessary instrument the mediation of Our Lady. \u2026\u201d In a January 10, 2013 letter to Archbishop Zimowski\u2014who was representing the Holy See for the celebration of the World Day of the Sick\u2014Benedict XVI commended the mission of the Archbishop by imploring the prayers and intercession of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin Mary, the \u201cMediatrix of all graces\u201d (Mediatricis omnium gratiarum<\/i>).<\/p>\n
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Robert Fastiggi,<\/i><\/b> Ph.D., is Professor of Dogmatic Theology at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, Michigan. He is a former president (2014\u20132016) of the Mariological Society of America; a member of the theological commission of the International Marian Association; and a member of the Pontifical Marian Academy International.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Correct Marian devotion shows “the coexistence of indispensable ‘reason’ with the equally indispensable ‘reasons of the heart’” By Robert Fastiggi, Ph.D. If we were to list the great Marian Popes, we might include pontiffs like Bl. Pius IX, who defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, or Leo XIII, who issued twelve encyclicals on the Rosary. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":647,"featured_media":60727,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,41],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n