Posted on

247. “If We Want to Be Christian, We Must Be Marian.” Two Remarks from the 26th International Mariological Marian Congress

It was Pope Paul VI who, in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, gave a homily in which he stated, “If we want to be Christian, we must be Marian” (Homily, 24th April 1970). He was not saying that in order to be Christian, one must believe what the Bible says about Mary, i.e. her involvement in the incarnation and earthly ministry of Jesus. His point was much deeper than that. 
 
What did “Marian” mean for him? Well, Vatican II had just ended, and the Council had dedicated the 8th chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church “Lumen Gentium” to the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary, entitled “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church.” The theological grand scheme of “Lumen Gentium” wanted to relate Christ to the (Roman) Church organically. According to Rome, the latter is so interconnected with the former that it is one with him. Roman Catholic Mariology stems from the Christ-Church interconnection and is a further inner-connection with it. The “logic” of Vatican II is that if you have Christ, you have the Christ-Church, and if you have the Christ-Church, you must inevitably have Christ-Church-Mary. The three are embedded and implied in one another.  This is why Paul VI could say, “If we want to be Christian, we must be Marian.” 
 
A further remark needs to be made here. For Pope Paul VI, to be a Marian Christian was to embrace the fully orbed Roman Catholic Mariology, including the Marian dogmas (the 1854 dogma of the immaculate conception of Mary and the 1950 dogma of her bodily assumption) and the devotions dedicated to her (rosary, Marian titles, prayers, etc.). Roman Catholic Mariology always involves a thick doctrinal commitment to the full account of how Rome theologizes, celebrates, and venerates Mary. 

The statement by Pope Paul VI resounded clearly and loudly at the 26th International Mariological Marian Congress that took place in Rome (4-6 September) on the topic “Jubilee and Synodality: A Church with a Marian Face and Practice” and organized by the Pontifical International Marian Academy (PAMI). More than 600 Marian scholars from all over the world contributed to the program that included plenary sessions, language groups, and an audience with Pope Leo XIV.

“Mary Belongs to Catholic Dogmatics, not to Catholic devotions only”
The first day of the conference, fr. Stefano Cecchin OFM, PAMI’s chairman, was interviewed on the significance of this scholarly gathering. He voiced a growing concern in the academic Mariological world that Mariology is not given proper attention in the Catholic Church. Cecchin stressed the fundamental importance of Mariology for Catholic doctrine and practice, even in view of the “new evangelization.” For the Catholic scholar, Marianism lies at the core of the (Roman Catholic) Christian message and faith. 
 
In Cecchin’s words, “Mary Belongs to Catholic dogmatics, not to Catholic devotions only; she is the model of the Church,” and again, making implicit reference to the connection Christ-Church-Mary, “The face of Jesus is the face of Mary.” At this point, he recalled Paul VI’s statement: “If we want to be Christian, we must be Marian.” Always echoing the trajectory of Vatican II, Cecchin said that it is “Mary who is the key that opens for us the mystery of Christ and the Church.”
 
In another interview published on the Vatican newspaper Osservatore Romano, Cecchin further argued that “Mary is the woman who has opened the way to God and entered a fundamental relationship with Him.” Here we see an important voice in present-day Roman Catholic Mariology re-affirming its dogmatic centrality in the Roman Catholic account of the Christian faith, i.e. a confirmation that when we deal with Roman Catholic Mariology we are dealing with Roman Catholic doctrines of God (Trinity), Christ (Christology), the Church (ecclesiology), salvation (soteriology), and the Christian life (spirituality). The Roman Mary is not located only in the latter segment, but is pervasively and decisively present on the whole spectrum of the Roman Catholic worldview.

No Less, but More Mariology
The participants at the congress were also honored with an audience with Pope Leo XIV. On this occasion, the Pope gave a speech that condensed some of the Mariological traits of the unfolding teaching of the beginning of his pontificate.
 
In his words, “A Church with a Marian heart always better preserves and understands the hierarchy of truths of faith, integrating mind and heart, body and soul, universal and local, person and community, humanity and cosmos.”

Here, the Pope speaks of the Church having a “Marian heart”: the fundamental organ, the center of life, the vital core of the Church has Mary in it. According to Leo, possessing it fosters theological clarity and integration. Without it, the church disintegrates. This is hardly compatible with the Bible-attested, Trinitarianly framed, and Christ-centered message of the biblical Gospel. If Mary is at the center, as she appears to be in the Pope’s view, she is not the biblical Mary: she is rather someone who has obscured, if not replaced, Christ.
 
Pope Leo again:
 
“As the perfect cooperator with the Holy Spirit, she never ceases to open doors, build bridges, break down walls and help humanity to live in peace and in the harmony of diversity.”
 
In this view, Mary has a providential role in humanity’s history and destiny. Is it really biblically sustainable that Mary is a “perfect cooperator” with the Spirit? It looks like an unduly inflated task for the biblical Mary. The Bible teaches nothing about her role after her presence among the early Christian community in Acts 2. The Father’s providence is in the hands of the Risen Son and applied by the Holy Spirit through living agents and multiple factors. Mary is among the myriad of Christians awaiting the resurrection, but has no providential role whatsoever. The Roman Catholic view is entirely based on non-biblical traditions accrued in time, having become central, and never reformed in the light of the Gospel.
 
Here is the most important thing underlined by Pope Leo:
 
“This is why the Church needs Mariology. It should be considered and promoted in academic centers, shrines and parish communities, associations and movements, institutes of consecrated life, as well as in places where contemporary cultures are forged, valuing the limitless inspiration offered by art, music and literature.”
 
In a word: according to the Augustinian Pope, the Church needs more Mariology, not less. For Rome, Mariology is central, and its supreme leader believes that she needs even more Mariology. This is the outcome of the Mariological congress with the papal stamp of approval, and it is not an evangelically promising prospect for the Roman Church. 

Share Button
Posted on

246. John Henry Newman, “doctor” of the church. The most significant theological act by Leo XIV (so far)

The conferral of the title of “Doctor of the Church” on John Henry Newman (1801-1890) is one of the first theologically significant acts of Leo XIV’s papacy and has a symbolic value of some importance. For this reason, it must be noted. The title is a recognition of authority and an indication that the work of the “doctor” (who, before being declared as such, was recognized as a “saint”) is an important source of inspiration for Roman Catholicism.
 
The Roman Catholic Church recognizes 38 Doctors of the Church (including four women): from ancient and medieval fathers such as Augustine to Thomas Aquinas, from the anti-Protestant apologist Robert Bellarmine to the champion of Baroque Mariology, Alfonsus Liguori. The list of doctors reflects the catholicity of Rome: its desire to embrace the West and the East, theologians and mystics, antiquity and modernity. Roman Catholicism is a formidable religious aggregator, and its “doctors” are all pieces of its theological puzzle. The last doctor to be recognized was John Henry Newman. Why Newman?

Here are two possible reasons.

1. Newman was a “convert” from Anglicanism.
In his youth, he had been an Anglican with some evangelical leanings. Then, studying the development of dogmas in his own way (in his essay The Development of Christian Doctrine [1845]), Newman concluded that Roman Catholicism (including the Council of Trent and Marian dogmas) was apostolic Christianity and that the Church of Rome was the true church. He later became a priest, a revered Catholic theologian, and a cardinal of the Holy Roman Church. His famous phrase has become one of the mantras of converts from Protestantism to Catholicism: “To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant.” It has to be said that Newman’s previous religious experience was never shaped around the two gospel pillars of the supreme authority of Scripture and justification by faith alone. Moreover, for all its apparent sophistication and subsequent success, his theory of the development of dogma assumes the infallibility of Rome rather than proving it.
 
Having said that, Newman’s biography embodies that of a convert to Roman Catholicism for whom Protestantism is theologically infantile and devoid of historical memory; Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, encompasses the fullness and richness of the faith. Many stories of conversion to Rome have found a model in Newman.
 
He is already considered the patron saint of Anglicans who became Roman Catholics. Now that he has been proclaimed a “doctor,” could it be because Leo XIV wants to present him as a model for Protestants of all sorts who are fascinated by the “great tradition” (e.g., the recent embrace of Anglicanism by theologian Matthew Barrett)?
 
Before Newman, Pope Francis had conferred the honorary title of “doctor” on Irenaeus of Lyon (b. 130). In doing so, Roman Catholicism appropriated a great Father of the church, also esteemed by evangelicals for his Trinitarian doctrine of creation. Now, with Newman as a “doctor,” Rome wants to point out the Roman Catholic way of reading the Fathers and delving into Tradition to those who flirt with it.
 
2. Newman is one of the main inspirations for the theology of Vatican II.
Newman laid the foundations for a dynamic understanding of Tradition by promoting the perspective of Roman Catholicism as an organic and living whole. If in the 19th century neo-Thomist Catholicism risked being stuck in a closed and doctrinaire system, focused entirely on the defense of “Roman” institutions and practices, Newman introduced the category of “development” into Roman Catholic theology. This is part of the grammar of “updating” (aggiornamento) adopted by John XXIII in convening the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965) and then in the “renewal” that followed.
 
In fact, it is impossible to understand Roman Catholic theology today, pluralistic and changing, without referring (also) to Newman. Today, Roman Catholicism is not fixated on merely repeating the past, but has rediscovered the dynamic of inclusion, even of “reform,” while remaining committed to its unchanging nature. Because of his theology of “development,” Newman is unpopular with traditionalist Catholics (for example, the Society of St. Pius X).
 
However, he is not an exponent of “liberal” or “progressive” theology. It is no coincidence that it was Benedict XVI who beatified him in 2010, appreciating “his zeal for the renewal of ecclesial life in fidelity to the apostolic tradition.” For Newman, Roman Catholicism is the “authentic development” of Christianity, and it is this constant “development” that nourishes its life and activities.
 
By elevating Newman to “doctor” (among other things, it was Leo XIII who made him a cardinal), Leo XIV is fully in line with Vatican II, which updated the catholicity of the Church without losing sight of its Roman character.
 
For (at least) these two reasons, Leo XIV accomplished perhaps the most significant theological act of his early pontificate: in the wake of Vatican II, with an eye toward attracting non-Catholics, primarily restless Protestants, to Rome.

Share Button