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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. 

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176. “Totus tuus” (to Mary). The Unsettled Legacy of John Paul II One Hundred Years since His Birth

Karol Wojtyła (1920-2005), since1978 better known as Pope John Paul II, has been one of the most influential men of the 20th century. The centenary of his birth is a useful opportunity to reflect on his legacy. A quick look at the titles of biographies about him shows the magnitude of the man: The Man of the End of the Millennium (L. Accattoli), Witness to Hope (G. Weigel), The Man of the Century (J. Kwitny), Pilgrim of the Absolute (G. Reale), The Defeater of Communism (A. Santini). As is always the case with human analyses of human biographies, celebrative voices abound as well as critical readings, especially coming from progressive sectors of the Roman Catholic Church and from left-wing analysts. Other titles point to the controversial aspects of his life: Victory and Decline (C. Cardia), The Pope in Winter: The Dark Face of John Paul II’s Papacy (J. Cornwell), The Wojtyła Enigma (J. Arias), The Last Pope King (L. Sandri).     

His life was at the centre of the major affairs of the 20th century: the tragedy of Nazism and the trauma of the Second World War, the apex and fall of Communism, the Second Vatican Council and its debated implementation, the apparent triumph of Western democracy and the oppressive costs of globalization for the Majority world, the fracture of ideologies and the rise of secular hedonism. Wojtyła played a significant role in all these major events. Supporters have acclaimed his achievements in terms of navigating, surviving and overcoming the dangerous streams of our post-something world. Critics have pointed out the double-faced, contradictory trajectory of his life and his very backward-looking Catholic outlook.

How do we assess John Paul II’s legacy? Because of the stature of the man, the question is overwhelming in every respect. Amongst the vast amount of books available, one guide worth noting in particular is Tim Perry’s edited book The Legacy of John Paul II: An Evangelical Assessment (2007). The chief point of interest is that it is one of the few attempts to provide an evaluation from an Evangelical point of view. The book bears witness to the fact that it was under John Paul II that Evangelical attitudes toward Roman Catholicism began to change and become friendly, if not even cooperative. This Pope was the one who called his Church to be engaged in mission, encouraged the pro-life front, welcomed some of the Evangelical concerns related to Bible literacy and liturgical variety, and seemed to be closer to the Majority world than his predecessors. It also witnesses to the fact that some Evangelicals today speak of the Pope as “Holy Father” (e.g. Timothy George, pp. 309-312) – something that is not biblically natural. Moreover, in evaluating the overall theology of his 14 encyclicals, some Evangelicals can say that it is “Bible-based, humanity-focused, Christ-centered and mission-attuned” (e.g. J.I. Packer, p. 8) – something that sounds like a full endorsement.

Certainly there has been a significant shift of attitude, and John Paul II has made quite an impression on many Evangelicals. The book edited by Perry contains positive comments on each encyclical signed by Wojtyła, and the tone is close to admiration, with some minor criticism. Of course much of it is a fair summary of what the Pope wrote, if selective in many ways. For instance, there is no mention that each encyclical ends with an invocation to Mary, which does not represent a Christocentric and biblical pattern. Moreover, there is little recognition of the fact that, besides the Bible, papal encyclicals quote sources of the tradition of the Church even more extensively. The Bible is only one source amongst many, and apparently not the decisive one. On specific contents, Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason, 1998) combines Aristotelian reason and Thomistic faith, a choice that leaves out many Biblical strands. Ecclesia de Eucharistia (The Church from the Eucharist, 2003) reinforces the traditional Roman Catholic doctrine of the sacrificial nature of the Eucharist, its re-enactment of Jesus’ death and the practice of adoration of the host. Ut Unum Sint (That They Be One, 1995) claims that the Pope is willing to change the forms of his universal ministry, but not the substance of his petrine office that supplements the headship of Christ over the church. Redemptoris Mater (The Mother of the Redeemer, 1987) is a Marian-centered re-telling of salvation history, which is something that the Bible does not encourage, as the Bible wants people to see Christ (not Mary) in all the Scriptures. The list could go on and on. On the whole it seems that the Evangelical writers of these chapters only want to look at the alleged “common ground” that they find in the writings by John Paul II, and are unable or unwilling to see what is contrary to basic gospel truths, let alone to denounce it. The book is therefore informative but of limited use for an evangelical evaluation of the legacy of Karol Wojtyła.

One final point must be further elaborated. Marian devotion was a characterizing feature of John Paul II’s life. He believed the so-called secrets of Fatima, in which Mary played a decisive role, deviating the bullet when the Pope was shot in 1981 by the terrorist Ali Ağca. Apparently, the Pope believed in Marian providence, considering Mary a major player in world affairs, both earthly and cosmic, both material and spiritual. For this reason he was able to dedicate planet earth to her at the beginning of the new millennium, along with the human family and new century, pleading for protection and guidance all the while. Moreover, his personal motto was totus tuus, totally yours, with “yours” referring to Mary.

His legacy is therefore difficult to square with the “Christ-centered” focus that some would want to see in it. John Paul II embodied a full Roman Catholic mindset, apparently strong on every aspect of the Roman Catholic identity. He has been very “Roman” and very “Catholic” at the same time.