{"id":2142,"date":"2025-10-01T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-01T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vaticanfiles.org\/?p=2142"},"modified":"2025-09-24T18:23:40","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T16:23:40","slug":"vf-247","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vaticanfiles.org\/ro\/2025\/10\/vf-247\/","title":{"rendered":"247. \u201cIf We Want to Be Christian, We Must Be Marian.\u201d Two Remarks from the 26th International Mariological Marian Congress"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

It was Pope Paul VI who, in the aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, gave a homily in which he stated, \u201cIf we want to be Christian, we must be Marian\u201d (Homily<\/em>, 24th April 1970<\/a>). 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.\u00a0
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What did \u201cMarian\u201d mean for him? Well, Vatican II had just ended, and the Council had dedicated the 8th chapter of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church\u00a0\u201cLumen Gentium<\/em>\u201d<\/a>\u00a0to the Roman Catholic doctrine of Mary, entitled \u201cThe Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God in the Mystery of Christ and the Church.\u201d The theological grand scheme of\u00a0\u201cLumen Gentium\u201d<\/em>\u00a0wanted 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 \u201clogic\u201d 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.\u00a0\u00a0This is why Paul VI could say, \u201cIf we want to be Christian, we must be Marian.\u201d\u00a0
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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.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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 \u201cJubilee and Synodality: A Church with a Marian Face and Practice\u201d and organized by the Pontifical International Marian Academy (PAMI). More than 600 Marian scholars from all over the world contributed to the\u00a0program that included plenary sessions, language groups, and an audience with Pope Leo XIV<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMary Belongs to Catholic Dogmatics, not to Catholic devotions only\u201d<\/em><\/strong>
The first day of the conference, fr.\u00a0Stefano Cecchin OFM, PAMI\u2019s chairman, was\u00a0interviewed<\/a>\u00a0on the significance of this scholarly gathering.\u00a0He 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 \u201cnew evangelization.\u201d For the Catholic scholar, Marianism lies at the core of the (Roman Catholic) Christian message and faith.\u00a0
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In Cecchin\u2019s words,\u00a0\u201cMary Belongs to Catholic dogmatics, not to Catholic devotions only; she is the model of the Church,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0and again, making implicit reference to the connection Christ-Church-Mary,\u00a0\u201cThe face of Jesus is the face of Mary.\u201d\u00a0<\/em>At this point, he recalled Paul VI\u2019s statement: \u201cIf we want to be Christian, we must be Marian.\u201d Always echoing the trajectory of Vatican II, Cecchin said that it is \u201cMary who is the key that opens for us the mystery of Christ and the Church.<\/em>\u201d
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In another\u00a0interview<\/a>\u00a0published on the Vatican newspaper\u00a0Osservatore Romano<\/em>, Cecchin further argued that \u201cMary is the woman who has opened the way to God and entered a fundamental relationship with Him<\/em>.\u201d 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

No Less, but More Mariology<\/em><\/strong>
The participants at the congress were also honored with an audience with Pope Leo XIV. On this occasion, the Pope gave a\u00a0speech<\/a>\u00a0that condensed some of the Mariological traits of the unfolding teaching of the beginning of his pontificate.
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In his words,\u00a0\u201cA 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.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, the Pope speaks of the Church having a \u201cMarian heart\u201d: 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\u2019s view, she is not the biblical Mary: she is rather someone who has obscured, if not replaced, Christ.
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Pope Leo again:
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\u201cAs 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.\u201d<\/em>
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In this view, Mary has a providential role in humanity\u2019s history and destiny. Is it really biblically sustainable that Mary is a \u201cperfect cooperator\u201d 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\u2019s 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.
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Here is the most important thing underlined by Pope Leo:
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\u201cThis is why the Church needs Mariology.\u00a0It 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.\u201d<\/em>
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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.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

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