Vatican rejects ‘Co-Redemptrix’, ‘Co-Mediatrix’ titles for Mary

A doctrinal note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith titled Mater Populi Fidelis (Mother of the Faithful People of God) stated that the title co-redemptrix or co-redeemer “carries the risk of eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ” in salvation.

And, regarding the title co-mediatrix or co-mediator, it said that Mary, “the first redeemed, could not have been the mediatrix of the grace that she herself received”. However, it said, the title may be used when it does not cast doubt on “the unique mediation of Jesus Christ, true God and true man”.

Pope Leo XIV approved the text on October 7 and ordered its publication, said the note released on November 4.

Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, prefect of the doctrinal dicastery, presented the document during a conference at the Jesuit headquarters in Rome and said its teaching becomes part of the Church’s “ordinary magisterium” and must be considered authoritative.

For more than 30 years, some Catholics, including some bishops, have asked for formal dogmatic declarations of Mary as co-redemptrix and co-mediatrix, the document’s introduction said. 

The titles have been used in reference to Mary by theologians and even popes in the past millennium, the doctrinal dicastery said, but without elaborating on the precise meaning and the extent to which those titles could describe Mary’s role in salvation history.

St John Paul II “referred to Mary as ‘Co-redemptrix’ on at least seven occasions”, the note said, but after consultation with the then-Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and its prefect, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, in 1996, he did not issue a dogmatic declaration and stopped using the title.

The new document said that titles used for Mary should speak of her motherly care for all people and her place as the first and perfect disciple of Jesus, but must not create any doubt that Catholics believe Jesus is the redeemer of the world and the bestower of grace.

“Any gaze directed at her that distracts us from Christ or that places her on the same level as the Son of God would fall outside the dynamic proper to an authentically Marian faith,” it said, because Mary always points to her son.

The use of the title “co-mediatrix” is more complicated, the doctrinal note said, because the word “mediation” is often “understood simply as cooperation, assistance or intercession” and easily could apply to Mary without calling into question “the unique mediation of Jesus Christ, true God and true man”.

Mary’s role in salvation history is unique, the document said. The Church believes that those in heaven can pray and intercede for people still on earth and, “among those chosen and glorified with Christ, first and foremost is his Mother”, the note said.

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Mary, mother of Jesus and all believers, is not co-redeemer, Vatican says (By Cindy Wooden/CNS)