Friends, I have just one topic today, a quote, and then our group prayer.

I am deeply concerned, almost furious, about the new Vatican document, signed by Cardinal Fernández on the Feast of the Holy Rosary. It contends that Our Lady's long-accepted and well-understood title, Co-Redemptrix, requires explanation to avoid misinterpretation and is thus "inappropriate" to use.

It also throws shade on Our Lady as the Mediatrix of All Graces.

Tim Flanders, my fellow member of the Militia Immaculata, came to Our Lady's defense, noting, among many other important insights, that popes and saints have used the title frequently, including Saint John Paul II (at least seven times). Read the whole thing:

As Flanders explains, the document (oddly) provides ample theological justification and history for the title of Co-Redemptrix, and confirms its foundation in Sacred Tradition! Also, the document does not actually ban the title, although it is being portrayed as such in the media. I can use Co-Redemptrix. So can you. The actual contents are bizarrely self-contradictory.

The title Co-Redemptrix expresses a profound truth: that Mary is the co-redeemer, properly understood (which the Vatican document does not deny). 

I believe my heavenly mother has been dishonored. Jesus suffered so much for us during His passion and crucifixion—an agony Our Lady alone mystically shared, which Holy Scripture, Sacred Tradition, the saints, popes, and Mary herself in approved apparitions all confirm—and which the Vatican document explicitly and implicitly affirms.

My paraphrase of the document: "Mary is the Co-Redemptrix, but starting on her solemn Feast of the Holy Rosary in 2025, we don't want you to use these particular words anymore, even though the fine print says you can use them, and even though huge numbers of the holiest and most faithful Catholics have used them for a long time, without confusion."

I'm taking this personally. Mary suffered for our salvation in ways her son could not, and she still does. I titled my first novel after this profound mystery of her role at the foot of the Cross.

The inevitable public impact of this document will be horrible. It already is horrible. Our U.S. bishops headline about the document is over-the-top propaganda: "Mary...is Not Co-Redeemer, Vatican Says."

Really? The Vatican document itself affirms she is. Saint Maximilian Kolbe, Saint John Paul II, countless theologians, and hundreds of millions of Catholics "say" otherwise right now, and have, in one way or another, for two thousand years.

Confusion, sown.

In the sense of public impressions, the document utterly fails, unless it was designed to harm Catholics' proper understanding of infallible teaching. Virtually all people—including many Protestants—who learn of it will never read the actual document. It will continue to be received by the poorly-catechized faithful as an official ban on the title Co-Redemptrix—as well as an official denial of Mary's unique participation in our redemption—although it is neither.

The media coverage will promote the false impression that we Catholics deny a crucial truth about Our Lady—and about ourselves, because, as members of the Mystical Body of Christ, we also share in the work of redemption, which is ongoing.

You are a co-redeemer. I am a co-redeemer. Mary, Mother of God and Spouse of the Holy Spirit, is the ultimate co-redeemer, by the very will and plan of the Divine Redeemer.

I cannot tell if this was a public relations disaster on the ham-handed pretext of defending Christ's divinity or the fruit of subtle malice against Our Lady by those who are under the influence of the evil one within the hierarchy.

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