Recently in Mary Category

I want to explore a comment left by RL in the original Papal Infallibility post. Here’s the quote:

�There are at least good arguments that St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Thomas Aquinas rejected the opinion (as it was then) of the Immaculate Conception. In what sense can one claim that the Immaculate Conception was a doctrine of the Church from the beginning if St. Thomas could deny or express doubts about it in the 13th century?

“This gets me to my big intellectual problem with papal infallibility: It seems to require a lot of post-hoc rationalization.�

I think the best way to explore this is to look at the history of the Immaculate Conception as an idea. That may get at the infallibility question and touch on the Immaculate Conception as well.

When I started this post, I really thought I could get the basics down in one long, grand unification post, that brought everything together in one place. Ah, what folly! Notice the roman numeral in the title.

To properly examine this doctrine, I suspect I'll need countless entries. But at a bear minimum, the number four suggests itself. This one, the first, will look at the linguistic issues. The next one will get into Scriptural matters. The third will get into Tradition. The fourth to look at the history. So, here goes nothin'...

Several years ago, a Pentecostal coworker of mine asked me, with furrowed brow, about the title “Co-Redemptrix". I rattled off an answer – something like, it’s just a theory that some people talk about, but isn’t really going anywhere. Turns out, I was right, but I don’t think there is any element of Catholic theology that can lead to more confusion. So, let us explore the idea of the Co-Redemptrix.

I have seen this come up on several blogs: people say that they can’t swim the Tiber because of the way Catholics see Mary. Some of the first objections are to the term “Mediatrix of all Graces" They think that Catholics see Mary as an equal to Christ. The confusion is compounded by the term “Co-Redemptrix" that is often mentioned but little understood, thinking that this puts Mary in the position of a second redeemer.

We’re going to deal with the Mediatrix of All Graces first, and then in a separate post I’ll get into the Co-Redemptrix idea.

Let me put this very plainly: Catholics do not believe that Mary is a Mediatrix of All Graces in any way that makes her an equal to Christ. There are some problems of language here. Allow me to explain.