laudable Practice

While no doubt principally written to address Orthodox concerns, the recent statement from the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith,  Mater Populi Fidelis , provides significant confirmation of a central feature of the Christological confession shared by the Roman Catholic Church and the Churches of the Reformation. The Dicastery's judgement that the application to the Blessed Virgin Mary of the titles 'Co-redemptrix' and 'Mediatrix' is "always inappropriate", despite such titles being invoked by some popes, including John Paul II, led to the document robustly affirming "Christ's unique salvific mediation": Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it would not be appropriate to use the title “Co-redemptrix” to define Mary’s cooperation. This title risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Chr...

‘And the heaven was opened’: entering into the mystery of our salvation At the early Eucharist on The Baptism of Our Lord, 2022 Luke 3:15-17,21-22 Along the banks of the River Jordan, it was a routine, everyday occurrence during the ministry of John the Baptist.  Earlier in the chapter of Luke’s Gospel from which we have heard in our Gospel reading today, Luke tells us: “the crowds … came out to be baptized by [John]”. Jesus of Nazareth was one of the crowd.  That itself points us back to the events we have just celebrated at Christmas. The Child born in the manger is one of us.  We know that Jesus, Son of Mary, is, yes, one of the crowd like us.   But this, of course, is not all.  At Christmas we celebrated what we affirm week by week in the words of the Creed. That Jesus of Nazareth is “God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father” - and that he “was incarnate from the Holy Spirit of the Virgin M...