On November 4, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith issued Mater Populi Fidelis: Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation, titled (hereinafter, Note). The Dicastery’s Prefect, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández, and its Secretary, Msgr. Armando Matteo, signed the Note, which Pope Leo XIV approved and ordered published on October 7.
The Note clarifies that the document’s drafting was decided during the Pope Francis pontificate: “The Supreme Pontiff Leo XIV, in the Audience granted to the undersigned Prefect together with the Secretary for the Doctrinal Section of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, on 7 October, Memorial of Our Lady of the Rosary, approved the present Note, decided upon in the Ordinary Session of this Dicastery on 26 March 2025, and he ordered its publication.”[1]
As Scandalous as Fiducia Supplicans
This note caused scandal and confusion among the faithful, possibly even more than the December 18, 2023 publication by the same Dicastery of the Pope Francis-approved Declaration Fiducia supplicans on the Pastoral Meaning of Blessings, which permitted the blessing of homosexual and adulterous unions.[2]
Significantly, the day after Fiducia supplicans was published, The New York Times ran a story with a headline that speaks for itself: “Making History on a Tuesday Morning, With the Church’s Blessing – A day after the pope’s announcement that Catholic priests may bless same-sex couples, one New York couple receives theirs.”
The Times illustrated the article with a photo of Fr. James Martin, S.J., one of the leaders of the “Catholic” homosexual movement, blessing a homosexual couple with this caption: “The Rev. James Martin gives a blessing to Jason Steidl Jack, left, and his husband, Damian Steidl Jack, center, in Manhattan.”[3]
Both the Note and Fiducia supplicans abandon the doctrine that the Church has consistently taught on moral and dogmatic theology.
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“A Particular Ecumenical Effort”
The Note says that in a “particular ecumenical effort,” it will “clarify in what sense certain titles and expressions referring to Mary are acceptable or not.”[4]
Commenting on the Note, Dr. Gavin Ashenden, a former Anglican chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II who converted to Catholicism in 2019, states: “There are code words in theology,” and one of them is “ecumenism.” He explains: “It signifies that this document is going to engage in the Catholic culture wars on the side of what we often call the spirit of Vatican II.”[5]
The observation is valid as the Note’s primary concern clearly is to abandon traditional Church doctrine on Our Lady’s Co-Redemption and Universal Mediation and move as close as possible to the Protestant position.
Fr. Serafino Maria Lanzetta, a Mariologist theologian,[6] insightfully comments on the Note: “The purpose of this new document is, in fact, very ecumenical, that is, to find an agreement with the Protestants. To be honest, I would say that Luther would sign it; Luther is very happy with this document. But what about Catholics?”[7]
As you may recall, Luther rejected Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church by affirming that the norm of Faith is sola scriptura (only Scripture). Naturally, Scripture interpreted in accordance with his, Martin Luther’s, theological and philosophical theories.
After summarizing what Tradition and the Magisterium have taught about Our Lady’s Mediation and Co-Redemption, the Note, based on biblical passages interpreted according to Modernism and the Nouvelle Theologie, concludes: “[I]t is always inappropriate to use the title ‘Co-redemptrix’ to define Mary’s cooperation“ (no. 22). And further: “Given this clarity in the revealed Word of God, special prudence is required when applying the term ‘Mediatrix’ to Mary” (no. 24).
Abandoning the Ordinary Magisterium
As stated, although the Note recognizes that these titles originated in the early Church, developed throughout its history, were explained by the greatest theologians, and, very importantly, were used by the popes, the document ignores Tradition and the Magisterium of the Church.
If false or inadequate doctrine were transmitted to the faithful over a long period by popes, bishops, theologians, and Church practices such as the liturgy, approval of prayers, and permission to build churches and shrines to venerate a particular devotion, the Church would be spreading error instead of truth, which would go against her mission.
That is why Pius XII affirmed that Our Lord’s promise also applies to the Ordinary Magisterium: “He who heareth you, heareth me” (Luke, 10:16).[8] Ordinary Magisterium of the Church is not limited to what the popes teach. It also includes everything that, for a considerable time, theologians present as Church doctrine and that the faithful have long accepted as such. If the Church allowed this common, constant, and universal teaching to contain errors, she herself would be in error.[9]
Thus, the well-known theologian Fr. Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange wrote as early as 1941: “According to what the Fathers of the Church tell us about Mary as the New Eve … it is common and certain doctrine, and even fidei proxima, that the Blessed Virgin, Mother of the Redeemer, is associated with Him in the work of redemption as secondary and subordinate cause, just as Eve was associated with Adam in the work of man’s ruin.“[10]
For his part, after analyzing the Marian texts of Popes Pius IX, Leo XIII, St. Pius X, Benedict XV, Pius XI, and Pius XII, Fr. J. A. de Aldama, S.J., a renowned Mariologist, observed in 1950: “Despite the protests of some theologians, the title of Co-redemptrix is expressly affirmed.” And further on: “It is a matter of faith [de fide] that Mary cooperated in the accomplishment of redemption, at least mediately.” “The fact that she cooperated immediately is also more in line with the teachings cited from the Supreme Pontiffs.”
He concluded: “That the title of Co-Redemptrix can be legitimately used is certain (emphasis in the original); there can be no doubt about its appropriateness.”[11]
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In a later writing, he insisted:
“When, over more than a century, six different Roman Pontiffs, in numerous documents officially addressed to the universal Church with clear doctrinal intent and not just in passing, agree on teaching a specific doctrine related to the deposit of revelation (referring to those elements we have called constant and common), can one admit that this doctrine is not true? Even if the ordinary magisterium of the Roman Pontiff is not inherently infallible, would recognizing the possibility of error in these circumstances not seriously put the universal Church at risk of error, led astray by the very person whose role is to preserve the faith?”
“This consideration would lead us to affirm that the doctrine of Mary’s association with the work of Redemption, beyond her maternal role, immediately in the sphere of objective redemption itself, can no longer be called a mere theological opinion, but has reached the category of certain.”[12]
The Demolishing Action of ‘Critical Devotees’
In his unmatched True Devotion to Mary, a book that has inspired devotion to Our Lady for centuries, St. Louis Grignon de Montfort discusses critical devotees or false devotees who, under the pretense of avoiding excesses in devotion to Our Lady, end up destroying that devotion. Let us conclude these considerations with the words of this revered Saint and true devotee of Mary.
“The critical devotees are, for the most part, proud scholars, rash and self-sufficient spirits, who have at bottom some devotion to the holy Virgin, but who criticize nearly all the practices of devotion to her, which the simple people pay simply and holily to their good Mother, because these practices do not fall in with their own humor and fancy. . . . They do an infinite wrong to the devotion to our Lady; and they are but too successful in alienating people from it, under the pretext of destroying its abuses.”[13]
“After that, my sweet Master, is it not an astonishingly pitiable thing to see the ignorance and the darkness of all men here below in regard to Thy holy Mother? I speak not so much of idolaters and pagans, who, knowing Thee not, care not to know Thee; I speak not even of heretics and schismatics, who care not to be devout to Thy holy Mother, being separated as they are from Thee and Thy holy Church: but I speak of Catholic Christians, and even of doctors amongst Catholics, who make profession of teaching truths to others, and yet know not Thee nor Thy holy Mother, except in a speculative, dry, barren, and indifferent manner. These doctors speak but rarely of Thy holy Mother, and of the devotion which we ought to have to her, because they fear, so they say, lest we should abuse it, and should do some injury to Thee in too much honoring Thy holy Mother.”[14]
Article taken from https://faithandtradition.substack.com/
End notes
[1] Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Mater Populi Fidelis: Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary’s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation, Vatican.va, Nov. 4, 2025, https://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_ddf_doc_20251104_mater-populi-fidelis_en.html.
[2] See Luiz Sérgio Solimeo, “Pope Francis Authorizes Blessing Homosexual Couples and Adulterers with a Declaration and a ‘Clarification’ that Favor Sin,” TFP.org, Feb. 1, 2024, https://www.tfp.org/pope-francis-authorizes-blessing-homosexual-couples-and-adulterers-with-a-declaration-and-a-clarification-that-favor-sin/.
[3] Amy Harmon, Ruth Graham, and Sarah Maslin Nir, “Making History on a Tuesday Morning, With the Church’s Blessing,” The New York Times, Dec. 19, 2023, https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/19/us/catholic-gay-blessing-pope-francis.html.
[4] Mater Populi Fidelis, Presentation.
[5] Gavin Ashenden, “How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria, In the Form of ‘Mary ‘Co-Redemptrix’?’ Mary, Politics, and the Ghost of Pope Francis,” Nov. 5, 2025,
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[6] Fr. Serafino Maria Lanzetta is a member of the Marian Franciscans in the United Kingdom. He is a lecturer in Systematic Theology at St. Mary’s University, Twickenham, London, and at the Faculty of Theology in Lugano, Switzerland.
[7] Serafino Maria Lanzetta, “Commentary on Mater Populi Fidelis,” CatholicaFides.org, Nov. 6, 2025, https://catholicafides.org/2025/11/06/commento-alla-mater-populi-fidelis/.
[8] Pius XII, encyclical Humani Generis, no. 20, https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_12081950_humani-generis.html.
[9] Cf. J.-M. A. Vacant, The Ordinary Magisterium of the Church and its Organs, Printed with the authorization of His Grace the Bishop of Nancy and His Grace the Archbishop of (Paris: Delhomme et Briguet, 1887).
[10] Reginald Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. The Mother of the Savior, trans. Bernard J. Kelly (Charlotte, N.C.: Tan Books, 2012), https://where-you-are.net/ebooks/mother-of-the-saviour-and-our-i-garrigou-lagrange-reginald-o.pdf.
[11] Iosepho A. de Aldama, S.I., Mariologia seu de Matre Redemptoris, in Sacra theologiae summa (Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1950) v.3 p. 372,.
[12] Fr. José A. de Aldama, “Posición actual del Magisterio Eclesiástico en el problema de la Corredención,” 75, https://archive.org/details/maria-en-la-patristica-de-los-siglos-i-e-ii-jose-antonio-de-aldama/Posici%C3%B3n%20actual%20del%20Magisterio%20Eclesi%C3%A1stico%20en%20el%20problema%20de%20la%20Corredenci%C3%B3n%20-%20Pe.%20Jos%C3%A9%20A.%20de%20Aldama/page/n15/mode/1up.
[13] Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort. A Treatise on the True Devotion to the Blessed Virgin, trans. Frederick William Faber (Sherbrooke, QC: St. Charles Seminary, 1901), 75–76, https://archive.org/details/cihm_75551/page/n161/mode/2up .
[14] de Montfort, The True Devotion, 48.
