Mary: Mother ... and savior?
>Jan Jarboe Russell
>New York Times
News Service
>Saturday, January 6, 2001
>
>
>"The world
of today is in desperate need of a mother," whispered Prof. Mark
>Miravalle as he sat behind his desk at Franciscan University in
>Steubenville, Ohio, carefully fingering a string of rosary
beads.
>
>Half a world away, inside the Vatican, yet another
enormous box arrived
>filled with petitions asking Pope John Paul II to
exercise his absolute
>power to proclaim a new and highly debated dogma:
that the Virgin Mary is a
>co-redeemer with Jesus and cooperates fully
with her son in the redemption
>of mankind.
>
>Miravalle, 41,
began the petition drive four years ago from his obscure
>position as a
professor of Mariology -- the study of Mary -- at one of the
>most
conservative Catholic universities in the nation. Since then the pope
>has received more than 6 million signatures from 148 countries asking
him
>to give the Virgin Mary the ultimate promotion.
>
>In
addition to ordinary Catholics, Miravalle has received support from 550
>bishops and 42 cardinals, as well as from Cardinal John O'Connor and
Mother
>Teresa. Along the way, his movement has laid bare a deep-seated
conflict
>between wildly popular devotion to the Virgin Mary and the
efforts of the
>established church to keep that devotion in
check.
>
>If Miravalle's campaign succeeds and John Paul proclaims
the Virgin Mary as
>a co-redeemer, she would be a vastly more powerful
figure, something close
>to a fourth member of the Holy Trinity and the
primary female face through
>which Christians experience the divine.
Specifically, Roman Catholics would
>be required to accept three new
spiritual truths: that Mary is
>co-redemptrix and participates in
people's redemption, that Mary is
>mediatrix and has the power to grant
all graces and that Mary is "the
>advocate for the people of God," in
Miravalle's words, and has the
>authority to influence God's
judgments.
>
>For the millions of Virgin Mary devotees who have
signed Miravalle's
>petitions, these are an accepted part of their daily
spiritual lives. They
>represent what theologians call popular piety,
practices that are widely
>accepted by ordinary religious people over the
learned objections of the
>establishment. Indeed the idea has been
present in Catholicism at least as
>far back as the 14th century. There
is also historic precedent for petition
>campaigns like Miravalle's. Two
other Marian dogmas -- the dogma of the
>Assumption in 1950, which
declared that Mary was taken up, body and soul,
>to heaven after her
death, and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of
>1854, which
established that Mary was preserved from original sin -- were
>both
preceded by floods of petitions. Yet within the Vatican, the dogma
>that
Miravalle advocates has touched off a private holy war.
>
>Although
it has the support of at least 12 cardinals in Rome, others fear
>that
its acceptance would cause a major schism among Catholics and set back
>all efforts at ecumenism. Because the dogma would be an infallible
>proclamation by the pope, it would trigger a renewed debate over the
role
>of the pope's power in modern society.
>
>"It seems to
put her on an equal footing with Christ," said the Rev. John
>Roten,
director of the International Marian Library in Dayton, articulating
>the
primary reason for opposition. "That just won't do." The Rev. Rene
>Laurentin, a French monk and a leading Mary scholar, agrees. In a fax,
>Laurentin said that the proposed dogma would be the equivalent of
launching
>"bombs" at the Protestants and would deepen the breach between
the Vatican
>and the Eastern Orthodox church. "Mary is the model of our
faith, but she
>is not divine," he said. "There is no mediation or
co-redemption except in
>Christ. He alone is God."
>
>'Totus
tuus'
>
>Pope John Paul has made no secret of his devotion to Mary.
He has the
>phrase "totus tuus" (which in Latin means "totally hers") as
his papal
>motto and credits the Virgin Mary with saving his life during
a 1981
>assassination attempt and for the fall of communism. He has used
the phrase
>"co-redemptrix" six times in his papacy to describe Mary,
which has led
>Miravalle and his petitioners to hope that during his
lifetime the pope
>will proclaim her
co-redeemer.
>
>Miravalle has visited privately with the pope
several times, but he would
>not say what happened during his meetings.
"All I can tell you," Miravalle
>said fervently, "is that I am personally
confident that the holy father
>will make this solemn definition of the
mother of Jesus at the most
>appropriate time. It's not a question of if.
It's only a question of when."
>
>Responding by e-mail in Italian,
Joquain Navarro-Valls, spokesman for the
>Vatican, said "There is no
proclamation of a new dogma on the Madonna under
>study either by the
holy father or by the International Theological
>Commission," repeating a
statement that the Vatican made in 1997.
>Miravalle's argument is that
the Virgin Mary literally gave Jesus the body
>that he in turn gave for
humankind, that she was present at the important
>moments in his ministry
and that she suffered with him during his death on
>the cross. "As a
mother, she shared in the birth, suffering and death of
>her son," he
said. "That makes her suffering not only valuable but
>redemptive."
>
>But does that make her equal to Jesus
Christ? Miravalle insists that the
>answer is no. He claims the use of
the Latin prefix "co" in co-redeemer
>means "with," not "equal to." "We
do not want to place Mary on a level of
>equality with her son," he
said.
>
>"He alone paid the price of our sins, but what we are
saying is that Mary
>offered something that no one else could offer --
the bone of her bone, the
>flesh of her flesh -- and that cooperation was
so great it amounted to a
>collaboration of our
redemption."
>
>In 1997, 23 of the world's leading Mary scholars,
Catholic and Protestant,
>met in Poland and voted unanimously against the
proposed dogma. The concern
>that the dogma would be construed as making
Mary equal to Jesus was an
>underlying reason for the opposition. "The
titles are ambiguous and could
>be understood in very different ways,"
said the panel of experts in a brief
>report that added that the idea
would worsen "ecumenical difficulties."
>
>Leaders of other
denominations oppose it for other reasons as well. It
>gives the Virgin
Mary a lot more power than most religious authorities are
>willing to
give, and it is a reminder that to Catholics the pope is
>all-powerful.
>
>Heretical view
>
>The Rev.
Paige Patterson, president of the conservative Southern Baptist
>Convention, the largest denomination of Protestants in the United
States,
>is horrified at the mere suggestion that Mary might be a
co-redeemer. "Such
>a view is clearly heretical," he said. "In order to
be a redeemer, it would
>require a person to be perfect. It would require
a person to be God. We
>certainly don't believe she was
God."
>
>Some liberal Protestants have long argued that the Catholic
Church has used
>the symbol of the Virgin Mary to restrict women's
possibilities by keeping
>women obedient to the teachings of the church.
Retired Bishop John Spong,
>one of the most controversial figures in the
Episcopal Church, says that
>Christians need a feminine symbol for God,
but said such a symbol needed to
>be created by women, not "a bunch of
men sitting around in Rome in their
>frocks."
>
>Miravalle
said he was unfazed by the objections from both ends of the
>spectrum. In
some ways, the idea of the mother as hero and savior has been
>the
defining theme of his life. He was born in San Francisco in 1959 to
>parents who were lifelong Catholics, but who later divorced because his
>father was a gambler and alcoholic. His mother, Nora, worked as a
secretary
>to support him and his two siblings. The year that his father
left, his
>elder sister died of leukemia.
>
>"There was never
enough money, and yet mother just affirmed us so much,"
>Miravalle said.
"If we needed shoes, she always found a way to cough up the
>money."
>
>He was a pietistic boy. When his sister died, he
reasoned that she was
>"taken by God" and that it was somehow for the
best. He attended Catholic
>schools, made good grades and took pleasure
in studying the lives of the
>saints.
>
>He remembers times
when his mother's migraine headaches were so
>debilitating that she would
have to pull off the side of freeways so that
>she could vomit and then
sleep for a while until she felt well enough to
>drive. Despite her
infirmity, he said: "I always felt very protected by my
>mother's love.
She was my first hero."
>
>He, in turn, became a man worthy of his
mother's sacrifices. In high
>school, he was one of the few boys in his
class who always went to weekly
>mass. He went to a Jesuit-run college
and majored in theology. He agonized
>over whether he was meant for life
as a priest.
>
>One day in 1980 he went to church to pray for
guidance about a career. As
>he was leaving, he literally ran into a
pretty, dark-haired woman named
>Beth, who was on her way into church.
They stopped to talk, and before they
>parted, Miraville asked her for a
date. "I took that as a clear,
>extraordinary sign that I was not meant
to be a priest," he said.
>
>The two married in 1981, and Miravalle
continued his theological studies in
>Rome. In 1984, shortly after the
birth of their first son, they went on a
>pilgrimage to Medjugorje, a
small mountain village in Bosnia, which has
>been revered by Catholics
since 1981 as the site where the Virgin Mary
>appears each evening at
6:40 to a small group of visionaries. To date, an
>estimated 25 million
people, Catholic and non-Catholic alike, have visited
>the
village.
>
>Messages from Mary
>
>Miravalle's visit was
the beginning of his emergence as a leader in the
>popular Marian
movement. He wrote his doctoral dissertation on the messages
>that the
Virgin Mary gave the Bosnian children who first saw her. She
>reportedly
told the children that she opposes abortion, birth control,
>female
priests and communism. To Miravalle, the three cornerstones of her
>messages are prayer, penance and fasting.
>
>Since 1984
Miravalle has published five books on Mary. At the back of each,
>he
placed postcards that readers could cut out and send along to the pope,
>supporting the proposed dogma. Now the postcards and petitions average
>about 10,000 a month. He also puts out an international monthly news
>bulletin, sponsors conferences on the subject and regularly appears on
>Mother Angelica's television program, which reaches more than 55 million
>homes.
>
>Whether or not his campaign is successful and the
pope decides to declare
>Mary a co-redemptrix, the popular devotion to
Mary as a healer, comforter
>and female symbol for the divine will
undoubtedly continue. The world, it
>seems, will always need its
mother.
>
>
>
>© Copyright 2001 Star Tribune. All rights
reserved.
>
Taken from:
>http://pro-gospel.org/
