MAGGIE PAWSEY
STAFF WRITER
On April 19 in the Gentile Gallery, Beloved First Truth household hosted Mark Miravalle to speak on the movement to declare Mary’s relationship with the Church as dogma.
“We are living in the age of Mary,” said Miravalle, who earned his Sacred Theological Doctorate at the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome. Since 1830, he said, there have been more Marian popes, writings and apparitions than any other time in history. The crowning of this age would be for Pope Francis to define the dogma of Mary as our mother and mediator.
Miravalle explained that the Church has made four decisions on Marian dogma: she is the mother of God, perpetual virgin, Immaculate Conception and has been assumed into Heaven.
The fifth dogma would define Mary’s relationship with the Church as one of a loving mother protecting her children.
Miravalle explained that in apparitions as Our Lady of All Nations, Mary has asked the Church to proclaim the dogma and declare her specific titles of co-redemptrix, mediatrix and advocate. In these apparitions, she said that only with these titles will she be able to intercede for world peace.
Why do we need a dogma? Miravalle asked and then provided an answer: “It’s the beautiful principle of grace and free will. … Only when we consent—that is, humanity in the form of a solemn definition of the highest authority of Mary—then and only then is she free to fully exercise her powers of intercession.”
Miravalle traced the history of saints’ writings about Mary’s relationship with Jesus in his redemptive sacrifice. Many theologians have written that she became the co-redemptrix as her body gave Jesus his body and her heart co-suffered with Jesus’ on the cross.
“If you deny (the title) co-redemptrix, you deny the necessity of humanity to participate in grace,” said Miravalle.
Although Jesus is obviously still the primary redeemer, Miravalle said saints as early as St. Irenaeus have written that “Mary, the new Eve, participates with Christ, the new Adam, in the restoration of grace… in buying back humanity.”
Freshman Cate Greer said she was unaware that these teachings were not dogma. “It’s something that we talk about all the time, Mary as our intercessor. Every time somebody prays a rosary, that’s essentially what they’re doing.”
Greer said that the movement to define this dogma is “a leap of faith, not just of one person, but of the whole Catholic community. Everybody’s got to dive in on this.”