Special Issue: Volume V, Issue 7, March 14, 2008

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

- An Interview with His Excellency, Bishop Jozef Punt of Amsterdam on the Cardinals' Push for a Fifth Marian Dogma 

Bishop Jozef Maria Punt of Amsterdam, Netherlands, has granted the following interview regarding the worldwide petition to Pope Benedict XVI for the fifth Marian dogma. The following interview is published with permission from the Diocese of Haarlem-Amsterdam.
—Ed.

Monsignor, you have received a letter from a group of cardinals to all the bishops of the world to give their opinion regarding Mary and her place in God’s plan of salvation. They plead for the official proclamation of Mary as ‘the spiritual Mother of all Nations, Co-redemptrix… Mediatrix of all graces... and Advocate… Do you support this action?

Bishop Punt: I am certainly positive about it. Their appeal though is not new, as it builds on a long-standing conviction within the Church. All these Marian titles, including that of Co-redemptrix, own a solid place in the Tradition of the Church. We find them back with popes, saints and mystics. The current action, however, goes one step further, because its main issue is a fifth Marian dogma. By some this call has caused surprise. Yet, this form of dialogue is a very normal and legitimate one in the Church. Important teachings of the Church have never been brought about otherwise. The pope alone has the final competence to judge about the significance and expediency of such a proclamation.

This dialogue, however, is not a matter of theological hairsplitting, but concentrates on the timely question who Mary may be for our time and our world. Together with the cardinals and the hundreds of bishops who in the past have declared themselves in favor of this issue, I share the inspiration that the Lord has entrusted our age in a special way to His Mother and that it is His will that the Church gathers round Mary even more in this time, as once the apostles did in the cenacle, to plead for a new Pentecost for our wounded world.

But why do we need a dogma for that, and why this dogma in particular?

Bishop Punt: Let me first say something on the second part, the substance. I realize that especially fellow Christians from the Reformation consider all these Marian titles as an obscuring of the primacy and magnitude of Christ. I understand their concern very well. Yet I think the opposite is true. It is precisely the greatness of Mary and the many titles tradition has attributed to her – already Cardinal Newman writes – that refer to the absolute uniqueness of the Child that is born of her: "He is the divine Wisdom, she therefore the Seat of Wisdom... He is the infinite Mercy, she therefore the Mother of Mercy..." If you have no problem to call her with the Church Fathers "Mother of God, new Eve, Morningstar…", he argues in dialogue with an Anglican minister, "then what objection can you make to her being called ‘Co-redemptrix’ as well?" Obviously, the "co" here does not mean "equal to" but "united with."

Don’t you think this title nevertheless creates some confusion and by that unintentionally diminishes the universal Mediatorship of Christ?

Bishop Punt: It of course calls for explanation, as practically all formulations of faith do, but at the same time something else is made more clear. Christ, I too testify with great emphasis, is the only Mediator between God and man. He alone unites both in his own Person. He alone redeems man, yet not without man. He lets us share in our own redemption. It is a realization we already find with St. Paul, and later on with St. Augustine. The universality of the Redemption through Christ "does not exclude cooperation of human beings, but on the contrary makes room for it", the Second Vatican Council therefore concludes (LG 60, 62). Indeed, also our sufferings, prayers and works become redemptive for ourselves and for others to the extent in which we are united with Christ by our faith and by our lives. This is a notion, I consider also essential for our time.

Obviously, in an outstanding way this applies to Mary, the Mother of Jesus, who went all the way with Him, from the time before His birth until the time after His death. Inseparable then, inseparable now. With soul and body living in heaven, like He is. Glorified, like He is. She is "the Immaculate Conception", created by God’s grace in the original purity and freedom. This renders an absolutely unique quality and dimension to her human cooperation to Redemption, through which she surpasses by far all other human beings, as the Council fathers write. This in fact requires its own final theological formulation. Up to the present day this is not available.

But even though the meaning is in line with Catholic theological Tradition, the question remains: Why should this be formulated as a dogma? What does it add?

Bishop Punt: This is a very proper question. As a good priest once said to me: the fact that it is not officially formulated as a fixed truth, does not make it less true, does it? He is right, of course, but still I think he overlooks something which is essential. To God it is not a matter of indifference, whether man does or does not acknowledge explicitly the full reality of His plan of salvation. It is not only truth what matters here, but primarily faith. In the Holy Scriptures Christ is continually searching for the faith of people, responding to it with miracles of healing and salvation. On the public testimony of faith of St. Peter He builds His Church. The Holy Scriptures show again and again to what high degree God makes his salvific action dependent on the faith and free cooperation of people. He asked Mary’s fiat to start his work of salvation. He asks the fiat of the Church in order to fulfill this work and to accomplish great things in our times.

A "yes" to God is in this time more than ever also a "yes" to Mary, so believe the cardinals and so do I. The "totus tuus" pope, John Paul II, lived this idea. Responding to the call of Fatima he entrusts the whole world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. And then, shortly before his death, he made a last and moving appeal to our heavenly Mother: "Obtain for us once more peace and salvation for all of humanity. The eternal Father has chosen you to be the Mother of the Redeemer. Renew our time through your mediation, wonder of his merciful love." Heaven listens in a special way to the plea of a pastor on behalf of his people – certainly when it is the Supreme Pastor – and again extended the time of mercy.

http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1256

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

- On the March 31 World Rosary Crusade for Fifth Marian Dogma by Kevin Clarke

Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici has announced a day of prayer—a World Rosary Crusade—for the proclamation of a fifth Marian dogma that would pronounce the Blessed Virgin Mary as the Spiritual Mother of all peoples, the Co-redemptrix, Mediatrix of all graces, and Advocate. This world day of prayer falls on the Feast of the Annunciation, which has been moved this year from March 25 to March 31, outside the Easter octave.

Please distribute the flyer attached to this Web page—among the members of your prayer group, at your parish with your priest’s permission, etc.—as you see fit. We ask all our subscribers to please gather together on the Feast of the Annunciation with like-minded souls to lift up your hearts together for the sake of this most glorious intention for Our Blessed Mother.

http://www.motherofallpeoples.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=1255

---------------------------------------------------------------------------