The Miraculous Medal and Fatima Prove Co-Redemptrix & Meaning of New Eve

Dr. Matthew A. Tsakanikas is a professor of theology

at Christendom College.

…That Mary is “Co-Redemptrix” – as understood in Lumen Gentium #56 to #58 – was further expressed by Pope Saint Paul VI in 1968. Pope Saint Paul VI expressed Mary’s cooperation in the redemption succinctly in his Credo of the People of God #14-15. This is an authentic “Profession of Faith” which he gave to the Church in an authoritative motu propio:

We believe that Mary is the Mother, who remained ever a Virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and that by reason of this singular election, she was, in consideration of the merits of her Son, redeemed in a more eminent manner, preserved from all stain of original sin and filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures.Joined by a close and indissoluble bond to the Mysteries of the Incarnation and Redemption, the Blessed Virgin, the Immaculate, was at the end of her earthly life raised body and soul to heavenly glory and likened to her risen Son in anticipation of the future lot of all the just; and we believe that the Blessed Mother of God, the New Eve, Mother of the Church, continues in heaven her maternal role with regard to Christ's members, cooperating with the birth and growth of divine life in the souls of the redeemed. [bold mine]

The failure to consolidate this understanding with the title “Co-Redemptrix” – a title repeatedly acknowledged before the Council and by John Paul the Great after the Council – would not be so sad had it at least continued to be recommended...

The Warning of Our Lady in Akita and Spiritual Civil War in the Church

This all leads to the signs of the times. Our Lady has been manifesting the help which heaven wishes to give to the Church on earth if we will open ourselves to her Immaculate and Motherly Heart. Since the early-19th Century, the back of the Miraculous Medal shows Mary at the foot of the Cross obtaining the graces she shares here and now from heaven and as depicted on the front of the medal. The image of the two hearts at the bottom of the Miraculous Medal was resumed at Fatima in the early 20th Century when Jesus asked that devotion to the Immaculate Heart be kept with his Sacred Heart and tied it to the mystery at Calvary especially at the apparition at the Chapel of Tuy. Clearly Lumen Gentium and the “Credo of the People of God” reiterated that Mary’s role in the Redemption was always part of the ordinary magisterium of the Church. The prior apparitions and Medal only reminded us of Scripture in the Tradition. Nevertheless, some of Mary’s bishops on earth keep letting the false teachings of non-Apostolic Christians and false ecumenism get in the way of properly expressing and accepting Mary’s role as the New Eve.

The “M” represents Mary’s heart sharing Christ’s suffering at Calvary in a subordinate and dependent way;

thus two hearts of Jesus and Mary under it.

Repeatedly, the Lord Jesus Christ has asked that the Church on earth accept the help of “the Woman Clothed with the Sun” (cf. Rev 12:1), whom the Church has always called the New Eve. How can we accept what we will no longer publicly acknowledge and which we even suppress since the Second Vatican Council? Why did we highlight the Virgin Mary’s compassion at the redemption in Lumen Gentium, clarify it further in the “Credo of the People of God,” and then follow the spirit of compromise and flee from admitting Mary is truly the Co-Redemptrix? Have we inherited an ethos of compromise that has existed since the Second Vatican Council and which was warned about in the powerful apparitions of the Virgin Mary in Akita, Japan?

Notice how this image from the Chapel of Tuy is like the back of the above Miraculous Medal

showing Mary’s compassion at the foot of the Cross.

In 1973, in a series of apparitions and messages which were approved by the same local bishop of that time, Bishop John Ito in 1984, the Virgin Mary warned on October 13, 1973 (the anniversary of the great sign given at Fatima):

As I told you, if men do not repent and better themselves, the Father will inflict a terrible punishment on all humanity. It will be a punishment greater than the deluge, such as one [has] never seen before. Fire will fall from the sky and will wipe out a great part of humanity, the good as well as the bad, sparing neither priests nor faithful. The survivors will find themselves so desolate that they will envy the dead. The only arms which will remain for you will be the Rosary and the Sign left by My Son. Each day recite the prayers of the Rosary. With the Rosary, pray for the Pope, the bishops and priests.

The work of the devil will infiltrate even into the Church in such a way that one will see cardinals opposing cardinals, bishops against bishops. The priests who venerate me will be scorned and opposed by their confreres...churches and altars sacked; the Church will be full of those who accept compromises and the demon will press many priests and consecrated souls to leave the service of the Lord.

The demon will be especially implacable against souls consecrated to God. The thought of the loss of so many souls is the cause of my sadness. If sins increase in number and gravity, there will be no longer pardon for them…

I have highlighted and made bold the above which is most relevant to this essay. Why would priests who venerate Mary be scorned by their confreres when this was unheard of in orthodoxy ever since the first Seven Ecumenical Councils? Why would veneration of Mary lead to churches and altars being sacked? Clearly something orthodox would have to be denied to Mary’s honor for such a persecution of those who venerate Mary. Notice the order of expression: loss of the veneration to Mary is followed by churches and altars being sacked and a spirit of compromise entering the Church and then the loss of faith. We were being warned on how Mariology affects Christology and Ecclesiology (and the liturgies). Just as revelatory, the specific statue of Mary – which was central to the apparitions in Akita Japan and wept tears 101 times – was expressly tied to encouraging the title “Co-Redemptrix.”

Statue of Our Lady of Akita which combines the Miraculous Medal and Chapel of Tuy themes. It wept 101 times.

When devotion to Mary is popularly misunderstood, faith in Christ is weakened (because she is the guardian of the Incarnation) and the liturgy is not rightly entered (because she is the archetype of the Church as Virginal Mother and Spouse). The title “Co-Redemptrix” specifically acknowledges a synthesis of the Virgin Mary’s subordinate assistance to Christ at Calvary and his Sacrifice upon the Cross and her continued intercession by the Holy Spirit (as explained in Lumen Gentium). As pre-eminent member of the redeemed, through Christ’s foreseen merits, Mary was present and the first to assist Christ through the Holy Spirit at what is made present again at every Sacrifice of the Mass, the grace of Calvary which is poured out upon the world.

Notice that Mary is dispensing the graces on the front of the medal because she was at the foot of the Cross as depicted on the back of the medal. It shows fulfillment of Isaiah 54:1 and how we become the children of the one left desolate.

This also verifies Saint Paul VI’s Credo of the People of God.

The depiction on the Miraculous Medal and dispensation of graces was a reminder of her presence amongst us in the liturgies when Calvary is made present. She joins us in prayer and wants to help us enter Mass in imitation of her faith and devotion at Calvary and share in its fruit. Her prayers help us to live as disciples and make us her offspring since she is the original model of being a member of Christ. Without her and her motherhood, we could not be members of Christ. It is acceptance of this motherly love for her Son Jesus Christ and his Body which we should open ourselves to by explicitly acknowledging Mary and accepting her motherly role; of her gathering with us in worship of her Son and her interceding for us from Heaven per the Credo of Paul VI.

By spreading false opinion in the media that Vatican II had minimalized honor to the Virgin Mary, the serpent struck at the Woman’s heel. It struck on the heels of the ecumenical council and did everything it could to prevent veneration of Mary from being properly implemented and accepted. The devil didn't want its head crushed and tried drowning the Woman in lies (cf. Rev 12:15). John Paul II had almost completed the proper implementation of the Council, but he left one serious dogmatic facet untied: the title “Co-Redemptrix” was not fully promulgated beyond speeches and audiences and is being suppressed. When we see Cardinal against Cardinal today, perhaps we need to turn to Our Lady for help inside the Church and venerate her properly so as to enter her devotion to Christ which is the image of the true Church…