May 2026
Mary/Co-Redemptress/Mediatrix
Occupied Rome is diabolically disoriented by Modernist 'mariology'.
Three short primers to assist its Catholic re-orientation.
Mary
MALACHI MARTIN
In this month of May, our thoughts must concentrate on the woman who gave birth to Our Saviour, Jesus. There is one extraordinary fact about Mary. No matter how far back we delve into antiquity and into Catholic writers we find in them one consistent note, one implicit belief, mainly: the ubiquitous and all-purpose role of Mary in men's salvation. These writers presume that all graces necessary for salvation come to all men and women through the hands of Mary as Mother of God. They further presume as a deep belief that the redemption of Christ is achieved in individual souls through the role of Mary as the Co-Redemptrix. The Jesuit poet, Gerard Manly Hopkins, wrote a marvellous and long poem about Our Lady compared to the air we breathe. His point was simple and profound. Just as we presume on the air around us in order to live and move and act, so in the life of the spirit, we must all presume that Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix and as the Mediator of all graces is essential for our salvation.
This can be asserted to be the deepest belief of Catholic writers, philosophers, theologians, martyrs and saints. They all take it for granted. Mary, they hold, is the channel through which our Lord Jesus communicates all His graces. Furthermore, when He died on the Cross for all men and achieved the salvation of all men, she exercised a very important function in that saving act of His. Thus, there can be no doubt that in mainstream Catholicism, Our Lady has been and is considered to be the Mediatrix of all His graces, and furthermore, that she functioned as a part of His divine salvation of all men and women.
Some non-Catholics, particularly Protestants, display an amazing naivete in this respect. They simply have not thought it through. First of all, they presume that the only source of knowledge about salvation is the Holy Bible, despite the fact that nowhere in the Holy Bible is it asserted that news about salvation is only to be had in the Bible. Secondly, they twist the meaning of the Bible especially in relation to the function of Our Lord and Our Lady. St. Paul does say in one of his letters that we have one Mediator with God, Jesus. They say that it would be derogatory to call Mary Mediatrix and Co-Redemptrix. This is, as I said, very naive. We Catholics are far more sophisticated and discerning about the relationship between Mary and her Divine Son. No genuine Catholic equates Mary and her Son. Jesus is the Saviour. Mary is one of the saved. But, as one of the saved, she was assigned a special role in the salvation of all men.
We Catholics also know that the news about salvation is communicated to us not merely by the Bible but by the tradition of the Church. And, as I said, it is the constant tradition of the Church that Our Lady functions as the Mediatrix of all graces, and as someone who in the actual salvation achieved by Jesus had a key role.
In these days, many expect His Holiness John Paul II to proclaim this double role of Mary for the entire Church. He will not do so for more than one reason. It must be said, however, that John Paul II is well aware of the universal belief of all Catholic writers from the beginning. He knows this to be a fact, and that is why his motto is "Totus Tuus", meaning that he is completely in Our Lady's hands as a human being and as pope. But, in his actual circumstances as pope, he is confronted by a heretical Patriarch of Constantinople and a heretical Patriarch of Moscow, both of whom refuse to accept the Catholic teaching. John Paul II is desirous of conciliating them and thus bringing them into the fold of the True Church. Some people think this is a wrong tactic. But, nevertheless, it is our Pope's tactic. As long as he is pope, this will be his Papal approach. What we must all do is pray for light both for John Paul II and for each of the two Patriarchs. We are confident that as Our Lady told the children at Fatima, her Immaculate Heart will finally triumph.
In these days, the Church is undergoing perhaps the most insidious attack in her history. There are many prelates—Cardinals and Bishops in the U.S. and Canada—who have such an intense desire to belong to the mainstream of our society that they abandon their Catholic subjects in favour of being popular with the non-Catholic world of North America. The latest example in my book is provided by the Archbishop of Montreal, Canada, Jean-Claude Cardinal Turcotte, who was distinctly inhospitable to the only international pro-life group in the world, Human Life International (HLI). HLI held it's convention in Montreal April, 1994. First of all, he insisted on tortuous negotiations with HLI before granting them permission to have their Mass in his Cathedral. But, he made every step of it difficult, both he and his subordinates. There was no real welcome for HLI in Turcotte's Montreal; by his stand-offish behaviour, he communicated to the non-Catholic and anti-life world of Montreal that he, Turcotte, stood apart from the "fanatics".
We would advise the Cardinal to pray to Our Lady, the Mother of all the aborted infants, so that he display a genuine concern for the front-line fighters of the Church. We are sure that as Mediatrix of all graces and as Co-Redemptrix, she will obtain graces for his diocese in order to eliminate, as soon as possible, the anti-life and anti-Catholic forces that have taken possession of his Montreal Church.
Saint Michael's Sword Newsletter, 11 May 1998.
Co-Redemptrix
CHARLES (later CARDINAL) JOURNET
This glorious title of Co-Redemptress, and that of Mediatrix of all graces, which it implies, have been given her by the latest popes. On 2nd February, 1904 Pius X wrote in the encyclical Ad diem: "In virtue of the communion of sorrows and of will which attached her to Christ, Mary wanted to become the worthy Reparatrix of the fallen world, and in consequence the Dispenser of all the graces Jesus acquired for us by His bloody death ... Because she surpasses all other creatures by here sanctity and by her union with Christ, and because she was called by Christ to participate in the work of our salvation, she merits for us de congruo, as the expression is, what Christ has merited for us de condigno, and she is the first steward in the dispensation of graces."
Benedict XV writes similarly, 22nd March 1918: "When her Son suffered and died, she so to say suffered and died with Him, renouncing for the salvation of men and the appeasement of the justice of God her maternal rights over her Son - and immolating her Son, as much as in her lay, so that we are entitled to say that she, with Christ, has redeemed the human race."
And Pius XI wrote, 2nd February, 1923: "The Virgin of Sorrows participated with Christ in the work of the Redemption." The actual word Co-Redemptrix appears in two decrees of the Holy Office, dated 26th June, 1913 and 22nd January, 1914.
The consent Our Lady gave to the mystery of the Cross was already contained in the Fiat she had uttered to the angel.
Speaking of this totally free acceptance Leo XIII quotes the great sentence of St. Thomas Aquinas according to which at the instant of the Annunciation, God waited for the Virgin to utter the consent of the human race in its entirety; and he adds that in consequence none of that immense treasure of grace and truth which the Lord has brought us is communicated to us apart from Mary. He calls her our Mediatrix with the Mediator.
As we may see, the mystery of the Redemption stands in the Church like a great tree of doctrine which never ceases to flower.
Nihil Obstat: Patrick Morris, S.T.D., L.S.S.
Imprimatur: E. Morrough Bernard, Westminster, 16 June 1950.
Mediatrix of All Graces
In recent times, special attention has been given to the title of Mediatrix of All Graces. This means that Mary is our mediatrix with her divine Son. All our prayers and petitions go to Him through her; He distributes through her all the graces we receive. It has not yet been declared an article of faith that Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces. The belief, however, has gained almost universal acceptance. In writing of her Universal Mediation in The Mother of Jesus, Father James D.F.M says, "No one can attentively watch the mind of the Church, as it finds expression in the Church teaching and the Church taught, without entertaining the hope that the day is not far distant when this prerogative of Our Lady will receive solemn affirmation on the part of the Church. The fact that a special Mass and Office for May 31 in honour of Mary Mediatrix was granted, at the request of the Belgian hierarchy, to the dioceses of Belgium and to all other dioceses which should ask for it, is significant." There are many quotations in this book which seem to bear out the fact that Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces.
Pope Benedict XV clearly believed this when in May 1917 because the world war seemed to be going on interminably, he said: "Because all graces.... are dispensed by the hands of the most Holy Virgin we wish the petitions of the afflicted children to be directed with lively confidence, more than ever in this awful hour, to the Great Mother of God." As we have read, it was eight days after this that Mary appeared at Fatima, as if in direct response to the pleas of the Pope. Mary shared in the work of the Redemption to such an extent that she is called the Co-Redemptrix. It is only fitting that she should share in distributing the graces of that Redemption. St. Alphonsus Ligouri tells us, "Jesus Christ is the unique Mediator as far as strict justice is concerned, the only One who obtains grace and salvation for us by His merits, but we say that Mary is Mediatrix by the favour of her son. While recognising that she obtains nothing except by the merits of Jesus Christ, we yet maintain that all the graces we ask for are given to us at her intercession."
The role of Mary as our mediator is an appropriate one to be emphasised in our day. The people sinking beneath the weight of their sins, can be saved only by a return to God. But in His august majesty, He seems very far away to people who have never known Him. And the thought of an all just God can be frightening. Today we need mercy rather than justice. It is most consoling, therefore, to know that we can turn to Mary, our all-merciful Mother, and ask her to intercede for us.
She who is our Mother is also the Mother of God and He can refuse her nothing. She receives the graces from His Heart and distributes them to all who ask for them. Father Edward Leen, C.S.Sp in the book Our Blessed Mother [1946] tells us that, "Until the world assents to depend on its Mother Mary ... there can be no peace. And only when her rightful place, as Mother of men, is fully accepted will the world be able to rise. The recent apparitions of Our Lady at Fatima show us the truth of this. Mary is the Mediatrix of All Graces, and it is through her alone, the grace of true peace among nations can come to the world. Justly then, in these days of turmoil .... does the Church salute Our Blessed Mother with the glorious title of Mediatrix Potentissima, Most Powerful Mediatrix."