J.M.J.
There
has been considerable interest in the recent announcement that Pope Francis has
established the Memorial of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church,
which is to be commemorated—beginning this year—on the Monday after Pentecost
Sunday.
Although
the title Mother of the Church or Mater
Ecclesiae is not as well-known as those titles that derive from the four
Marian dogmas (Divine Maternity, Perpetual Virginity, Immaculate Conception and
Assumption), nevertheless, it is, along with, for example, Spiritual Mother,
Co-Redemptrix, and Mediatrix of All Graces, a solid and esteemed expression of
a significant facet of the Christ-inspired mission entrusted to Our Lady.
On
the Feast of the Presentation of the Blessed Virgin Mary, November 21, 1964,
Blessed Paul VI, at the conclusion of the Third Session of the Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council, declared: “We proclaim the Most Blessed Virgin Mary Mother
of the Church, that is, of the whole people of God, faithful and pastors, and
we call her most loving Mother.”
Some
useful background reading on the concept of “Mother of the Church”: 1. The volume
by Hugo Rahner, S.J., entitled, Our Lady
and the Church, which was highly
acclaimed by Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI and the late Avery Cardinal Dulles,
S.J.; 2. the discourse of September 17, 1997 by Saint John Paul II that
summarizes the use of this title by the Church’s Magisterium.
At
the end of the aforementioned discourse, Saint John Paul, in reference to Blessed
Paul VI and his declaration of 1964, wrote that “my venerable Predecessor
explicitly enunciated the doctrine contained in chapter eight of Lumen Gentium, hoping that the title of
Mary, Mother of the Church, would have an even more important place in the
liturgy and piety of the Christian people.”
