The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church: Saturday, April 28, 2018

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.”