The Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles published by the Dicastery for the Destruction of the Faith is being met, and for good reason, with indignation on the part of many tradition-minded Catholics (if you’ll pardon the redundancy).
No doubt, the captains of the Resist the Pope movement will do likewise in the coming hours and days. As of this writing, I’ve encountered just one such reaction, this from Dr. Peter Kwasniewski, who in a post on X called the DDF’s rejection of the title Co-Redemptrix, “ridiculous.”
He’s right, of course, but not entirely for the reasons given as I will explain momentarily.
As Peter pointed out, one of the DDF’s main arguments is that when this title is invoked, it gives rise to a need “to explain the subordinate role of Mary to Christ in the work of Redemption.”
“It is,” according to the Doctrinal Note, therefore, “always inappropriate to use the title Co-Redemptrix.”
In other words, rather than engaging in the mission of teaching the truth as given to the one true Church by Christ, the counterfeit church decided to offer what amounts to a condemnation of said truth.
And how do we know that Mary as Co-Redemptrix is doctrinally true?
The DDF actually provides the most noteworthy of reasons, saying:
Some Popes have used the title “Co-Redemptrix” without elaborating much on its meaning. Generally, they have presented the title in two specific ways: in reference to Mary’s divine motherhood (insofar as she, as Mother, made possible the Redemption that Christ accomplished) or in reference to her union with Christ at the redemptive Cross.
The footnotes to the above provide the following crucially important details:
Under the pontificate of Saint Pius X, the title “Co-Redemptrix” appears in one document of the Sacred Congregation of Rites and two documents of the Holy Office … [one of] which praises the custom of adding to the name of Jesus the name ‘of his mother, our Co-Redemptrix, the Blessed Mary,’ [and another] in which Mary is called ‘Co-Redemptrix of the human race.’
The footnote goes on to state, “The first Pope to use the term Co-Redemptrix’ was Pius XI.”
The text goes on to tell us that the Holy Father invoked Our Lady under this august title in various venues in the years 1925, 1933, and 1935.
The footnotes also confirm that the following prayer can be found in the 1952 Enchiridion Indulgentiarum, a digest of indulgenced works and prayers issued by the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary:
Remember also that at Calvary you became the Co-Redemptrix, cooperating with the crucifixion of your heart for the salvation of the world, together with your crucified Son.
According to Fr. Ludwig Ott, the decisions of the Roman Congregations, though not properly speaking “infallible” definitions, are “normally to be accepted with an inner assent which is based on the high supernatural authority of the Holy See.”
This applies directly to the three documents calling on Mary as Co-Redemptrix issued under Pope Pius X (one by the Sacred Congregation of Rites and two by the Holy Office).
While the Sacred Apostolic Penitentiary exercised juridical power as one of the Tribunals of the Roman Curia, one’s acceptance of its rulings also arguably rests on the same high supernatural authority mentioned above.
In addition to this, and even more importantly, the footnotes provide no less than three citations to the Acta Apostolicae Sedes, the Acts of the Holy See, which indicate that these occasions wherein the popes themselves have directly invoked Mary as Co-Redemptrix are part of the authoritative papal magisterium.
So, along with the various proclamations of the Roman Congregations, we have the rock-solid assurance of the papal magisterium, which guarantees the truthfulness and fittingness of the title, Co-Redemptrix, in reference to Our Lady.
Obviously, the clowns running the conciliar show in Rome do not believe this.
But guess what? Neither do the ringleaders of the Resist the Pope movement. In fact, insisting that alleged papal magisterium is unreliable is their primary stock in trade.
In other words, this particular error is foundational for both of the conciliar clowns and the Resist the Pope ringleaders, which ironically goes to show that they are performers in one and the same circus, albeit perhaps in different rings. As such, the Pope Resisters cannot make an argument against the DDF document based on the Holy Ghost’s guidance of both the Roman Pontiffs individually and the Church more broadly, at least not without putting their cognitive dissonance on display yet again.
Rather, in order to be consistent, their push back against conciliar Rome’s latest insult to Our Lady would have to be confined to arguments based solely on their own scholarship.
You see, the entire R&R movement rests upon an unwillingness to accept the infallibility of the Church as consistently taught throughout the centuries, a doctrinal truth that is not to be confused with the Church’s ability to issue infallible definitions. Rather, in the words of the Catechism of the Council of Trent, the infallibility of the Catholic Church refers to the immutable reality that “this one Church cannot err in faith or morals, since it is guided by the Holy Ghost.”
Or as various popes have taught:
The Church is endowed with perfect and perpetual immunity from error and heresy. (cf Pope Pius XI, Quas Primas, 22)
Jesus Christ, hanging on the Cross, opened up to His Church the fountain of those divine gifts, which prevent her from ever teaching false doctrine. (cf Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis, 31)
It is precisely because the Resist the Pope crowd rejects this glorious truth about Holy Mother the Church that its leaders and their naïve followers feel comfortable parsing – in the case of the post-conciliar claimants to the papacy – authoritative papal [sic] teaching, embracing what they will while openly condemning and discarding the rest, and this includes even that which comes from a supposed ecumenical council!
Once again, the only logical, consistent, and entirely Catholic conclusion to be drawn in the face of this reprehensible document is that neither Robert Prevost nor the heretical sect that he leads are Catholic.
It is about such sects that the Roman Catechism states:
…all other societies arrogating to themselves the name of church, must necessarily, because guided by the spirit of the devil, be sunk in the most pernicious errors, both doctrinal and moral.
With this in mind, I for one am grateful for the DDF’s gift to the Protestants (otherwise known as its Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles) because it proves once again that they are cut from the same contaminated cloth.
