Inquiry on Official Position about Mary

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Recently someone said Mary is now considered a co-redeemer for our souls equal to Jesus Christ. I didn’t think so but I want to know the church’s official position on this?

I remember reading something about 5 yrs ago where a bunch of believers drew up a petition asking to make Mary equal to Christ for salvation. But I seem to recall that the Pope denied the petition.

So what is the official verdict? I’m kinda old and when I grew up we were saved through only the name of Jesus. We may love Mary like our own Moms but only the name of Jesus gets us saved. I grew up in the 1960’s has the church changed this?
 
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No one comes to the Father except through the Son.

Mary leads us to her Son.

God is our salvation.
 
If I remember right the church refused to call Mary the co-redemptrix around the same time as a lot of other Marian dogmas were being defined.
 
http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a9p6.htm

Paragraph 6. Mary - Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church

[963] Since the Virgin Mary’s role in the mystery of Christ and the Spirit has been treated, it is fitting now to consider her place in the mystery of the Church. "The Virgin Mary . . . is acknowledged and honored as being truly the Mother of God and of the redeemer. . . . She is ‘clearly the mother of the members of Christ’ . . . since she has by her charity joined in bringing about the birth of believers in the Church, who are members of its head."502 "Mary, Mother of Christ, Mother of the Church."503

I. MARY’S MOTHERHOOD WITH REGARD TO THE CHURCH

Wholly united with her Son . . .

[964] Mary’s role in the Church is inseparable from her union with Christ and flows directly from it. “This union of the mother with the Son in the work of salvation is made manifest from the time of Christ’s virginal conception up to his death”;504 it is made manifest above all at the hour of his Passion:

Thus the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross. There she stood, in keeping with the divine plan, enduring with her only begotten Son the intensity of his suffering, joining herself with his sacrifice in her mother’s heart, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this victim, born of her: to be given, by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross, as a mother to his disciple, with these words: "Woman, behold your son."505

965 After her Son’s Ascension, Mary "aided the beginnings of the Church by her prayers."506 In her association with the apostles and several women, "we also see Mary by her prayers imploring the gift of the Spirit, who had already overshadowed her in the Annunciation."507

. . . also in her Assumption

[966] "Finally the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin, when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be the more fully conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death."508 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians:

In giving birth you kept your virginity; in your Dormition you did not leave the world, O Mother of God, but were joined to the source of Life. You conceived the living God and, by your prayers, will deliver our souls from death.509

. . . she is our Mother in the order of grace

[967] By her complete adherence to the Father’s will, to his Son’s redemptive work, and to every prompting of the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary is the Church’s model of faith and charity. Thus she is a “preeminent and . . . wholly unique member of the Church”; indeed, she is the “exemplary realization” ( typus )510 of the Church.
 
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She is a co-redeemer, but not in the sense of a co-owner or co-equal, but as a co-operator. It has to do with how the prefix works in Latin. In English it has different meanings. Saints Peter and Paul and all the apostles and saints are co-redeemers in this sense, as can you and me be. Mary just has a supreme role in co-operating as the Mother of God, but she’s still only a cooperator, not a co-equal.
 
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Have you seen the Wikipedia article, Co-Redemptrix? It discusses the subject and history in some detail.

As the above article explains, there was never an attempt to declare Mary equal to Jesus. “According to those who use the term, Co-Redemptrix refers to a subordinate but essential participation by the Blessed Virgin Mary in redemption, notably that she gave free consent to give life to the Redeemer, which meant sharing his life, suffering, and death, which were redemptive for the world.”
 
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Roseeurekacross said:
No one comes to the Father except through the Son.
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This is what I believe and as long as this is the official doctrine I’m fine.
To be honest I’ve had a problem with the phrase Mother of God, in the Hail Mary prayer for a long time. But recently I was auditing a class from Yale on early Christianity or it might have been on the fall of the Roman Empire and what ensued after that. The professor was talking about the early arguments about exactly who Jesus was. This was after Constantine made Christianity the official religion of Rome but before many of the nobles accepted it. They hung onto their pagan religions as much as they could. The argument was is Jesus divine or was He simply a man, even if He was an extraordinary man the pagans still wanted Him to be just a man. From what the professor said it was a very nasty argument. Well, we know that Jesus being divine won. But one way they won the argument was by calling Mary the Mother of God in her prayer. I was glad to hear that. I’ve always felt Mother of the Lord would have been better but I see calling her Mother of God was a way of proving Jesus is both God and He was a man. It doesn’t bother me anymore.
 
It is becoming a more customary sentiment and one is free to hold it.
The Church does not feel the need to have a dogmatic position on things unless such issues cause strife.

Just as it still does not have a single clear position on whether Mary died or not.
 
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The title is easily misunderstood (at least in English), so I am generally not a fan of using it. But the intended significance should not be controversial and never has been. It just acknowledges the essential role Mary played in the history of redemption by participating in the Incarnation, etc. Anyone can read all about it in the Gospels, especially St. Luke’s.

Since this unique role is revealed in Scripture, it is by definition a revealed truth that we believe with faith and has been handed on as such without controversy for the whole history of the Church. There’s no need for an extraordinary judgment from the Apostolic See to settle anything or remove any doubt.

Furthermore, titles by themselves are not dogmas. What matters is the truth they signify.
 
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Co-redemptrix and mediatrix of all graces is an orthodox position, doctrine not dogma. It has not been elevated to dogma, though some have indeed asked for a declaration.

I think you have some misconceptions regarding what this doctrine means. So I encourage you to look at the Catechism and other church documents.
 
Constantine did NOT make Christianity the “official religion of Rome.” He made it one among a number of religions tolerated by the Roman state. It was Theodosius later made it the official and only tolerated religion in Rome.
 
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Mary is much, much, much closer to being like us than she is like God.

The idea of that anyone is co-redeemer is silly at face value… it can be considered okay in the Catholic religion if the complexity of that new idea is explained to the nth detail… it is silly to add such a teaching to the religion… no need to make up new stuff that has no basis in revelation
 
1ke said:
Co-redemptrix and mediatrix of all graces is an orthodox position, doctrine not dogma. It has not been elevated to dogma, though some have indeed asked for a declaration.
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not true… this idea has been heavily debated in the Church and remains an open question… Hopefully, it stays that way.
 
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