A Pastoral Letter on the Blessed Virgin Mary,
Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of All Graces
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
On 4 November 2025, the Holy See released a Doctrinal Note through the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) entitled Mater Populi Fidelis, signed by DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez. In the document, Cardinal Fernandez declares “it would not be appropriate to use the title ‘Co-redemptrix’ to define Mary’s cooperation.” The stated reason is that such a title “risks obscuring Christ’s unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of the truths of the Christian faith…” (Paragraph 22).
Because many of the faithful are unsettled by these words, and because love for the Blessed Virgin is the heartbeat of authentic Catholic faith, I feel compelled as a successor of the Apostles to reaffirm the perennial teaching of the Church regarding Our Lady’s singular cooperation in the Redemption.
It is striking that the rationale given – to avoid “confusion” and for ecumenical reasons – echoes the same language that for more than half a century has been used to soften and obscure Catholic truth. Such reasoning has dulled the sharp edge of doctrine until only vague sentiment remains. But truth cannot be sacrificed on the altar of diplomacy. Ecumenism that silences truth ceases to be true unity. The path forward is not to blur what makes the Faith distinct, but to proclaim it with clarity and charity, trusting the light of revelation to dispel confusion, not conceal it.
In recent years, this pattern has repeated itself across many fronts of Church life. Under the pretext of being “welcoming” and “inclusive,” the Church’s supernatural identity is slowly being traded for a sociological one. What was once defined by grace and conversion is now being recast in the language of accommodation and affirmation. The call to repentance is replaced by the call to belonging. The world is told it need not change; only the Church must change to fit it. And so the Faith is diluted, the Cross is softened, and the Gospel becomes sentimental rather than salvific. But love without truth is not mercy – it is deception.
This new document must be seen in that context. To dismiss the title Co-Redemptrix is not simply a linguistic concern. It is part of an ongoing effort to strip the Faith of its supernatural claims, to make the Church appear harmless to a world that hates the Cross. The Blessed Virgin is the most perfect human reflection of divine truth. To diminish her role is to diminish the reality of grace itself. When her exalted titles are declared “inappropriate,” it is not she who is diminished – it is our understanding of Christ that is diminished, for every Marian truth protects a Christological truth.
Mary’s cooperation in Redemption is a perennial doctrine, as witnessed by the Fathers. St. Irenaeus taught that “the knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary,” and St. Ephrem called her “the ransom of captives.” From the dawn of the Church, the Virgin’s obedience has been seen as the undoing of Eve’s rebellion and the beginning of mankind’s restoration.
The confusion surrounding the term Co-Redemptrix arises largely from a misunderstanding of the prefix “co-.” In Latin, it is “cum,” which does not mean “equal to,” but “with.” Mary is not a rival redeemer, but the one who suffered with the Redeemer. Her entire participation was dependent, derivative, and subordinate – yet profoundly real. Just as the first Eve cooperated in the fall, the New Eve cooperated in restoration. Her fiat at the Annunciation and her standing beneath the Cross are two poles of that divine cooperation. Mary participated in the redemptive work of her Son, who alone could reconcile humanity.
From the beginning, the Church has professed that Mary’s fiat – her total and free consent to God’s plan – was not a passive moment but a true and active cooperation in the saving work of her Son. The word Co-Redemptrix first makes its appearance by means of an official pronouncement during the reign of Pope St. Pius X. In 1908, the Vatican’s Congregation of Rites asked for devotion to the Sorrowful Mother to increase, and for gratitude of the faithful toward the “merciful Co-Redemptrix of the human race” to intensify.
On 22 January 1914, the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (now called the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith) granted a partial indulgence of 100 days for the recitation of a prayer of reparation to Our Lady as follows:
“I bless thy holy Name, I praise thine exalted privilege of being truly Mother of God, ever Virgin, conceived without stain of sin, Co-Redemptrix of the human race.”
When the Holy See – and in fact the very same office that just issued this document – could attach indulgences to such a prayer, it cannot now pretend that the doctrine behind it is “inappropriate.” Language may require pastoral explanation, but truth cannot be retracted.
Pope St. Pius X in his encyclical Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (2 February 1904) taught:
“Now the Blessed Virgin did not conceive the Eternal Son of God merely in order that He might be made man taking His human nature from her, but also in order that by means of the nature assumed from her, He might be the Redeemer of men. For which reason the Angel said to the shepherds: “Today there is born to you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”
He continued:
Mary “since she was ahead of all in holiness and union with Christ, and was taken up by Christ into the work of human salvation; she merited congruously, as they say, what Christ merited condignly, and is the chief minister of the dispensation of graces.”
This is not poetry but papal teaching. This defines what the Church has always known: Mary’s motherhood is not only physical but redemptive, spiritual, and universal.
Pope Benedict XV, in Inter Sodalicia (22 March 1918) wrote:
“To such extent did Mary suffer and almost die with her suffering and dying Son; to such extent did she surrender her maternal rights over her Son for man’s salvation, … that we may rightly say she redeemed the human race together with Christ.”
Pope Pius XI, in his message to Lourdes on 28 April 1935, prayed:
“O Mother of piety and mercy, who as Co-Redemptrix stood by your most sweet Son suffering with Him when He consummated the redemption of the human race on the altar of the Cross … preserve in us, we beg, day by day, the precious fruits of the Redemption and of your compassion.”
Pope Pius XII, in his radio message to Fatima on 13 May 1946, declared:
“She it was who, as the New Eve, free from every stain of original or personal sin, always most closely joined with her Son, offered Him to the Eternal Father together with the holocaust of her motherly rights and motherly love, for all the sons of Adam, defiled by his miserable fall.”
On 31 March 1985, Palm Sunday and World Youth Day, Pope St. John Paul II spoke about Mary’s immersion in the mystery of Christ’s Passion:
“Mary accompanied her divine Son in the most discreet concealment, pondering everything in the depths of her heart. On Calvary, at the foot of the Cross, in the vastness and in the depth of her maternal sacrifice, she had John, the youngest Apostle, beside her … May Mary our Protectress, the Co-Redemptrix, to whom we offer our prayer with great outpouring, make our desire generously correspond to the desire of the Redeemer.”
Pope St. John Paul II stated on 6 October 1991, speaking about St. Bridget of Sweden:
“She spoke energetically about the divine privilege of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. She contemplated her astonishing mission as Mother of the Savior. She invoked her as the Immaculate Conception, Our Lady of Sorrows, and Co-redemptrix, exalting Mary’s singular role in the history of salvation and the life of the Christian people.”
In addition to “Co-Redemptrix,” the document Mater Populi Fidelis also addressed the Marian title “Mediatrix” and “Mediatrix of All Graces,” stating that such titles do not contribute to a correct understanding of Mary’s role as intercessor.
However, Pope Leo XIII taught in Adiutricem Populi (5 September 1895):
“ … It is right to say that nothing at all of that very great treasury of all grace which the Lord brought us – for ‘grace and truth came through Jesus Christ’ – nothing is imparted to us except through Mary, since God so wills … .”
From her participation in the Redemption flows her maternal mediation. Every grace that comes from the Heart of Christ passes through the hands of His Mother, not by necessity of nature but by the divine will which associates her in the order of grace.
Pope St. Pius X in Ad Diem Illum (2 February 1904) stated:
“ … She became most worthily the reparatrix of the lost world, and so the dispensatrix of all the gifts which were gained for us by the death and blood of Jesus … and she is the chief minister of the dispensation of grace.”
My dear brothers and sisters, this attack on Marian doctrine must be understood as part of a wider unraveling. The modern spirit seeks a Church that no longer offends, no longer warns, no longer calls sin by name. It wants a Church without sacrifice, a Cross without blood, a heaven without conversion. Such a vision is not renewal – it is replacement.
Many saints foresaw a counterfeit structure that would mimic the true Church while hollowing it from within. This ape of the Church would keep the outward form – liturgy, hierarchy, language – but drain it of supernatural content. When the Mother is silenced, the Cross soon follows; when grace is replaced by psychology, the sacraments become symbols, and faith becomes therapy.
This is why St. John Bosco’s dream of the two pillars resounds with such urgency today. He saw the Barque of Peter battered by storms, assaulted from every side, until it was anchored between two great pillars rising from the sea: the Eucharist and the Blessed Virgin Mary. The present attempt to diminish Mary’s titles is an assault on one pillar – and we can be certain the other will soon be attacked more fiercely. Already we see confusion about the Real Presence, indifference to sacrilege, and innovations that obscure the sacrificial nature of the Mass.
To strike at Mary is to strike at the Eucharist, for both are inseparably united in the mystery of the Incarnation. She gave Christ His Body; that Body becomes our Eternal Food. To deny her role as Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix is to sever the visible sign from the maternal heart that gave it.
Therefore, we must stand firm. Let us not be silent when truth is being dismantled under the pretense of prudence. The faithful have the right – and the duty – to speak the language of faith handed down by the saints. To call Mary Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of All Graces is not to add to revelation but to honor what revelation already contains.
Let priests, religious, and laity speak her titles with confidence and teach their meaning. Let our homes, our apostolates, and our sorrows be consecrated anew to her Immaculate Heart. In times when shepherds falter and confusion spreads, Our Lady remains the sure sign of orthodoxy, the mirror of the Church, the one who crushes the serpent’s head. To her we entrust the renewal of faith, the purification of the clergy, and the triumph of her Immaculate Heart promised at Fatima.
It is deeply regrettable that Cardinal Fernandez’s document seeks to suppress the venerable titles Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix on the grounds that they might confuse the faithful. Confusion arises not from truth but from its obscuring. Generations of saints and faithful were enlightened, not misled, by these titles.
Let us not fear to speak what is true:
Mary is the Mother of God.
Mary is Co-Redemptrix.
Mary is Mediatrix of All Graces.
These truths glorify not Mary apart from Christ, but Christ through Mary – for all her greatness flows from Him and leads back to Him.
May the Immaculate Virgin intercede for the Church in this hour of trial. May she obtain for us the courage to speak the truth in love, the purity to live it, and the perseverance to defend it until the end.
With paternal affection in Christ,
Bishop Joseph E. Strickland
Bishop Emeritus
