As I wrote in my last column, the Vatican document on the terms ‘Co-redemptrix’ and ‘Mediatrix’ as applied to Our Lady was issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) on 4 November 2025 and titled Mater Populi Fidelis, Mother of the Faithful People of God.
The document acknowledges that in the early centuries Fathers of the Church such as St Andrew of Crete, St Germanus of Constantinople and St John Damascene applied the title ‘Mediatrix’ to Our Lady.
More recently, in 1921, Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Mechelen in Belgium, asked Pope Benedict XV to define a dogma of Mary’s universal mediation. While the pope did not declare the dogma, he did approve a feast of Mary Mediatrix with its own Mass and Divine Office texts.
The Second Vatican Council too, in its Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium, taught that “the Blessed Virgin is invoked in the Church under the titles of Advocate, Helper, Benefactress and Mediatrix.
“This, however, is so understood that it neither takes away anything from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator… The Church does not hesitate to profess this subordinate role of Mary, which it constantly experiences and recommends to the heartfelt attention of the faithful, so that encouraged by this maternal help they may the more closely adhere to the Mediator and Redeemer” (LG, 62).
The recent DDF document mentions this text of Vatican II, and stresses that Mary’s mediating role is subordinate to that of Christ: “Christ is the only Mediator, ‘for there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all’ (1 Tim 2:5-6)” (n. 24). It adds: “Strictly speaking, we cannot talk of any other mediation in grace apart from that of the incarnate Son of God” (n. 27).
This last sentence can be understood in the sense that, while Our Lady certainly carries out a mediating role, only Christ in his humanity is the Mediator in the distribution of grace. The document comments extensively on whether Mary is ‘Mediatrix of all graces’, concluding that this title is not applicable to her. I will write about that in my next column.
In explaining Mary’s role as a mediatrix, the document follows a simple line of thought. Christ is the only true Mediator, as St Paul writes in the letter to Timothy quoted above.
“He is the eternal and infinite Son of God, hypostatically united with the humanity he assumed. This is exclusive to Christ’s humanity, and the consequences that derive from it can only be properly applied to him. In this precise sense, the Incarnate Word’s role is exclusive and unique” (n. 24).
Given this truth, special prudence is needed when applying the term “mediator” to anyone else, including the Blessed Virgin.
It is a fact that “the word ‘mediation’ is commonly used in many areas of everyday life, where it is understood simply as cooperation, assistance, or intercession. As a result, it is inevitable that the term would be applied to Mary in a subordinate sense” (n. 25).
For example, Mary has a mediating role in enabling the Incarnation of the Son of God at the Annunciation, and also in asking Jesus to provide wine for the wedding feast at Cana.
In view of this, the document says that “the unicity of Christ’s mediation is ‘inclusive.’ He enables various forms of participation in his salvific plan because, in communion with him, we can all become, in some way, cooperators with God and ‘mediators’ for one another (cf. 1 Cor 3:9; n. 28)”. We are mediators, for example, when we pray to God for another person. But our mediation, like Mary’s, is always subordinate to that of Christ.
If we can all cooperate in this way with God, Our Lady does so “in a unique and supreme way…that far surpasses any other believer” (n. 32).
In summary, the Blessed Virgin is truly a mediatrix, as we all are. We see this in Marian prayers like the Hail Mary and Hail, Holy Queen, which ask her to intercede for us. But her mediation must always be understood as subordinate to that of Christ, the one true Mediator.
To read the other installments in this much talked about series, follow the links below: