Vatican rejects ‘Co-Redemptrix’ title for Mary to protect Christ’s sole mediation and aid ecumenical dialogue, per doctrinal note praised by theologian Jan-Heiner Tück.
Newsroom (06/11/2025, Gaudium Press ) The Vatican’s Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith has definitively rejected the Marian title “Co-Redemptrix,” emphasizing its potential to obscure Christ’s unique role in salvation and complicate ecumenical relations. The decision, outlined in a doctrinal note released Tuesday, underscores the need to maintain Mary’s subordinate participation in redemption without elevating her to a status that rivals Jesus.
“Given the need to explain Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of redemption, the use of the title ‘Co-Redemptrix’ is always inappropriate when it comes to defining Mary’s participation in it,” the note stated. It warned that the term “carries the risk of obscuring Christ’s unique mediation of salvation and can therefore lead to confusion and an imbalance in the harmony of Christian truths,” invoking Acts 4:12: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved.”
The document further argued that any term requiring “many and constant explanations to counteract divergent and erroneous understandings” fails to serve the faith of the faithful and becomes unsuitable. Highlighting Mary as the “first and greatest collaborator” in redemption, it said, risks diminishing Christ’s exclusive position as the incarnate Son of God, capable of offering an infinite sacrifice— an honor that would not truly exalt the Mother of God.
Jan-Heiner Tück, a professor of dogmatic theology at the University of Vienna, hailed the rejection in an article published Tuesday in Communio. “Protestants repeatedly express the suspicion that the Catholic Church ascribes to Mary a position that undermines or endangers the confession of Jesus Christ’s sole mediation (cf. 1 Tim 2:4f.; Jn 14:6; Acts 4:12),” Tück wrote. He described the note as clarifying that Mary cannot be elevated to “Redeemer” or goddess status, condemning medieval devotional practices that pitted her mercy against Christ’s justice as “theologically problematic, indeed absurd,” and tantamount to idolatry.
“The Roman document rightly emphasizes the primacy of Christology over Mariology,” Tück concluded. “Mary is what she is because of Christ and because of him.” He praised the inclusion of Dante’s Divine Comedy, where Mary is called not only the mother but the “daughter of the Son.”
The note aligns with prior Vatican II teachings and statements from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI. It quoted Ratzinger from a 1996 internal meeting of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which he chaired, and from interviews with Peter Seewald. Pope Francis is cited declaring: “The Redeemer is one alone. And this title is not doubled.” Another passage affirmed: “Mary is not venerated alongside Christ. Rather, through the Incarnation, she is part of the mystery of Christ.”
While acknowledging historical usage, the document downplayed it. “Some popes have used this title without explaining it further,” it noted tersely, relegating examples—including Pius XI’s direct references and documents from Pius X’s era—to footnotes. Regarding Saint John Paul II, who employed the term at least seven times, the note specified he linked it to the salvific value of suffering united with Christ’s, particularly Mary’s at the Cross. A footnote observed that he abandoned the title post-1996 and omitted it from his 1987 encyclical Redemptoris Mater, his seminal work on Mary’s role in salvation.
Tück stressed the ecumenical imperative: “Mary’s ‘participatory mediation’ and ‘maternal intercession,’ yes, but competition or even a supplement to the sole mediation of Jesus Christ, no! This is particularly important with regard to ecumenical dialogue with the churches that emerged from the Reformation.”
Marian associations had petitioned the Vatican for decades to dogmatize “Co-Redemptrix,” but the note’s unequivocal stance ends such efforts, prioritizing doctrinal clarity and inter-Christian unity.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from CNA
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