Dutch Bishop Mutsaerts rebukes Cardinal Fernández’s DDF directive on Co-Redemptrix, defending Mary’s unique role in redemption and urging clarity over suppression.
Newsroom (20/11/2025 Gaudium Press ) A senior Dutch bishop has launched a forceful critique of the Vatican’s recent doctrinal note on the Marian title “Co-Redemptrix,” accusing Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), of creating unnecessary confusion by advising against its use.
In a strongly worded blog post published this week, Auxiliary Bishop Rob Mutsaerts of ’s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands, declared: “There is no truth that cannot be misunderstood.” He charged that Cardinal Fernández is “mistaken to claim that it is no longer advisable to use the title ‘Co-Redemptrix’ for Mary,” arguing that the problem is not the title itself but a failure to understand it properly.
“If he is concerned that people will equate Mary with Christ, the problem lies with him, not Mary,” Bishop Mutsaerts wrote. He emphasized that Christ’s unique and absolute primacy as Redeemer remains unassailable: “Christ’s position is so absolute that it is nonsensical to imagine anyone overshadowing him. Cooperation does not imply rivalry.”
The bishop rooted Mary’s cooperative role firmly in divine initiative. “The fact that Mary cooperated in our redemption is not a human invention,” he insisted. “It stems from God’s decision to work through human mediation. Every step in salvation history demonstrates that God acts through humanity, not despite it.”
Citing a long line of papal and saintly witnesses, Bishop Mutsaerts noted that the Church has “not used the term lightly or rarely.” He recalled Pope Benedict XV’s description of Mary’s suffering at the foot of the Cross as “almost equal” to Christ’s—“almost, I repeat, not actually,” the pope had stressed, a nuance the bishop said only the inattentive would miss.
Rather than banning a term because it might be misconstrued, Bishop Mutsaerts urged the DDF to explain it. “One would expect him to start by explaining it rather than erasing it,” he wrote, offering a vivid analogy: “If someone finds a map confusing, teach them how to read it. You wouldn’t tear the map to pieces and declare the world to be flat.”
He further clarified that the prefix “co” derives from the Latin cum—“with”—and denotes subordinate cooperation, not equality. “There has never been any real confusion about this,” he asserted, adding that the DDF’s note risks “casting suspicion on the term itself.”
In a rhetorical flourish, the bishop asked: “If God was not afraid to give a girl from Nazareth the title ‘Mother of God’, why should we be afraid to give her lesser titles?”
The controversy surrounding “Co-Redemptrix” is not new. The title has appeared in Catholic theology for centuries, with saints such as Bonaventure and Bernardine of Siena praising Mary’s cooperation in redemption. Popes Leo XIII, St. Pius X, and Benedict XV explicitly endorsed the concept.
The issue reached a climax at the Second Vatican Council, where a significant group of bishops petitioned for Mary to be solemnly proclaimed Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix, and Advocate as a fifth Marian dogma. By a narrow vote, however, the Council Fathers opted to integrate Marian doctrine into the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (Lumen Gentium) rather than issue a separate document. The final text called Mary “Mediatrix” and acknowledged her maternal intercession and subordinate cooperation in salvation, while deliberately avoiding “Co-Redemptrix” over fears it could obscure Christ’s singular mediatorship and hinder ecumenical progress.
Post-conciliar popes have treated the matter cautiously. St. John Paul II employed “Co-Redemptrix” several times in the 1980s and 1990s, fueling hopes among advocates. Yet then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, cautioned that the term was “too far from Scripture” and risked confusion. Pope Francis has repeatedly stressed that “Christ is the only Redeemer,” describing Mary as mother of the Church rather than “co-redeemer.”
Ecumenical sensitivities remain a key obstacle, with many theologians warning that elevating Co-Redemptrix to dogmatic status could strain relations with Orthodox and Protestant communities.
Bishop Mutsaerts’ intervention underscores a persistent divide within Catholicism between those who see the title as a legitimate development of tradition and those who believe pastoral and ecumenical prudence justifies setting it aside. For now, the DDF under Cardinal Fernández has signaled that Rome prefers the latter course—though voices like the Dutch auxiliary bishop make clear the debate is far from settled.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Catholic Herald
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