Free Republic

What is your first response when you hear someone refer to the mother of Jesus Christ as the “Co-redemptrix”? Extreme? Excessive pietism, even if well-intended? Heresy? Only Jesus is the Redeemer. If not directly heresy, then extremely dangerous? At least anti-ecumenical? At best confusing?Witness of the Saints Now let’s look at some people who have in fact called the Virgin Mary the Co-redemptrix: John Paul II (on six different occasions); Bl. Mother Teresa of Calcutta; St. Padre Pio, stigmatic wonder worker of the 20th century; Sr. Lucia, the Fatima visionary; St. Francis Cabrini, the first American citizen to be canonized;...

How Did Mary Make Satisfaction For Us? The purpose of satisfaction is to repair the offence offered to God and to make Him once more favorable to the sinner. The offence offered by mortal sin has about it a certain infinity, since offence is measured by the dignity of the person offended. Mortal sin, by turning the sinner away from God, his final end, denies in practice to God His infinite rights as the Supreme Good and destroys His reign in souls. It follows from this that only the Incarnate Word could offer to the Father perfect and adequate satisfaction...

Our Lady Untier of Knots,Marian Image Beloved by Pope Francis Our new Pope Francis has a very special devotion to Our Lady Untier of Knots. Many have never heard of this devotion, but it's a great one...going all the way back to the second century.  Before describing "Our Lady Untier of Knots," I'd like to share a recent experience from my own life as it relates to this special Marian devotion: Recently at Fisher More College, during the offertory of our High Mass for the feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a student tapped me on the shoulder, "Dr. Marshall,...

Should Mary be declared co-redemptrix? One of the items posted by the Roman Catholic Zenit News Agency for Monday 11 February 2008 read as follows – Cardinals Hoping for a 5th Marian Dogma To Declare Mary as Mother of Humanity ROME, FEBRUARY. 11, 2008 (Zenit.org).- Five cardinals have sent a letter inviting prelates worldwide to join them in petitioning Benedict XVI to declare a fifth Marian dogma they said would "proclaim the full Christian truth about Mary."The text, released last week, includes the petition that asks the Pope to proclaim Mary as "the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the co-redemptrix...

On Good Friday, after night has fallen on the medieval Umbrian town of Alviano, the crowds flock to a spellbinding re-enactment of the Passion of Christ. From the ancient piazza they watch as the bare-chested actor playing Jesus, head crowned with thorns, is tied to a cross 35ft above the ground, fixed to the ramparts of the 15th-century castle. This year, however, the figure spotlit on the cross will be a woman - a 29-year-old ballerina named Elena Angeli - who was cast by the play's director, Corrado Sorbara, to show the "other, feminine side of Christ". His controversial decision...

Hanover, Penn., – Moral values are being undermined at 30 Catholic colleges during the weeks surrounding St. Valentine’s day. In fact, many students are afflicted by a play called “The V***** Monologues,” which is scheduled to be held on Catholic campuses throughout the country. (Asterisks added for the sake of modesty). TFP Student Action – a conservative organization of Catholic inspiration – is opposing the play, urging its members on 375 campuses to protest. According to the group’s web site: “In one scene, a woman describes her seduction by a lesbian woman when she was 16 years old, declaring it...