Rome conference reopens debate over Blessed Virgin Mary’s ‘Co-redemptrix’ title

An international Marian conference examining the Blessed Virgin Mary’s role in Redemption opened in Rome Oct. 7 following the Vatican’s statement that “Co-redemptrix” is not an appropriate title for describing her cooperation in salvation. 

The Oct. 7–8 conference, De Maria numquam satis, meaning “Of Mary, one can never say enough,” brings together cardinals, theologians, and historians to discuss Marian doctrine and devotion, including Mary’s divine motherhood, the Immaculate Conception, and the Assumption, according to its program. The conference is being held at the Augustinian Patristic Institute.

Cardinal Raymond Burke defended the title in his opening address at the conference, the Daily Compass reported Oct. 7. He previously served as prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest court.

“The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, participated in an altogether unique way in the Mystery of Faith, the Mystery of the Redemptive Incarnation, and is rightly called Co-Redemptrix,” Cardinal Burke said. “So, too, to the degree that we unite our hearts, one with her Immaculate Heart, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we participate in the saving mission of Christ. We can rightly be called co-redeemers.”

The title, which dates to the 15th century, drew renewed attention last year when the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) issued Mater Populi Fidelis, a doctrinal note signed by DDF Prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández on Marian titles and the Blessed Virgin’s cooperation in salvation. Pope Leo XIV approved the document Oct. 7, 2025, as Zeale News previously reported.

“Given the necessity of explaining Mary’s subordinate role to Christ in the work of Redemption, it would not be appropriate to use the title ‘Co-redemptrix’ to define Mary’s cooperation,” the DDF stated.

The dicastery cautioned that the title could blur the Church’s teaching that salvation comes through Jesus Christ alone.

“This 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, for ‘there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved,’” the DDF added, quoting Acts 4:12. “When an expression requires many, repeated explanations to prevent it from straying from a correct meaning, it does not serve the faith of the People of God and becomes unhelpful.”

The document also affirmed Mary’s unique cooperation in Christ’s redemptive work and emphasized her maternal intercession for the faithful.

Other speakers at the conference include Father Manfred Hauke, director of the Institute of Mariology at the Faculty of Theology of Lugano, whose presentation examines Mary’s divine motherhood, and Dominican Father Wojciech Giertych, theologian of the Pontifical Household. Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller, former prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, will speak Oct. 8, according to the conference’s program.

The Vatican’s reservations about the title predate Mater Populi Fidelis. In 2002, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict XVI, warned that “Co-redemptrix” strayed too far from the language of Scripture and the Church Fathers and could cause “misunderstandings,” as Zeale News previously reported.

“While Cardinal Ratzinger did not deny that there may have been good intentions and valuable aspects in the proposal to use this title, he maintained that they were ‘being expressed in the wrong way,’” the DDF stated.

Cardinal Burke returned to concerns about the title’s meaning in his concluding remarks.

“In this regard, we should be careful that the hesitation arising from a misunderstanding of the term ‘Co-Redemptrix’ does not lead to a weakening of the teaching on Co-Redemption, which applies, in a unique way, to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, in a common way, to all the baptized.”

In May, months after the doctrinal note was issued, Pope Leo XIV reflected on the Blessed Virgin’s cooperation in Redemption during a General Audience, drawing on Lumen Gentium, as Zeale News previously reported.

“The Council has left us a clear teaching on the unique place reserved to the Virgin Mary in the work of Redemption,” the Holy Father said.

“It recalls that the sole Mediator of salvation is Jesus Christ, and that his Mother Most Holy ‘in no way impedes, but rather fosters the immediate union of the faithful with Christ’,” he continued, quoting the constitution. “At the same time, ‘predestined from eternity by that decree of divine providence which determined the incarnation of the Word to be the Mother of God, the Blessed Virgin … in this singular way … cooperated by Her obedience, faith, hope and burning charity in the work of the Saviour in giving back supernatural life to souls. Wherefore She is our mother in the order of grace.’”