In May of 2005 our Fr. Peter Damian Fehlner moderated at the Fatima Symposium on Marian Coredemption in which a number of prelates participated and delivered papers in support of the Fifth Marian Dogma. The Cardinal Cosponsors have just made a press release concerning a letter (Zenit) “sent to the world’s bishops and cardinals asking them to sign a petition that asks Benedict XVI to proclaim Mary as the Spiritual Mother of Humanity.”
The blogs are abuzz. The Catholic Cavemen note that the signatories are all from Asia or Latin America:
Did anyone else notice that all of the Cardinals listed were from Asia or Latin America? The only one listed from Europe/North America, is dead.
How prophetic.
On the otherhand, Schütz is not sure its a good idea for ecumenism. The usual objection:
Red rag to a bull, I reckon. Papal Marian definitions are not the way to advance ecumenism.
Catholic Answers has taken a poll. Democracy does not look good for the Dogma. Oh, wait. . . the Church is not a democracy. I know, I know, sensus fidelium. Wait again. . . perhaps the ayes will have it in the end. The votum has been distributed to all the bishops.
In any case, don’t forget that the sense of the faithful on the matter has a very significant affirmative voice. From a 2002 interview with Mark Miravalle:
How many Catholic faithful have petitioned for this dogma, and do you see any relevance for the proclamation of this Marian dogma with the present world situation?
Miravalle: In the last 10 years, about 7 million petitions from over 150 countries have been sent to the Holy See, along with the endorsements of 550 bishops and over 40 cardinals. This constitutes the largest petition drive per annum in the history of the Church.
I think it is interesting that the only arguments offered against the dogma are patently Protestant arguments. I would like to see someone argue from the Catholic theological tradition, not merely from an apologetical one, but a theological one, why this is a bad idea. I thought true ecumenism was oriented toward Our Lord’s wish that they all may be one. Seems that more often than not, Catholics try to achieve this by thinking like Protestants.
Here’s a test. Why don’t some of you who really think like Catholics, but who do not believe the dogma opportune, try to institute in your parishes a devotion to Our Lady of Sorrows? Start praying together the chaplet of the Seven Sorrows of Our Lady, with accompanying devotional meditations emphasizing the Coredemption. That way you can acknowledge the full truth about Our Lady, and pray for God’s will in the matter.
Mark Miravalle’s site on the subject of the Cardinals’ letter.
It isn’t a matter of ecumenism. It is either truth, or it is nothing.
Should we shy away from The Eucharist as the body, blood, soul and divinity of Christ because some consider it a ‘symbol’? Of course not.
Dogmas aren’t papal opinions, they are “formally revealed truths…in scripture or tradition…either explicitly or implicity” (Fr Hardon Catholic Dictionary).
My only concern with so much emphasis on the laity’s role (I am a lay person myself), is that even if a majority of Catholics agree that something is truth, that does not make it truth. I would hate to think what ‘dogmas’ would be proclaimed if US Catholics (again, I am one) took a vote on such things!
Can someone explain the proper role of the laity in situations like this? My history is still lacking, but the last two Marian dogmas were preceeded, even then, by support from the laity, correct?