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<\/a>I draw wholly<\/em> (without a single word of comment, beyond this introduction) from the document, Mater Populi Fidelis:\u00a0Doctrinal Note on Some Marian Titles Regarding Mary\u2019s Cooperation in the Work of Salvation<\/em><\/a>, which was released on 4 November 2025, by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (V\u00edctor Manuel Card. Fern\u00e1ndez, Prefect<\/i>) and \u201capproved\u201d by Pope Leo XIV, who \u201cordered its publication.\u201d<\/p>\n To me, this aspect was the most fascinating part of the document and perhaps (?) the most important, and a fairly \u201cnew\u201d (?) development of Mariology. I won\u2019t include full footnotes right after the citations this time, in order to foster a better \u201cflow\u201d of the text. All of that can be found in my article, Mater Populi Fidelis<\/em>: Themes & Highlights<\/a>, from which these excerpts are entirely drawn. But I will indicate the source<\/em> of direct citations, in brackets and blue<\/span> font.<\/p>\n Passages at the end, after the three asterisks, represent the most specific as to the fine points<\/em> of how Mary\u2019s mediation works or functions.<\/p>\n *****<\/p>\n Saint Augustine calls the Virgin \u201ccooperator\u201d in Christ\u2019s Redemption, thereby emphasizing both Mary\u2019s action at Christ\u2019s side as well as her subordination to him, . . .\u00a0[9]<\/p>\n The cooperation of the Mother with her Son in the work of Salvation has been taught by the Magisterium of the Church. As the Second Vatican Council states, \u201crightly, therefore, the holy Fathers see Mary not merely as a passive instrument in the hands of God, but as freely cooperating in the work of human salvation through faith and obedience.\u201d [Lumen Gentium<\/em><\/span>; henceforth \u201cLG\u201d]\u00a0[13]<\/p>\n The Second Vatican Council\u2019s terminology regarding\u00a0mediation<\/i> primarily refers to Christ; it sometimes also refers to Mary, but in a clearly subordinate manner. In fact, the Council preferred to use a different terminology for her: one centered on cooperation or maternal assistance. [27]<\/p>\n The Second Vatican Council affirmed that \u201cthe unique mediation of the Redeemer does not exclude but rather gives rise to a manifold cooperation which is but a sharing in one source.\u201d [LG<\/span>] For this reason, \u201cthe content of this participated mediation should be explored more deeply, but must remain always consistent with the principle of Christ\u2019s unique mediation.\u201d [CDF, Dominus Iesus<\/i><\/span>] [28]<\/p>\n Mary\u2019s participation in Christ\u2019s work becomes evident when one begins from the conviction that the risen Lord promotes, transforms, and enables believers to collaborate with him in his work. . . . What must be emphasized in this case is that when Christ allows us to accompany him and \u2014 under the impulse of his grace \u2014 to give our very best, it is ultimately his power and his mercy that are glorified. [29]<\/p>\n Christ\u2019s mediation, which in some respects can be \u201cinclusive\u201d or shared, is in other respects exclusive and incommunicable. [33]<\/p>\n Mary\u2019s maternal cooperation is\u00a0in<\/i>\u00a0Christ, and it is, thus,\u00a0participatory<\/i>. In other words, it involves \u201ca sharing in the one unique source that is the mediation of Christ himself.\u201d [Pope<\/span> St. John Paul II<\/span>] . . . Her maternal role \u201cin no way obscures or diminishes this unique mediation of Christ, but rather shows its power. All the Blessed Virgin\u2019s salutary influence\u201d on us springs from the \u201cthe superabundance of the merits of Christ, rests on his mediation, depends entirely on it and draws all its power from it.\u201d [LG<\/span>] [37]<\/p>\n Mary\u2019s motherhood in the order of grace must be understood as a help in preparing us to receive God\u2019s sanctifying grace. [46]<\/p>\n Mary listens, decides, and acts to help us open our lives to Christ and to his grace, because it is God alone who works in our innermost being. [49]<\/p>\n Indeed, only God reaches our innermost center to bring about elevation and transformation when he gives himself as a Friend, and thus, \u201cno creature can confer grace.\u201d \u00a0. . . \u201conly God produces the interior effect of the sacrament: first, because God alone can enter the soul wherein the sacramental effect takes place (and no agent can operate immediately where it is not): secondly, because the grace that is an interior effect of the sacrament comes from God alone.\u201d [St. Thomas Aquinas<\/span>] [50]<\/p>\n No human person \u2014 not even the Apostles or the Blessed Virgin \u2014 can act as a universal dispenser of grace. Only God can bestow grace, . . . [53]<\/p>\n She cooperates in the economy of salvation by a derived and subordinate participation. Therefore, any expression about her \u201cmediation\u201d in grace must be understood as a distant analogy to Christ and his unique mediation. [53]<\/p>\n One should avoid any description that would suggest a Neoplatonic-like outpouring of grace by stages, as if God\u2019s grace were descending through various intermediaries (such as Mary) while its ultimate source (God) remained disconnected from our hearts. Such interpretations carry a negative impact on a proper understanding of the intimate, direct, and immediate encounter that grace effects between the Lord and the believer\u2019s heart. . . . It does not honor Mary to attribute to her any mediation in the accomplishment of this work that belongs exclusively to God. [55]<\/p>\n We must reflect on how Mary fosters our \u201cimmediate union\u201d [LG<\/span>] with the Lord \u2014 which the Lord himself produces by conferring grace and which we can receive only from God\u00a0\u2014 and not think of our union with Mary as being more immediate than our union with Christ. This risk is present, above all, in the notion that Christ gives us Mary as an instrument or as a secondary and perfecting cause in the communication of his grace. . . . The Second Vatican Council highlighted that \u201cthe Blessed Virgin\u2019s salutary influence on men originates not in any inner necessity but in the disposition of God.\u201d [LG<\/span>] . . . it is not acceptable to present Mary\u2019s action as if God needed her to accomplish salvation. [65]<\/p>\n ***<\/p>\n In Mary\u2019s case, this mediation takes place in a\u00a0maternal\u00a0<\/i>way, \u00a0just as she did at Cana and as was confirmed at the cross. [34]<\/p>\n She, who received in her womb the power of the Holy Spirit and became the Mother of God, by that same Spirit, becomes Mother of the Church. Because of this singular union in motherhood and in grace, her prayer for us has a value and an efficacy that cannot be compared to any other intercession. Saint John Paul II connected the title \u201cMediatrix\u201d with this role of maternal intercession, noting that Mary \u201cputs herself \u2018in the middle,\u2019 that is to say, she acts as a mediatrix not as an outsider, but in her position as mother. She knows that, as such, she can point out to her Son the needs of mankind.\u201d [38]<\/p>\n Mary is sometimes portrayed as if she possessed a repository of\u00a0grace<\/i> separate from God. In such a notion, it is not so clear that it is the Lord who \u2014 in his generous and free omnipotence \u2014 willed to associate her with the sharing of that divine life which springs forth from the sole center that is the Heart of Christ, not that of Mary. She is also frequently portrayed or imagined as a fountain from which all grace flows. If one considers the fact that the Trinitarian indwelling (uncreated grace) and our participation in the divine life (created grace) are inseparable, we cannot think that this mystery depends on a \u201cpassage\u201d through Mary\u2019s hands. Such notions elevate Mary so highly that Christ\u2019s own centrality may disappear or, at least, become conditioned. [45]<\/p>\n In the perfect immediacy between a human being and God in the communication of grace, not even Mary can intervene. Neither friendship with Jesus Christ nor the Trinitarian indwelling can be conceived of as something that comes to us through Mary or the saints. In any case, what we can say is that Mary desires this good for us and she asks for it, together with us. . . . the liturgy of the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception states that she became an \u201cadvocate of grace\u201d [The Roman Missal<\/i><\/span>]\u00a0\u2014 that is, she intercedes by asking God that we might receive the gift of grace. [54]<\/p>\n Mary does not supplant the Lord in any action he has not already done (i.e., she does not take anything away from him) nor does she supplement him (i.e., she does not add to him). Since she does not add anything to Christ\u2019s salvific mediation in the communication of grace, she should not be regarded as the instrumental agent of that free bestowal. . . . being associated with Christ, Mary is the recipient of a gift from her Son that places her beyond herself, a gift that enables her to accompany the Lord\u2019s work with her maternal character. [65]<\/p>\n Through her intercession, Mary can implore God to grant us those internal impulses of the Holy Spirit that are called \u201cactual graces.\u201d These are the aids given by the Holy Spirit that operate even in sinners to prepare them for justification, and that encourage those already justified by sanctifying grace to further growth. It is in this specific sense that the title \u201cMother of Grace\u201d must be understood. She humbly cooperates so that we may open our hearts to the Lord, who alone can justify us through the action of sanctifying grace: that is, when God pours his Trinitarian life into us, dwells in us as a Friend, and makes us sharers in his divine life. This is exclusively the Lord\u2019s own work. At the same time, it does not preclude the possibility that the words, images or various prompts that we receive through Mary\u2019s maternal intercession might help us to persevere in life, to prepare our hearts for the grace that the Lord infuses, or to grow in the life of grace that we have freely received. [69]<\/p>\n \u201cMary, the first disciple, is Mother.\u201d \u00a0On the Cross, Christ entrusts us to Mary, and so \u201che brought us to her because he did not want us to journey without a mother.\u201d [Pope Francis<\/span>] She is the believing Mother who has become the \u201cMother of all believers\u201d; [Pope<\/span> Benedict XVI<\/span>] . . . \u201cOur Mother Mary always wants to walk at our side, to remain close to us, to help us with her intercession and her love.\u201d [Pope Leo XIV<\/span>] She is the Mother of the Faithful People of God, who \u201cmoves in the midst of her people by tender and loving care; she makes her own their anxieties and troubles.\u201d [Pope Francis<\/span>]\u00a0[76]<\/p>\n