In his 1904 encyclical “Ad Diem,” Pius X (who reigned as Roman Pontiff
from 1903-1914), wrote the following about Mary’s role in salvation:
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mediatrix of Graces
[From the Encyclical, “Ad diem,” February 2, 1904]
1978a [DS 3370] As the result of this participation between Mary and Christ in the
sorrows and the will, she deserved most worthily to be made the restorer of the
lost world,”[1] and so the dispenser of all the gifts which Jesus procured for
us by His death and blood.… Since she excels all in sanctity, and by her union
with Christ and by her adoption by Christ for the work of man’s salvation, she
merited for us de congruo, as
they say, what Christ merited de condigno, and is the first minister of the graces to be bestowed. (Henry
Denzinger, The Sources of Catholic Dogma
[trans. Roy J. Deferrari; rev. by Karl Rahner; 13th ed.; St. Louis, Miss.: B.
Herder Book Co., 1957], 502
In the footnote from this excerpt, we read:
[1] The monk, Eadmar, The
Excellence of the Virgin Mary, c. 9 [ML 159, 573]. Cf. what Benedict XV, Litt. Apost., “Inter sodalicia,” March
22, 1918 (AAS 10 [1918] 182) holds: “So did she suffer with her suffering and
dying son, and almost die; so did she abdicate her maternal rights over her Son
for the salvation of men, and to placate God’s justice, insofar as was fitting
for her, so did she sacrifice her Son, that it can properly he said that she
with Christ redeemed the human race”; and also, what Pius XI has, Litt. Apost., “Explorata res,” February
2, 1923 (AAS 15 [1923] 104): “The Virgin participated with Jesus Christ in the
very painful act of redemption.” In the decree of the S.C. of the Holy Office
(section on Indulgences), “Sunt quos amor,” June 26, 1913 (AAS 5 [1913] 364),
he praises the custom of adding to the name of Jesus the name of “His Mother,
our coredemptor, the blessed Mary”; cf. also the prayer enriched by the Holy
Office with an indulgence, in which the Blessed Virgin Mary is called
“coredemptress of the human race” (Jan. 22, 1914; AAS 6 [1914] 108).
A contemporary of Pius X, writing in 1910, Frederick Justus Knecht,
D.D., the then-Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Freiburg, wrote the
following about Mary's role in salvation in his commentary on the Gospels and
Acts which mirrors the Mariology of Pius X:
Mary co-operated in our salvation by giving her consent to become the Mother of the
Saviour. The angel of the Lord was sent to Mary in order to procure this
consent. The time had arrived, and the Son of God was ready to descend from
heaven and become Man. It only remained for her, whom God the Father had chosen
to be the Mother of His Son, to give her consent to be so. The angel of God
therefore explained this great mystery, and waited for her answer, on which
depended the salvation of the world. While meditating upon that decisive
moment, St. Bernard uttered this prayer to Mary: “Now, O Virgin, thou hast
heard what is to be, and how it is to be. Both mysteries are exceeding joyous
and wonderful. But the angel awaits thine answer, for it is time for him to
return to God who sent him. We too, O Mary, our Queen, we who are weighed down
by the divine sentence, we wait for thy speech, thy words of mercy. For behold,
the price of our redemption is offered to thee; and as soon as thou dost accept
it, we shall be saved. We were all created by the eternal word of God, and yet,
behold, we die! But if thou wilt speak one little word, we shall live! Speak
then, Oh, speak that decisive word. Adam and his unhappy children, banished
from Paradise, beseech this of thee! David and all our holy fathers—thy fathers
too—beseech thee! The whole world, prostrate before thee, looks to thee and
beseeches! On thy words depend the comfort of the afflicted, the deliverance of
the condemned, the salvation of the children of Adam! Hesitate not, O Virgin!
Speak, O Mary, that sweet word of consent, which we who are on the earth, and
under the earth, now wait for!” Mary, as you know, did utter that decisive word
of compliance: “Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it done to me according to
thy word!” By these glorious and precious words she pronounced the longed-for
consent. Our Redemption began from the moment in which Mary acknowledged
herself to be the handmaid of the Lord, and became the Mother of God! It is
therefore reasonable, just, and right that all Christians should honour Mary as
the “cause of our joy”, in the words of her Litany, and should venerate her as
the “Mother most pure”, through whom our Redeemer was given to us. The Feast of
her Annunciation is kept on March 25th. (Frederick Justus
Knecht, A Practical Commentary on Holy
Scripture For the Use of Those who Teach Bible History [trans. M.F.
Glancey; 3d ed.; London: B Herder, 1910], 388-89)
Again and again, when we study the official Mariology of Roman Catholicism,
we see why (1) Catholic Mariology specifically and (2) Roman Catholicism in
general should be rejected. For a fuller discussion, see my book, Behold the Mother of My Lord: Towards a Mormon Mariology
