Commenting on the debate that has resulted from Mater Populi Fidelis, November 11, 2025, Catholic apologist Edward P. Martin admitted that the Magisterium has not resulted in “clarity” (which means he is more honest than ‘pop’ level apologists like most at Catholic Answers):
The Authority Crisis Is Real
The controversy has exposed
tensions within Catholic ecclesiology that Vatican I left unresolved and
Vatican II complicated.
What happens when non-infallible
magisterial teachings contradict each other? Does later teaching automatically supersede
earlier teaching? Does later teaching automatically supersede earlier teaching?
Does the authority level matter (papal encyclical vs. dicastery document)? What
role does reception by the faithful play? Can Catholics conscientiously dissent
from non-infallible teaching?
These aren’t merely academic
questions. Real Catholics must decide: Do I follow Leo XIII’s teaching about
Mary or Mater Populi Fidelis’s teaching? Both claim authority. Both
demand “religious submission of mind and will.” Yet they contradict each other—at
least in the language of mind and will.” Yet they contradict each other—at least
in the language they permit, if not in the substance they affirm.
The fact that learned, faithful Catholics
disagree about which teaching to follow reveals that the Church’s theology of
non-infallible magisterium is underdeveloped. This underdevelopment creates
crises like the present one. (Edward P. Martin, Mary Under Siege: How a Recent
Vatican Document is Dividing Catholics Over the Mother of God [2025], 320)
