Catholic
Candle note:
The
article below pertains to one of the many scandalous errors that Pope
Leo XIV has promoted, to date, during his short reign. However, a
reader would be mistaken to assume that Pope Leo XIV’s grave errors
somehow mean that he is not the pope.
Sedevacantism
is wrong and is (material or formal) schism. Catholic
Candle
is not sedevacantist.
Here
is what St. Bernard of Clairvaux, Doctor of the Church, teaches
concerning our duty to recognize and respect the authority
of a superior – such as the pope – even when he is very bad:
Even
should the life of any superior be so notoriously wicked as to admit
of no excuse or dissimulation, nevertheless, for God’s sake, Who is
the source of all power, we are bound to honor such a one, not on
account of his personal merits, which are non-existent, but because
of the divine ordination and the dignity of his office.
However,
even while recognizing the pope’s authority and our duty to obey
him when we are able, we know we must resist the evil he says and
does. Read more about this principle here:
https://catholiccandle.org/2025/07/24/our-catholic-duty-resist-the-harm-done-by-a-bad-pope-but-of-course-recognize-his-authority/
To
learn more about why sedevacantism is wrong and why it is schism,
read Sedevacantism:
Material or Formal Schism,
which is available:
Defending
Catholic Doctrine and Our Lady’s Honor
Against Pope Leo XIV
and the Conciliar Barbarians
The
Catholic Church originally set the feast of Our Lady, Mediatrix
of All Graces,
on May 31 of each year. In the 1962 Missal (which is inferior to the
Missals preceding it), this feast of Our Lady was moved to May 8 by
the liturgical barbarian, Annibale Bugnini.
The
Conciliar Church Minimizes Our Lady
One of the hallmarks of the ongoing, evil, conciliar
revolution is the continual efforts to minimize the honor of the
Glorious Mother of God.
For
example, Vatican II admonishes us to beware of being excessive in our
praise for Our Lady. Here are the council’s words in one place:
[The
council] exhorts
theologians and preachers of the divine word to abstain zealously
both from all gross
exaggerations
as well as from petty
narrow-mindedness
in considering the singular dignity of the Mother of God.
Wretched
and unhappy
are they who neglect Mary under pretext of the honor to be paid to
Jesus Christ! As if the Child could be found elsewhere than with the
Mother!
One
reason that the conciliar church minimizes Our Lady is because the
conciliar churchmen are ecumenical fanatics. They minimize the role
of the Blessed Virgin Mary because that truth irritates the
protestants and others who are outside the ark of salvation – which
is the Catholic Church. The protestants ignore Our Lady and they
vociferously object to the Catholic truth that all of the blessings
of God come through the hands of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Thus,
Vatican II and the conciliar churchmen minimize the Glorious Mother
of God in order to please the enemies of God.
The
post-conciliar popes (each in his turn) minimized Our Lady – Pope
Francis more than the earlier post-Vatican II popes. Following Pope
Francis, Pope Leo XIV continues on that evil conciliar path of
minimizing Our Lady’s honor.
Pope
Leo XIV Minimizes Our Lady in His Document Entitled Mater
Populi Fidelis
Pope
Leo XIV is a man of the conciliar revolution and a man of Vatican II.
On October 7, 2025, he approved of a new document, Mater
Populi Fidelis,
which he issued through the Dicastery
For The Doctrine of the Faith.
Like
Vatican II itself, he warns us that devotion to the Blessed Virgin
Mary can distract us from her Son. Here are his words:
[A]ny
gaze directed at her that distracts us from Christ
or that places her on the same level as the Son of God would
fall outside the dynamic proper to an authentically Marian faith.
So,
just like Vatican II itself, Pope Leo XIV warns us to beware of zeal
for the honor Our Lady because it could detract from the honor of her
Son. He unreasonably warns us that gazing
at Our Lady can reduce her Son’s honor. Woe
to Pope Leo XIV!
He shows himself to fall within Pope St. Pius X’s apt description
– “wretched
and unhappy”
– referring to those who minimize Our Lady’s honor.
Of
course, the truth is that it virtually never happens that someone is
“excessively” devoted to Our Lady! Instead, the opposite is
true. We live in a time of gross disregard for the Blessed Virgin
Mary. The remedy for the ills of our time is greater devotion to Our
Lady.
Mater
Populi Fidelis:
a Document Which is Wordy, Ambiguous, and Heretical
Pope
Leo XIV’s Mater
Populi Fidelis
is about 19,000 words and largely cautions the reader to be careful
not to praise Our Lady too much or to exaggerate her greatness – as
if what Catholics need to hear right now is “Beware of excessively
praising Mary!”
This
lengthy document (Mater
Populi)
is wordy, frequently ambiguous, and contains heresy.
Its thrust is to minimize the importance of the Blessed Virgin Mary,
and devotion to her.
The
evils of Mater
Populi are
too many to cover in a single article. The focus of the present
article is the denial of Our Lady’s prerogative and her honor as
being the Mediatrix
of All Graces.
In
this article, we will start by examining the meaning of this title of
Our Lady and then review
the Catholic Church’s doctrine that Our Lady is truly
the Mediatrix
of All Graces.
After that, we will examine Pope Leo XIV’s evil teachings which
are the opposite of this Catholic Dogma.
What
Does It mean for Our Lady to Be the
Mediatrix
of All Graces?
First
of all, what is a mediatrix? A mediatrix is a female mediator. Just
as we use feminine pronouns for women and girls and male pronouns for
men and boys, likewise we use sex-specific suffixes to indicate the
gender of a person who has a certain role. For example, a man who
delivers food to the tables in a restaurant is called a “waiter”
and a woman who does this is called a “waitress”. This “-ress”
(or “ess”) ending feminizes the word. There are countless words
with such feminized endings, e.g.,
empress and shepherdess.
A
similar Latinized feminine ending to words is “-trix” (instead of
“-tress”). Thus:
-
a
female executor of a person’s will (and estate) is called an
“executrix”.
-
likewise,
Our Lady is called the “Mediatrix of all Graces”.
Ok.
So a “Mediatrix” is a Female Mediator. But What Does It Mean
for Our Lady to be the Mediatrix
of All Graces?
A
mediator:
-
is
one who helps to resolve a dispute;
-
occupies
a middle position between two parties in disagreement;
and
-
is
a conciliator, an intermediary, a peacemaker, an intercessor.
So
Our Lady is our peacemaker with her Son arising out of mankind’s
great offenses against Him. Making peace is accomplished through
Sanctifying Grace, as St. Thomas Aquinas teaches:
Sanctifying
Grace is given chiefly in order that man’s soul may be united to
God by charity.
This
charity is friendship with God and reconciles us with God.
So Our Lady reconciles us with her Son through Sanctifying Grace.
So
Our Lady’s title “Mediatrix of all Graces” refers to her being
our help reconciling us with her Son. It is her unique role (and
privilege) to assist her Son in distributing
to sinners all the graces of His Salvific Act of redemption. By
distributing her Son’s graces to men, she is aiding her Son by
reconciling mankind to Him.
Our
Lady’s assistance to her Son in His work of the sanctification of
souls is analogous to a nurse playing a uniquely important role in
helping a physician by distributing for him the necessary medicine to
his patients. Our Lady uniquely aids her Son although she is not
Divine (and although she herself depends on redemption by her Son),
just as the nurse is not a physician but can be a unique aid in his
work.
Couldn’t
God Have Distributed His Graces to Mankind Without Mary?
God
could indeed have distributed His graces to mankind without Mary’s
aid. This is like the physician (in the example above, who uses the
nurse’s help to distribute the medicine) would be capable of
distributing the medicine himself. The fact that Our Lady
distributes all of the graces of God does not mean that God could not
have accomplished this work differently. However, God chose this way
to do His work of sanctification because it is the best
way.
Reflect
on this:
God caused the universe to be the best possible one for His own
greater honor and glory.
As the Holy Ghost teaches in the Book
of Proverbs:
“The Lord hath made all things for Himself”. Proverbs,
16:4. No other motive (other than His own glory) would be worthy of
Him.
God
could have caused the universe to be different than it is. Two ways
God could have caused the universe to be different are: 1) to not
redeem man at all, after his fall; or, 2) after He redeemed man, to
not use the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary in distributing the
graces which He merited for the redemption of man. However, God did
redeem man and He did
use the help of the Blessed Virgin Mary in distributing the graces
necessary for salvation, because this is the perfect
way
for God to save the elect and God does all things in the best
possible way.
So,
as shown below, the Blessed Virgin Mary IS
the Mediatrix
of All Graces.
The reason for this is because God chose the best
way
to sanctify man and to save the elect. This is like the fact that
God chose to redeem man by dying on the cross not
because there was no other way for God to accomplish salvation, but
because this was the best,
most perfect way.
Here
is how St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort explains the perfection of
God’s plan in making Mary the Mediatrix
of All Graces:
God
the Holy Ghost entrusted his wondrous gifts to Mary, His faithful
spouse, and chose her as the dispenser of all He possesses, so that
she
distributes all His gifts and graces to whom she wills, as much as
she wills, how she wills and when she wills. No heavenly gift is
given to men which does not pass through her virginal hands.
Such indeed is the will of God, who has decreed that we should have
all things through Mary, so that, making herself poor and lowly, and
hiding herself in the depths of nothingness during her whole life,
she might be enriched, exalted and honored by almighty God. Such are
the views of the Church and the early Fathers.
St.
Louis continues:
God
in these times wishes his Blessed Mother to be more known, loved and
honored than she has ever been. This will certainly come about if
the elect, by the grace and light of the Holy Ghost, adopt the
interior and perfect practice of the devotion which I shall later
unfold. Then, they will clearly see that beautiful Star
of the Sea,
as much as Faith allows. Under her guidance they will perceive the
splendors of this Queen and will consecrate themselves entirely to
her service as subjects and slaves of love. They will experience her
motherly kindness and affection for her children. They will love her
tenderly and will appreciate how full of compassion she is and how
much they stand in need of her help. In all circumstances they will
have recourse to her as their advocate
and mediatrix with Jesus Christ.
They will see clearly that she is the safest, easiest, shortest and
most perfect way of approaching Jesus and will surrender themselves
to her, body and soul, without reserve in order to belong entirely to
Jesus. …
All
this is taken from St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure. According to
them, we have three steps to take in order to reach God. The first,
nearest to us and most suited to our capacity, is Mary; the second is
Jesus Christ; the third is God the Father. To go to Jesus, we should
go to Mary,
our mediatrix of intercession.
To go to God the Father, we must go to Jesus, our Mediator of
redemption.
Thus,
we see that Mary being the Mediatrix
of All Graces
means that she assists her Son and is our help and our go-between
with her Son, not because it was the only way that Our Lord could
save souls but because it was the best way and was the way He willed
to accomplish this work.
It
is Infallible Catholic Doctrine that Mary Is the Mediatrix
of All Graces
Mary
being Mediatrix
of All Graces
is an excellent example of a Catholic dogma which was never defined
by the Extraordinary
Magisterium
of the Church but which has always been infallibly taught by the
consistent teaching of the Church’s Ordinary
Magisterium.
But
before we get to some of the principal teachings of this dogma, let
us recall
some important truths of the catechism concerning the difference
between the Church’s infallible Ordinary
Magisterium,
as compared to the Church’s Extraordinary
Magisterium:
-
All
that God has divinely revealed to man is called Divine Revelation.
-
Divine
Revelation has two founts (i.e.,
sources): Sacred Scripture and Sacred Tradition.
-
Since
God is its Author,
all that is contained in Divine Revelation is certain, true, and is
part of the Catholic Faith.
-
The
Catholic Church is the guardian and sole interpreter of Divine
Revelation, and teaches the Faithful all the contents of Divine
Revelation.
This teaching
authority is called Her Magisterium.
-
God
has given the Church the gift of infallibility – the gift of being
unable to err when authoritatively teaching the whole Church
anything about Faith or morals.
-
All
of these truths which she teaches infallibly are called dogmas
(i.e.,
doctrines).
-
She
can teach dogmas to the Faithful using either Her extraordinary
infallible Magisterium or Her ordinary
infallible Magisterium. Both the ordinary and extraordinary
magisterial methods faithfully transmit dogmas to the Faithful
without error.
-
The
easier method to understand, and the one most Catholics are familiar
with, is the extraordinary
Magisterium.
A declaration of the Church’s extraordinary Magisterium is a
single declaration which includes the conditions which show that
this single declaration itself is infallible.
-
By
contrast, the Church’s ordinary Magisterium is not infallible in
virtue of one particular declaration. But it is the chain
of teachings
by Church authorities which show that the same
truth was always taught and held by the Church
and for this reason it is included in the body of the truths of the
Faith because
it was always taught and held by the Church since the time of the
apostles.
Having
now recalled what it means that a truth is taught by the infallible
Ordinary Magisterium of the Church, let us now read a sampling of the
most important (among countless other) occasions on which the
Catholic Church has taught the dogma that Mary is the Mediatrix
of All Graces.
We
start with some of the many occasions on which the Church taught this
doctrine shortly before the Vatican II revolution in the human
element of the Church. Then, after these more recent occasions, we
will proceed to set forth some of the countless occasions on which
this doctrine was taught throughout Church history.
Pope
Pius XII – (reigned 1939-1958)
In
his encyclical Mediator
Dei,
Pope Pius XII emphasizes the universality of Mary’s role as
dispenser of grace, saying:
She
gives us her Son and with Him all the help we need, for God ‘wished
us to have everything through Mary’.
Pope
Pius XII declared that the Blessed Virgin Mary is the “the
Mediatrix of peace”,
showing not only that she is mediatrix, but also that her mediation
pertains to grace, which is the source of our peace with God (as
shown above).
In
his Apostolic Exhortation Menti
Nostrae,
Pope Pius XII declared:
To
the Beloved Mother of God, mediatrix
of heavenly graces,
We entrust the priests of the whole world in order that, through her
intercession, God will vouchsafe a generous outpouring of His Spirit
which will move all ministers of the altar to holiness and, through
their ministry, will spiritually renew the face of the earth.
Pope
Pius XI –
(reigned 1922-1939)
When
urging the faithful to Eucharistic adoration, Pope Pius XI invokes
Our Lady as Mediatrix
of All Graces,
in the following words:
Let,
therefore, this year the Feast of the Sacred Heart be for the whole
Church one of holy rivalry of reparation and supplication. Let the
faithful hasten in large numbers to the eucharistic board, hasten to
the foot of the altar to adore the Redeemer of the world, under the
veils of the Sacrament, that you, Venerable Brethren, will have
solemnly exposed that day in all churches, let them pour out to that
Merciful Heart that has known all the griefs of the human heart, the
fullness of their sorrow, the steadfastness of their faith, the trust
of their hope, the ardor of their charity. Let them pray to Him,
interposing likewise the powerful patronage of the Blessed Virgin
Mary, Mediatrix
of all graces,
for themselves and for their families, for their country, for the
Church; let them pray to Him for the Vicar of Christ on earth and for
all the other Pastors, who share with him the dread burden of the
spiritual government of souls; let them pray for their brethren who
believe, for their brethren who err, for unbelievers, for infidels,
even for the enemies of God and the Church, that they may be
converted, and let them pray for the whole of poor mankind.
When
promoting devotion to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Pope Pius XI closes
with this edifying consideration:
Trusting
in her intercession with Christ, who whereas He is the “one
mediator of God and men” (1 Timothy ii, 5), chose to make His
Mother the advocate of sinners, and the minister and mediatress
of grace
….
Pope
Pius XI teaches that Our Lady is the mediatrix
of all good
that comes to us. Here are his words:
We know, though, that
everything comes
to us from Almighty God through the hands of Our Lady.
Pope
Benedict XV – (reigned 1914-1922) – (including the authority of
St. Dominic)
Pope
Benedict XV not only taught that Our Lady makes the decisions and
administers [the Latin is “administra et arbitra”] all graces
given to mankind, but the pope also taught that St.
Dominic knew this same truth too.
Here are the pope’s words in an encyclical on St. Dominic:
He
[St. Dominic] knew that Mary’s influence with her Divine Son was
such that whatever graces He confers on men, it was for her to judge
and distribute them.
(Catholic
Candle
note:
When we read the truth (as here) that it was for Mary to judge what
graces to give to men, it “goes without saying” that God gave her
the knowledge and wisdom to decide perfectly and that her will was
perfectly conformed to His Will.)
Pope
St. Pius X (1903-1914) – (including the authority of St. Bernardine
of Sienna)
This
saintly pope declared that Our Lady merited to be “Dispensatrix of
all the gifts that Our Savior purchased for us by His Death and by
His Blood.”
The word “dispensatrix” here describes the same role as
“mediatrix” of all graces.
Because
all good comes from Our Lord through Mary, Pope St. Pius X calls her
the “Neck” of the Mystical Body of Christ. Here are his words,
quoting St. Bernardine of Sienna:
It
cannot, of course, be denied that the dispensation of these treasures
is the particular and peculiar right of Jesus Christ, for they are
the exclusive fruit of His Death, who by His nature is the mediator
between God and man. Nevertheless, by this companionship in sorrow
and suffering already mentioned between the Mother and the Son, it
has been allowed to the august Virgin to be the most powerful
mediatrix and advocate of the whole world with her Divine Son
(Pius IX. Ineffabilis).
The source, then, is Jesus Christ “of whose fullness we have all
received" (John
i., 16), "from whom the whole body, being compacted and fitly
joined together by what every joint supplieth, according to the
operation in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body
unto the edifying of itself in charity” (Ephesians
iv., 16). But Mary,
as St. Bernard justly remarks, is
the channel
(Serm. de temp on the Nativ. B. V. De
Aquaeductu
n. 4); or, if you will, the connecting portion the function of which
is to join the body to the head and to transmit to the body the
influences and volitions of the head – We mean the neck. Yes, says
St. Bernardine of Sienna, “she
is the neck of Our Head, by which He communicates to His mystical
body all spiritual gifts”
(Quadrag. de Evangel. aetern. Serm.
x., a. 3, c. iii.).
Pope
St. Pius X then proceeds to explain in more detail the meaning of
Mary being the conduit of all graces from her Son and why this is
fitting and is the perfect way for God to accomplish the salvation of
the elect:
We
are then, it will be seen, very far from attributing to the Mother of
God a productive power of grace – a power which belongs to God alone.
Yet, since Mary surpasses [praestat] all in holiness and union with
Jesus Christ, and has been associated by Jesus Christ in the work of
redemption, she merits for us de
congruo,
in the language of theologians, what Jesus Christ merits for us de
condigno,
and she
is the supreme Minister of the distribution of graces.
Jesus “sitteth on the right hand of the majesty on high”
(Hebrews
i. b.). Mary sitteth at the right hand of her Son – a refuge so
secure and a help so trusty against all dangers that we have nothing
to fear or to despair of under her guidance, her patronage, her
protection. (Pius IX. in Bull Ineffabilis).
Pope
Leo XIII (reigned 1878-1903)
–
(including the authority of St. Bernardine of Sienna)
Pope
Leo XIII taught not only that Mary is the distributor of all mercies
from God but also that she is the mediatrix between mankind and her
Son. Here are the pope’s words:
[B]y
the will of God, Mary
is the intermediary
through whom is distributed
unto us this immense treasure of mercies
[viz.,
from Our Lord’s Passion and Death] gathered by God;
for
mercy and truth were created by Jesus Christ. Thus, as no man goeth
to the Father but by the Son, so no
man goeth to Christ but by His Mother.
… Mary
is this glorious intermediary;
she is the mighty Mother of the Almighty; but – what is still
sweeter – she is gentle, extreme in tenderness, of a limitless
loving-kindness.
The
pope elaborates on this doctrine, teaching that she is the continual
Mediatrix
of All Graces
because she is holier and more pleasing to God than all angels and
saints. Here are his words:
The
recourse we have to Mary in prayer follows upon the office she
continuously fills by the side of the throne of God as Mediatrix
of Divine grace;
being by worthiness and by merit most acceptable to Him, and,
therefore, surpassing in power all the angels and saints in Heaven.
The
pope explains that all good comes to us through Mary:
Now
may God, “Who in His most merciful Providence gave us this
Mediatrix.”
and “decreed that all
good should come to us by the hands of Mary”
(St. Bernard), receive propitiously our common prayers and fulfill
our common hopes.
Adopting
the teaching of St. Bernardine of Siena as his own, Pope Leo XIII
further teaches that all good comes from God to Christ as Man, and
from Christ to His Mother Mary and then from her to us. Here are the
pope’s words:
Thus,
is confirmed that law of merciful meditation
of
which We have spoken, and which St. Bernardine of Siena thus
expresses: “Every grace granted to man has three degrees in order;
for by God it is communicated to Christ [viz.,
as Man], from Christ it passes to the Virgin, and from the Virgin it
descends to us.”
The
pope states that her power is “all but unlimited” and will last
forever:
She
who was so intimately associated with the mystery of human salvation
is just as closely associated with the distribution
of the graces
which for all time will flow from the Redemption.
The
power thus put into her hands is all but unlimited. … Among her
many other titles we find her hailed as “our
Lady, our Mediatrix,”
“the Reparatrix of the whole world,” “the Dispenser
of all heavenly gifts.”
Pope
Leo XIII then turns the eyes of his soul to Our Lady and prays:
O
Virgin most holy, none abounds in the knowledge of God except through
thee; none, O
Mother of God, attains salvation except through thee; none receives a
gift from the throne of mercy except through thee.”
Pope
Pius IX (1846-1878)
In
1849, in an encyclical on the Immaculate Conception, Pope Pius IX
taught that:
God
has committed to Mary the treasury of all good things,
in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every
hope, every
grace, and all salvation. For this is His will, that we obtain
everything through Mary.
Pope
Pius IX taught many important truths about the Glorious Mother of God
and her mediation for us with her Son. For example:
The
Mother of God is the seat
of all divine graces
and is adorned with all gifts of the Holy Ghost. To them Mary
is an almost infinite treasury.
… The
only one who has become the dwelling place of all the graces
of the most Holy Spirit. … [She] stands at the right hand of her
only-begotten Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, she presents our petitions
in a most efficacious manner. What she
asks, she obtains. Her pleas can never be unheard. … who, is the
most powerful Mediatrix and Conciliatrix of the whole world with her
only-begotten Son.
St.
Alphonsus de Liguori — Doctor of the Church (1696-1787)
Here
is the great Doctor of the Church, St. Alphonsus de Liguori, singing
the great glories of the Mother of God:
That
Mary was more holy in the first moment of her existence than all the
Saints together, is founded on the great office of mediatress
of men,
with which she was charged from the beginning; and which
made it necessary that she should possess a greater treasure of grace
from the beginning than all other men together.
St.
Alphonsus explains in what way the Blessed Virgin Mary’s role is
necessary, that is, in order for God’s Plan to be perfect:
That
it is most useful to have recourse to the intercession of Mary can
only be doubted by those who do not have the faith. … [T]he
intercession
of Mary is even necessary to salvation: we say necessary – not
absolutely, but morally. This necessity proceeds from the Will of
God Itself, that all graces that He dispenses should pass through the
hands of Mary
….
St.
Alphonsus explains further the role of God’s Mother:
We
acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the only mediator of justice, as we
have stated above, who by His merits obtains for us grace and
salvation; but we affirm that
Mary is the mediatrix of grace,
and although whatever she obtains, she obtains through the merits of
Jesus Christ, and because she prays and asks for it in the name of
Jesus Christ, yet whatever favors we ask are all obtained through her
intercession.
…
He
[God] takes great complacency [i.e.,
satisfaction] in seeing His mother honored, and therefore wishes, as
St. Bernard says, that all
the graces we receive should pass through her hands.
St.
Peter Canisius – Doctor of the Church (1521-1597) – (including
the teaching of St. Fulgentius)
Quoting
St. Fulgentius with approval, St. Peter Canisius, Doctor of the
Church, poetically proclaims that Mary is the ladder of heaven, by
which men are saved. Here are his words:
Mary
was made the window of heaven because by her, God gave true light
unto the world. Mary was made the ladder of heaven because by her,
God descended down to earth, that by
her also men may ascend unto heaven.
St.
Peter Canisius here poetically teaches, although in other words, that
Our
Lady is the Neck of the Mystical Body of Christ,
through whom her Son’s blessings come to us and through her we go
to her Son.
In
the Litany
of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(also known as the Litany
of Loretto)
we pray to her as the Gate
of Heaven.
This invocation has the same meaning, in different poetic words, as
calling her our ladder to heaven and the neck of the Mystical Body of
Christ. She is our way of getting to heaven and reaching her Son.
St.
Thomas Aquinas – Greatest Doctor of the Church (1225-1274)
St.
Thomas Aquinas, greatest Doctor of the Church, teaches that Our Lady
has so much grace at her disposal that this grace suffices for the
salvation of all men and that she is man’s mediatrix with her Son.
Here are his words showing how fully endowed Our Lady is with the
graces we need:
As
much as regards it [viz.,
grace] overflowing unto all men. For it is a great thing in any
saint, when he has so much of grace that it suffices for the
salvation of many; but when one has so
much that it would suffice for the salvation of all men of the world,
this would be the greatest; and this is in Christ, and in
the Blessed Virgin.
For in every danger, you
can obtain salvation from the glorious Virgin Herself.
Second,
here St. Thomas explains that Our Lady fulfills the role of
superintending
the good things we receive from her Son:
At
this physical marriage [viz.,
at Cana, recounted in St. John’s Gospel, Ch.2] some role in the
miracle belongs to the mother of Christ, some to Christ, and some to
the disciples. When he [viz.,
St. John the Evangelist] says, When
the wine ran out,
he indicates the part of each. The role
of Christ’s mother was to superintend the miracle;
the role of Christ to perform it; and the disciples were to bear
witness to it. As to the first, Christ’s
mother assumed the role of a mediatrix.
Hence she does two things. First, she
intercedes with her Son.
In the second place, she instructs the servants. As to the first,
two things are mentioned. First, his mother’s intercession;
secondly, the answer of her Son.
St.
Bonaventure — Doctor of the Church (1221-1274)
St.
Bonaventure urges all mankind to praise the Blessed Virgin Mary in
these words:
Exalt
her and praise her, all the human race: because the Lord my God has
given to thee [viz.,
the human race] such a mediatrix.
Speaking
directly to Our Lady, St. Bonaventure stated:
Thou
art the Mediatrix
of God,
and the lover of men: the heavenly Illuminatrix of mortal men.
Lastly,
St. Bonaventure declares:
Mary
is the most faithful mediatrix
of our salvation.
St.
Albert the Great – Doctor of the Church (1200-1280)
St.
Albert the Great calls Mary the universal dispenser of all of the
goods coming from her Son. Here are his words:
The
Blessed Virgin Mary is the Queen of all those things of which God is
the Lord. In her is known the singular excellence of the true Sun –
without corruption, without diminution, or weakening; in which is
expressed the special character [viz.,
Immaculate] of her conception; who is the universal
distributor of all goodness.
St.
Anthony of Padua – Doctor of the Church (1195-1231)
St.
Anthony of Padua emphasizes Our Lady’s role as mediatrix making
peace between God and man:
The
Blessed Virgin Mary, our
mediatrix,
re-established peace between God and the sinner.
As
shown above, Our Lady makes peace between us and her Son by
distributing the graces of her Son in order to make us friends of God
and no longer His enemies.
St.
Bernard of Clairvaux – Doctor of the Church (1090-1153)
Praying
to Our Lady, St. Bernard of Clairvaux implores her help as mediatrix,
to reconcile us to her Son:
Let
thy boundless charity cover the multitude of our sins, and thy
glorious fruitfulness bring us an abundance of mercies. Our Lady, Our
Mediatrix,
present us to Thy Son. Speak for us to Thy Son.
St.
Bernard teaches that Our Lady has this role in the salvation of the
elect because that is the way God wants it – the best way:
It
was given to Mary that thou mightest receive through her hands
whatever good was destined for thee – through her hands … because
it
is the will of God that we should have nothing which has not passed
through the hands of Mary.
Further,
in his hymn Daily,
Daily, Sing to Mary
(which St. Bernard composed and which emphasizes the truth that Mary
is the Mediatrix of all graces), he teaches that “All
our graces flow through Mary
… Advocate
… Mediatrix
of All Grace
… Heaven’s
blessings she dispenses
… Gate
of Heaven
…”
St.
Germanus of Constantinople
– Father of the Church (634-740)
St.
Germanus teaches:
For
in thee also we have been given a pledge of eternal life, and,
through thy going [viz.,
assumed into heaven], in thee we
gain
a Mediatrix
with God.
St.
Ephrem the Syrian – Doctor of the Church (c. 306-373 A.D.)
St.
Ephrem says, addressing the Blessed Virgin Mary : “After the
Mediator thou
art the mediatrix of the whole world
”.
St.
Ephrem also addresses the Mother of God in these words: “In thee,
patroness and mediatrix
with God”
St.
Irenaeus – Father of the Church (circa 125-202 A.D.)
St.
Irenaeus
compares the New Eve, (viz.,
Our Lady), to the First Eve, the wife of Adam, declaring that Our
Lady was a cause of the salvation of all of the elect. Here are his
words:
As
she [viz.,
Eve] who had Adam as her husband, but was nevertheless a virgin, was
disobedient, and thereby became the cause of death to herself and to
the whole of mankind, so also Mary,
who had a pre-ordained husband, and was still a virgin, by her
obedience became
a cause of her own salvation and the salvation of the whole human
race.
Our
Lord Taught Us by His Own Example That Mary His Mother is the
Mediatrix of the Good Coming from Him
St.
John the Evangelist recounts how, at the wedding feast at Cana, Our
Lord performed His first miracle at the behest of His mother (who
interceded for a bridal couple).
And
the wine failing, the mother of Jesus saith to him: They have no
wine. And Jesus saith to her: Woman, what is that to Me and to thee?
My hour is not yet come. His mother saith to the waiters:
Whatsoever He shall say to you, do ye.
Our
Lord does all things perfectly. Here He gives us the perfect example
of bestowing His blessings upon people through the intercession
(mediation) of His mother. This is how He Wills to bestow His
blessings upon us.
As
quoted above, commenting on this first of Our Lord’s miracles, St.
Thomas teaches that:
The
role
of Christ’s mother was to superintend the miracle;
the role of Christ to perform it; … Christ’s
mother assumed the role of a mediatrix.
Hence … she
intercedes with her Son.
The
Holy Ghost Teaches Us That All Grace Comes Through Mary
In
the Book
of Ecclesiasticus,
it states:
I
am the mother
of fair love, and of fear, and of knowledge, and of holy hope. In
me is all grace of the way and of the truth,
in me is all hope of life and of virtue.
The
Catholic Church teaches us that these words are prophetically spoken
by Our Lady and the Church uses them – putting these words in her
mouth – in the Mass for the Feast
of Immaculate Heart of Mary.
The
Holy Ghost, Who is the Chief author of these words, teaches us that
all grace comes through Our Lady, His Spouse. She is “the
mother”
and in her “is
all grace of
[her Son Who is] the
Way and the Truth”
and the Life (as Our Lord describes Himself).
So
We See the Catholic Dogma is that Our Lady is Mediatrix
of All Graces.
What Does Pope Leo XIV Teach in Mater
Populi Fidelis?
Pope
Leo is largely proving himself to be “cut out of the same cloth”
as Pope Francis, minus some of Pope Francis’s attention-grabbing
stunts.
Pope
Leo XIV falsely teaches that Our Lady cannot be the “universal
dispenser of grace”.
Here are his words:
No
human person — not
even
the Apostles or the
Blessed Virgin — can act as a universal dispenser of grace.
Only God can bestow grace, and he [sic] does so through the humanity
of Christ. … any expression about her “mediation” in grace
must be understood as a distant analogy to Christ and his [sic]
unique mediation.
Notice
that this quote – approved by Pope Leo XIV, who is supposedly so
“zealous” for the honor of Christ even to the point that he is
supposedly concerned that Our Lady will detract from her Son’s
honor – nonetheless fails to accord to Our Lord even the customary
honor of capitalizing the pronouns which refer to Him.
Here
is another of Pope Leo XIV’s insulting denials of Our Lady’s
prerogatives:
In
the perfect immediacy between a human being and God in the
communication of grace, not even Mary can intervene.
Pope
Leo XIV makes it worse by saying not only is Our Lady not the
Mediatrix
of All
Graces,
but she is not the mediatrix of any
graces:
Neither
friendship with Jesus Christ nor the Trinitarian indwelling can be
conceived of as something that comes to us through Mary ….
Pope
Leo XIV says that Mary’s role is reduced to desiring
good for us, praying
for us. He says:
[W]hat
we can say is that Mary desires this good for us and she asks for it,
together with us.
Pope
Leo XIV says she accompanies
us
(using the fad conciliar jargon):
[Mary’s
role is that] “she
has accompanied [her children] on their way to the
Lord.
Pope
Leo XIV says that Our Lady
encourages
us, and helps us to prepare ourselves.
Also, Pope Leo says – blasphemously – that Mary
even helps us to see that she is not a mediatrix with her Son!
Here are the pope’s words:
Mary’s
motherhood in the order of grace must be understood as a help in
preparing us to receive God’s sanctifying grace. This can be seen
in how, on the one hand, her maternal intercession is the expression
of that “maternal help” which allows
us to recognize Christ as the sole Mediator
between God and humanity. On the other hand, her maternal presence
in our lives does not preclude various actions from Mary aimed at
encouraging
us
to open our hearts to Christ’s activity in the Holy Spirit. In this
way, she helps us — in various ways — to prepare ourselves
to receive the life of grace that only the Lord can pour into us.
Pope
Leo XIV explicitly rejects the chain of mediation between God and
man:
[O]ne
should avoid any description that would suggest a Neoplatonic-like
outpouring of grace by stages, as if God’s grace were descending
through various intermediaries (such as Mary).
Notice
Pope Leo’s mockery of Our Lady as Mediatrix, by scoffing that it
would be “Neoplatonic-like”.
Further,
by the scope of his statement (and although presumably unintended by
him), Pope Leo XIV seems even to reject that any grace from God
“descends” to us through the Human Nature of Christ. Of course,
Pope Leo intends by these words (above) to reject the mediation by
Our Lady and to specifically reject the three-fold steps from God, to
the Man Christ, to His Mother, to us, as traditionally taught by the
Catholic Church, for example:
All
this is taken from St. Bernard and St. Bonaventure. According to
them, we have three
steps to take in order to reach God.
The first, nearest to us and most suited to our capacity, is Mary;
the second is Jesus Christ; the third is God the Father. To go to
Jesus, we should go to Mary,
our mediatrix of intercession.
To go to God the Father, we must go to Jesus, our Mediator of
redemption.
Pope
Leo XIV continues, citing and quoting Vatican II, and warns Catholics
not “to
attribute to her some form of a perfective intervention, perfective
instrumentality, or secondary
causality in the communication of sanctifying grace”
The
truth, though, is that this secondary causality is exactly
what the Church has always infallibly taught about Mary’s role as
mediatrix!
Pope
Leo XIV denies that Our Lady, is Mediatrix
of All Graces,
and in this way is God’s tool for our salvation. Here are Pope Leo
XIV’s words:
[S]he
[viz.,
Our Lady] does not add anything to Christ’s salvific mediation in
the communication of grace, she
should not be regarded as the instrumental agent of that free
bestowal.
Further,
in the quote below, when denying the dogma of Our Lady, as Mediatrix
of All Graces,
Pope Leo XIV especially singles out for denial the words of the
traditional
hymn Hail, Holy Queen Enthroned Above, where the hymn calls Our Lady
“The Spring thorough which All Graces Flow”.
Here
are Pope Leo’s impious words:
She
[viz.,
Mary] 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 “passage”
through Mary’s hands. Such notions elevate Mary so highly that
Christ’s own centrality may disappear or, at least, become
conditioned.
Pope
Leo XIV’s only “authority” for his denial of the Our
Lady, as Mediatrix
of All Graces
is his fellow conciliar revolutionary and prior conciliar pope,
Benedict XVI, before becoming pope:
Cardinal
Ratzinger already affirmed that the title “Mary,
Mediatrix of All Graces”
was not clearly grounded in Revelation. In line with this
conviction, we can recognize the difficulties this title poses, both
in terms of theological reflection and spirituality.
Our
Reaction to Pope Leo XIV’s Insults to the Glorious Mother of God
These
are wicked words of Pope Leo XIV! These words should make the blood
boil
of any loyal son of Mary, in a way similar to, but greater than, when
a man hears his own earthly mother being ridiculed or insulted.
King
St. Louis IX of France advised that attacks on our Holy Catholic
Faith are sometimes best answered by deeds:
[N]o
man, unless he is a skilled theologian, should debate with Jews.
Instead, when a layman hears the Christian law slandered, he should
defend it only with his sword, which he should thrust into the
offender’s guts as far as it will go.
We
should respond to Pope Leo XIV’s vile words, not with a sword, but
with the spiritual weapon of our Rosaries.
Conclusion
One
of the hallmarks of the conciliar revolution is its continual efforts
to minimize the Glorious Mother of God. One of the ways we must be
counter-revolutionary is by devoting ourselves to her and honoring
her at every opportunity, including as the glorious Mediatrix
of All Graces!
Truly,
Pope St. Pius X’s description – “wretched
and unhappy”
– applies
well to Pope Leo XIV with his evil program of minimizing the honor of
Our Lady.
Let
us pray hard for
him and to
Our
Lady, the Mediatrix of All Graces!