Dr. Carlo Broussard (30:40)
Yeah, yeah, Vince. So first of all, I sympathize with your frustration here and, like, what's going on, because as you've just explained, you read the document and it moved your heart, like you saw in the theological rationale of Our Lady's role within salvation history, a beautiful articulation of it, and it made you rejoice. So with regard to the practical strategies of talking to your SSPX friends, my only recommendation there, Vince, would be, first of all, to ask them, have you read the document? That was going to be my first question to you. I was going to ask you, did you read the document? By the way, for our listeners, we're talking about Mater Populi Fidelis, Mother of the faithful, People of God. And I'm sure everybody listening is familiar with what that document involves. So that would be my first. I think that would be my first recommendation. Just ask them, have you read the document? And if they say no, Then you can follow up and say, well, how about you go and read the document yourself, read it carefully and prayerfully, and then come back and we'll have a conversation about it. If they say, yes, I read the document, then just honestly ask them, okay, well, which parts did you have a problem with? Which parts of the document do you think, Quote unquote, the Dethrone Mary, or take away from her dignity and glory within this order of Providence. And only upon answering that question thence can you then have a conversation about the particular parts of the document, why they think it's problematic, why you think it's not problematic, and then having that exchange back and forth to see if you can gain any unity in the description, the differences there. So I think that would be my recommendations for strategic purposes or toward a strategic end in the conversation. But I do think perhaps one way to go about the conversation is, as you put it, to explain the theology in it, which is beautiful and oppose the dignity of Our lady and give reasons for that. And then also too to try and articulate what Holy Mother Church is doing here with regard to her hesitancy with using the terminology. Like, it's one thing to talk about the reality or the theology and another thing to talk about the terminology. And if your friends have read the document as you have, Vince, they will know without a doubt that Holy Mother Church is not denying any theology that has been articulated over the past centuries in the magisterial teaching about Our lady, but rather is making the judgment that because these titles, Co Redemptrix, media tricks of all Graces, are often used today in ways that create theological confusion and require tons amounts of explanation to try and avoid misconceptions. The Church has judged that we're not going to use the terminology anymore. And so if you can articulate and explain it in that way, perhaps they can come to see that the Holy Mother Church is just saying we're not going to use this lingo anymore because of the potential confusion it can create given our circumstances of the day. And if they have a problem with the Church exercising her motherly role to make judgments as to which terminology is going to be helpful and which terminology is not helpful, then there you have just more a manifestation of a deeper problem of submitting to and trusting the wisdom of Holy Mother Church. And there would be an invitation for us to pray about that, for myself and for others, as to whether I'm docile enough to look to Holy Mother Church and exercising that wisdom. And then of course, you know, just really pray over and study the parts where it's talking about CO Redemptrix. Like, why does the Church want to do away with the terminology of CO Redemptrix? Well, it says specifically because it risks obscuring Christ's unique salvific mediation and can therefore create confusion and an imbalance of the harmony of the truths of the Christian faith. Many people conceive or interpret that label or that title to mean that Mary is redeeming as Christ the unique mediator. But that's of course absurd because as 1st Timothy 2. 5 says, Christ is the one mediator. He is the God Man. Only through Christ can we have access to the throne of the Father. Only Christ the God man, can redeem the human race and reunite the human race back to God. Now, what's Mary's role? As the document articulates, Mary plays a role in that plan of redemption by saying yes to the Father's plan to conceive Jesus in her womb by submitting her son to the Father's will at the foot of the cross and uniting her suffering with Christ. In that sense, she participates in the most unique way in the role and plan of redemption. But she is not the mediator of redemption, redemption of the human race. And that's what the document articulates. And if your friends have a problem with that, well, then we're going to have to jump back to square one as to what the redemption is and who's the agent, cause and the efficient cause of such redemption, and what is required for such an efficient cause to bring about that effect of redemption. And then with regard to media tricks of all graces, as you know, Vince, the document explains it beautifully that, that. That has the potential to lead people to think that Mary can actually give grace. Well, as I understand it, I think the documents right here that Mary cannot give grace as an agent cause. Once you understand what grace is, whether sanctifying grace, a quality of the soul that makes us holy, or actual graces, which are movements, supernatural movements of the intellect and will. When you consider grace under those two categories, you come to the conclusion that, yes, only God the Creator can give grace as an agent calls, which means Mary, nor I, nor you could do that. So what's Mary's role in the communication of graces? That God wills to give graces directly by his primary causality on account of the intercessory prayer of Mary, which is involved in the communication of all graces. That is sound theology. The Church is just worried about the terminology being used.
