Rome says No to 'promoting' Mary

DESPITE continuing speculation that the Holy Father may elevate Mary's status and declare her "CoRedemptrix", the Vatican said on Monday that no new Marian dogmas were even being considered. "This is is not under study by the Holy Father nor by any Vatican congregation or cormnission," Joaquin NavarroValls, the papal spokesman, said on Monday. A theolog
ical study commissioned by the Vatican in August 1996 advised unanimously against such a move in its report in June.
The Pope has said nothing to suggest he would wish to define new Marian dogma. During an address on 3 January last year, he cautioned against "false exaggeration" in Marian doctrine and devotion and spoke of the "infinite differ
ence existing between the human person of Mary and the divine person ofJesus".
At an audience in April, he said: "The Church's teaching makes a clear distinction between the Mother and the Son in the work of salvation, explaining the Blessed Virgin's subordination as co-operator to the one Redeemer."
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