The Co-Redemptrix: Truth Misunderstood and Rejected

 

A title misunderstood and despised by Protestants outside the walls and Protestants within Catholic walls...

A stumbling block for modernist Ecumenism.

Prologue – When Truth is Misunderstood

It has ever been the way of the enemies of truth to fight not the Church’s doctrine, but their own misunderstanding of it. 

They attack not the Church’s doctrine but their own misunderstanding; they fashion a scarecrow called “Catholicism” and think they have slain the Faith. Thus they called the Eucharist cannibalism and saintly devotion idolatry. Today they sneer at the title Co-Redemptrix as though we had made Our Lady equal to her Son.

Ah, if only they paused to understand the meaning of that blessed word! If they studied its roots and heard its echo in the hearts of the saints, they would find not blasphemy, but a melody of humble, inspiring, love.

A Nominal Catholic's Objection

In the wake of the latest so-called "doctrinal note” that emanated from Modernist, Apostate, Rome rejecting, effectively, the Marian titles of “Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix”, a soul still with some vestige of Catholic common sense trapped all this while in the Modernist new order ecumenical synodal Pan-Religious impostor church cried out: 

"Dear friends, I want to ask about what it means to convert to sede...I mean because I'm coming out of the novus Ordo I feel a betrayal in my church. I know that our lady is Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all graces." 

The fellow got a number of helping responses from uncompromising Catholics. An uncompromising Catholic Priest weighed in with this succinct and edifying response: 

"To become a sedevacantist is simply to follow the Catholic faith in its entirety. No picking and choosing. It is to recognize the fact that a public heretic cannot be Christ’s representative on earth."

Yes. Everyone with informed Catholic common sense knows that what is at stake is not conversion to “sedevacantism” as a movement, but to the Catholic Faith in its full, uncorrupted form.

It means returning to what the Church always taught, believed, and worshipped before Modernism usurped and darkened her sanctuaries.

It is not rebellion, but fidelity—to Christ, to His true Church, to the perennial Magisterium.

Our Lady, Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix of all graces, guides her children back to the foot of the Cross, where truth, not compromise, reigns. 

Now, I shared both the request and the response above, and guess what the response of someone who continues to lay claims to the Catholic name but is an enthusiast of Modernism and it's aggiornamento was? Precisely this:

Tell her is she believes Mary is the Co Redemptrix

Then Jesus is not the sole redeemer.

If that were to have been said by someone who identifies as a Protestant, it would not have been shocking a bit. However, when you consider that modernists and modernist enthusiasts are Protestants within Catholic walls, this response looses its potency to be shocking and scandalous. 

His remark perfectly reveals the essence of Modernist unbelief: a pseudo-Catholic rationalism wrapped in biblical language, hiding a Protestant soul. It reads 

“tell her she believes too much” 

A “nominal Catholic” who objects in Protestant tones unmasks the tragic fruit of modernist aggiornamento: a counterfeit religion still using Catholic words but emptied of Catholic meaning and breeding confusion with it's "doctrinal clarifications". 

Modernists shy away from open denial, but pose to offer “clarification” that subtly redefines truths. But each “clarification” multiplies ambiguity, so that, as St. Pius X said, truth and falsehood are blended together, and the Faith destroyed by trickery.

The Meaning of the Word

The word "Co-Redemptrix" is derived from the Latin words "cum" and "redimere".

The preposition cum means “with.” Oh that this sticks! 

When prefixed to another word, it denotes union, accompaniment, or cooperation, not equality or independence. 

A number of other English words derived From Latin roots makes the point:

• Cooperate (cum + operari) “To work with” With the actual English meaning: to act jointly toward a common end. The one who cooperates is not equal to the principal agent, but helps.
• Coexist (cum + existere) “To exist with”; meaning to exist at the same time as another The beings coexist together, not as one equal entity.
• Coauthor (cum + auctor) “With an author”; meaning a secondary writer who works with the main author. The coauthor is not the author’s equal, but a collaborator.
• Coworker (cum + operarius) “With a worker”; meaning a fellow laborer, not a boss. Again, shared work, not shared rank.
• Coheir (cum + heres) “Heir with”; One who shares in an inheritance, dependent upon the principal testator.
• Companion (cum + panis) “With bread” One who eats bread with another — a friend or associate, denoting closeness, not equality of office.
• Collaboration (cum + laborare), “To labor with”: To work together toward an end The labor is shared, but not the identity of the worker.
• Cooperation (cum + operari) “To operate with”: to take part in someone’s work. The prime agent retains authority; the cooperator joins under it.
• Comrade (cum + gradus) “One who walks with”; a companion on the same path. One walks with another, not as another.
• Consubstantial (cum + substantia) “Of one substance with”, used in the Creed for the divine Persons. Even here, note: the cum denotes unity, not competition. 

Thus, by the same linguistic law,

Co-Redemptrix (cum + redimere) means “She who redeems with.”

That is:

Mary redeems with the Redeemer — not beside Him as His equal, but under Him, by His grace, and through His merits.

Just as a coworker works with his employer but under his direction, Mary cooperated with Christ but under His power and merit.

That’s the key distinction the Modernist misses, so also their comrades outside the walls, whom they fear to offend for Ecumenical reasons. 

To call Mary Co-Redemptrix is to say, simply and beautifully, that she was with the Redeemer in the work of our salvation — with Him at Bethlehem, with Him in exile, with Him in Nazareth, and supremely, with Him on Calvary.

When the new Adam was redeeming the world upon the tree, the new Eve stood beside Him, not as a rival, but as a mother offering her Son, as a handmaid consenting to the sacrifice.

Her heart was nailed spiritually where His Body was nailed physically; her tears flowed where His Blood was shed; her will was united to His in one great offering to the Father.

The Witness of Catholic Popes

In Catholic Rome, the Popes of ages past did not hesitate to speak of this mystery.

• Pope Pius X, in Ad Diem Illum Laetissimum (1904), taught:

 "...When the supreme hour of the Son came, beside the Cross of Jesus there stood Mary His Mother, not merely occupied in contemplating the cruel spectacle, but rejoicing that her Only Son was offered for the salvation of mankind, and so entirely participating in His Passion, that if it had been possible she would have gladly borne all the torments that her Son bore (S. Bonav. 1. Sent d. 48, ad Litt. dub.

From this union of suffering and purpose between Christ and Mary she merited to become most worthily the Reparatrix of the lost world and therefore the Dispensatrix of all the gifts which Jesus procured for us by His death and blood.”

 “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 carries it over 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...

Yes. Christ is the efficient cause of our Redemption — He merited salvation de condigno because He is God. Mary’s action is instrumental and subordinate: she cooperated by grace, meriting de congruo. This preserves both Christ’s uniqueness and Mary’s real participation.

• Benedict XV, in Inter Sodalicia (1918), went further, saying:

 “Mary suffered and almost died with her suffering Son; she surrendered her maternal rights for the salvation of mankind, and to appease divine justice, she immolated her Son... so we may rightly say that she redeemed the human race together with Christ.”

And 

• Pius XII, in Mystici Corporis (1943), echoed the same truth:

“She, the new Eve, offered her divine Son to the Eternal Father on Golgotha, together with the holocaust of her maternal rights and love, for all the children of Adam.”

This is the language of the Church before the world grew timid in its faith — speaking of heaven’s mysteries with the frankness of saints and the courage of martyrs.

Writing in 1941, Fr. Garrigou-Lagrange, O.P. explains:

“She is called Co-Redemptrix not because she redeemed us equally with Christ, but because she freely united herself to His sacrifice, cooperating in it as secondary cause.” — The Mother of the Saviour (1941)

The Modernist Refusal

But instructed by modernist Vatican, a lay-robed man perpetually signed up in it's agency of revolution in permanence enthusiastically announced:

IT'S OFFICIAL: Dear Catholics, Mary is NOT "Mediatrix of All Graces," neither is she "Co-Redemptrix." These are either misleading titles or carry serious theological risks... 

The capitalized arrogance of that line says everything: false prophets of the “new magisterium” of the new order religion speak as if heaven had changed its mind.

Yes, in these later days, when men are more anxious to please the world than to convert it, following the lead of Modernist Rome, the title Coredemptrix has become a stumbling block. The modernists, whom St. Pius X so clearly unmasked in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), cannot bear what is absolute or supernatural. They are afraid that strong doctrine will hinder “dialogue.”

So they whisper that we should silence the old titles — “Co-Redemptrix,” “Mediatrix,” “Advocate” — lest our “separated brethren” take offense.

Yet what does such timidity achieve? It hides the glory of the Mother to make truth seem less “divisive.” It makes the Church appear ashamed of her own treasures.

As Pius XI declared in Mortalium Animos (1928):

 “The union of Christians cannot be fostered by ignoring or minimizing the truths which divide us.”

True unity is born not of silence, but of clarity — not of compromise, but of conversion.

Modernists recoil at cum because it refutes their naturalism.

• It proclaims that God actually associates a creature—and precisely a Woman—with His redeeming plan.

For the Modernist, redemption is only an interior sentiment; hence, they cannot bear that divine grace should require visible cooperation, mediation, or hierarchy.

They hate cum because it contradicts their idol of “equality” and exposes their revolt against divine order.

The Picture of Calvary

Let us lift our eyes, then, to Calvary — not with cold reason, but with faith and love.

The sun is darkened, the earth trembles, the veil of the Temple is torn. The Divine Victim hangs upon the Cross — “the Lamb of God, Who taketh away the sins of the world” (John 1:29).

Beneath that Cross stands a Woman — “Stabat Mater dolorosa juxta Crucem lacrimosa” — the Mother, silent yet eloquent in her anguish.

• Her Son is dying for the world’s salvation; and she, too, offers Him for that same end.
• Her heart is transfixed with the sword foretold by Simeon — “And thy own soul a sword shall pierce, that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed” (Luke 2:35).

Can anyone gaze upon that scene and deny that she suffered with Him?

He offers Himself to the Father as Priest and Victim; she offers Him as Mother and Handmaid, uniting her will to His — “Not my will, but Thine be done” (Luke 22:42).

What the first Eve destroyed by disobedience, the new Eve repairs by obedience: “By one man’s disobedience many were made sinners; so also by the obedience of one many shall be made just” (Rom 5:19).

In that obedience, the Virgin cooperates; she is truly “Woman” as Christ calls her from the Cross — “Woman, behold thy son” (John 19:26) — the universal Mother given to all redeemed souls.

Thus she does not rival the Redeemer; she reflects Him.

Her compassion mirrors His Passion; her fiat sustains His offering.

The Fathers, contemplating this mystery, called her the New Eve: as the first woman shared in the ruin of man, this Woman shares, by grace, in his restoration.

“Death by Eve, life by Mary,” wrote St. Jerome; and St. Irenaeus long before him, “The knot of Eve’s disobedience was loosed by the obedience of Mary.”

Here, then, is the heart of the title Co-Redemptrix —

• not a cry of equality, but of participation;
• not a title of pride, but of pierced love;
• not rivalry, but reflection.

She stands where the Redemption is wrought, saying still:

“Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word.” (Luke 1:38)

Summing Up: 

When we call Mary Co-Redemptrix, we honor not her power, but her participation; not her equality, but her union of will and suffering with her Son.

She stands not as another Redeemer, but as the Mother who gave Him to the world, and offered Him back to the Father for the world’s salvation.

To call Mary Coredemptrix is not to exalt her above measure, but to confess the full mystery of the Incarnation and the Cross — that God willed the redemption of the world through the cooperation of a woman, the New Eve.

As St. Bernard said:

 “God, who could create all things out of nothing, would not redeem man without the free cooperation of Mary.”

In the language of the Church before the modern crisis born of Modernist pride and ignorance, this is the heart of the title Co-Redemptrix:

 “She who, by divine will, was with the Redeemer in His work of saving the world.”

Mary’s presence “with” the Redeemer spans the entire mystery:

• With Him in the Incarnation (by giving Him flesh);
• With Him in His public life (suffering His rejection);
• With Him at Calvary (offering Him and offering herself);
• With Him after the Resurrection (as Mother of the Church, dispensing the graces He won).

The Council of Trent, when defining justification, implicitly supports this structure of mediation: Christ is the principal cause; the sacraments, the instrumental causes; and Mary, by divine design, the moral cause in the order of intercession.

She is “with the Redeemer” in every salvific act, yet always dependent on His merits, as light depends on the sun.

Let us, then, not shrink from proclaiming it boldly — not for controversy’s sake, but for the sake of truth, love, and gratitude to the Mother who stood faithfully at the foot of the Cross.

To erase or soften this truth for the sake of modern sensibilities is to do the world no service. For only when the Mother is rightly honored will the Son be rightly understood.

Let us therefore hold fast, with the faith of our fathers, to this noble title.

Let it be for us not a word of controversy, but a word of love:

“She who was with the Redeemer in the work of our salvation.”

And as we look to her, standing still at the foot of the Cross, we can whisper with filial confidence: 

 “Mother of Sorrows, Co-Redemptrix of the human race, pray for us — that we, too, may be with your Son, sharing His Cross, and one day His crown.” Amen.

So, the next time someone objects,

“If Mary is Co-Redemptrix, then Jesus isn’t the sole Redeemer,” you may simply answer:

“My friend, co means with, not equal.

Mary worked with the Redeemer — as the moon shines with the light of the sun.” 

FAQ

Q: Does Co-Redemptrix mean Mary is another Redeemer?

A: No. “Co-” (cum) means “with.” Christ alone redeemed in His Person and merit. Mary cooperated with Him in a subordinate, maternal way.

Q: Why keep the title at all?

A: Because it honors the truth that God willed our salvation to be wrought by the Redeemer and shared, by grace, with His Mother. 

Possible objections and quick replies

Objection: “This elevates Mary above Christ.”

Reply: No. Christ alone is Redeemer; Mary’s title describes loving cooperation, not divine equality.

Objection: “It will scare Protestants.”

Reply: Truth spoken simply converts; silence only feeds confusion.