“Where ever Mary is venerated, and devotion to her takes place, there the Church of Christ does not exist”. If Karl Barth is correct, the Church of Christ was not present yesterday (October 13th) in St. Peter’s square when Pope Francis entrusted the world to Mary. The occasion was offered by the veneration of the statue of Our Lady of Fatima which had been brought to Rome for a special Marian day. Marianism is one of the keys to interpreting the present pontificate and this celebration further highlights its pervasiveness.
Entrusting the World to Mary?
If Francis appears to break with many conventions on the way he lives out his being Pope, he is very traditional as far as his Marianism is concerned. Entrusting the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary was done by Pius XII during World War II (1942) and twice by John Paul II (1982 and 1984). Francis then follows an established XX century tradition that unites pre- and post-Vatican II Roman Catholicism. These acts are responses to the message that Mary supposedly gave to the three young shepherds in Fatima (Portugal) in 1917…
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