The Mariology of Pope Benedict

BEACON PHOTO | MICHAEL WOJCIK

‘MARY: MOTHER AND DISCIPLE’  Marianist Father Johann Roten, an internationally recognized scholar and authority on Mary and former student of Pope Benedict XVI, spoke about “Mary: Mother of Jesus and Model Disciple,” during the fourth annual Pope Benedict XVI Summer Institute, held at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard, Madison. Made possible through an anonymous donation, the institute each year has explored the teachings of the former pope, for which it is named.

MADISON  To know everything about Mary as the mother of Jesus and the model of discipleship, consider the Blessed Mother through the prism of the “theology of grace”: “her relationship to the person of God,” suggests Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI.

That’s what the extensive writings and teachings and of Pope Benedict — and before his pontificate, as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger — have indicated, declared Marianist Father Johann Roten, an internationally recognized scholar and authority on Mary. The Swiss-born priest, a former student of Cardinal Ratzinger’s, examined and retired pope’s teachings that honor Mary with great love, during the fourth annual Pope Benedict Summer Institute, held June 26-28, at St. Paul Inside the Walls: the Diocesan Center for Evangelization at Bayley-Ellard here. Father Roten spoke on “Mary: Mother of Jesus and Model Disciple,” the theme of this year’s institute, named after the former pontiff.

“Mary had full liberty. She had the opportunity to fall out of relationship with God. But that grace was Mary’s uninterrupted relationship with God,” said Father Roten, who led the International Marian Research Institute and Marian Library at the University of Dayton for 15 years and now teaches and serves as director of research and special projects. “Mary loved her son so much that she wanted to participate in salvation history,” the priest said.

From that Monday to Wednesday, Father Roten presented Benedict’s teachings on Mary to 42 priests, religious and laity from the Diocese and beyond, who packed one of the St. Paul’s classrooms. Benedict’s encyclical “God is Love” called Mary “the mirror of holiness”: a person, who demonstrated charity by helping her pregnant cousin, Elizabeth; saying “yes” to the Lord’s plan for her; and desiring to “magnify God” and be “handmaid of the Lord,” said Father Roten, quoting the pope, who served a leader of the Universal Church from April 19, 2005 until his resignation on Feb. 28, 2013.

“Mary is a woman of hope and a woman of faith. He becomes the mother of the Word Incarnate,” Father Roten, said. “Mary was called to have God literally in her body. She became the ultimate adorer of God. Her fiat — ‘Thy will be done’ — changed the world, because it brought the Savior into the world,” he said.

During the three-day event, Father Roten — who has lectured throughout the world and served on a Vatican-appointed commission about Mary in the 1990s — examined many aspects of the former Pope’s Marian theology. He quoted the former Pontiff’s writings, presentations and prayers and interviews with the media, as well as commentary by theologians. He also answered the audience’s questions about the Blessed Mother.

In one of those interviews in 1985, then-Cardinal Ratzinger, according to Father Roten, outlined the following six “theological indicators” of Mary and Mariology’s importance to the Catholic faith:

• In Marian dogma and tradition, we have a solid foundation for authentic Christology: the understanding that there is no separation between heaven and earth through Christ, who is both divine and human. “This completes the basic need for humans to be able to come to God and for them to have God in their lives,” Father Roten said.

• Mariology expresses the right relationship and integration of Scripture and tradition with the theology of grace: “God’s grace for humanity for Salvation History,” he said.

• Mary, both Jewish girl and mother of the Messiah, “binds together in a living and indissoluble way, the old and the new people of God — Israel and Christianity and synagogue and Church,” said Father Roten, quoting the former pope.

• Correct Marian devotion strikes an indispensable balance between heart and mind, assuring the faith its full dimension. To Pope Benedict, “truth is important, but you have to put your heart into it. That’s love. You need to make a personal commitment to share the faith with other people and be there for others,” the priest said.

• Mary is a figure and archetype of the Church: the human face of the Church. In her, “the Church again finds her own visage as mother.” Mary is the antidote against faith as an abstraction and Church as a mere organization, party and pressure group, Father Roten said.

• Mary projects a “light that, which the Creator intended for women in very age…through her virginity and motherhood, the mystery of woman receives a very lofty destiny from which she cannot be torn,” said Father Roten, quoting Pope Benedict.

Funding the institute came from an anonymous husband and wife, who approached Father Paul Manning, St. Paul’s executive director and diocesan vicar for evangelization, in 2014. They sought to help establish a program to promote the teachings of Pope Benedict. They “felt that his teachings are brilliant and under-appreciated and that the local Church needed to find a way to promote them and make them more accessible,” Father Manning said.

News about this year’s institute with Father Roten unexpectedly produced a letter from Pope Benedict to Bishop Serratelli on March 22 of this year. Originally, the Bishop sent the former pope a letter, dated Feb. 17, that expressed the Diocese’s gratitude for his clear teachings and long ministry to the Church and alerted the retired pontiff that Father Roten, one of his former students, would be leading the institute. The letter that now is displayed in St. Paul’s main hall.

“I thank Father Roten for the theology of Mary that we received over the last three days, for the clarity and organization of his thoughts and for the exhaustive study and then brilliant synthesis of Pope Benedict’s thoughts and writings on Mary,” Father Manning said at the conclusion of the institute.

After Father Roten’s final presentation on June 28, Jane Devlin of the faith community at St. Paul’s, stated, “The Benedict Institute is a wonderful way to start the summer season.”

“It’s a positive experience. Participating most importantly, is a way to strengthen faith and also to advance theological knowledge and it’s all done among the community of the faithful, so there is a sense of belonging,” Devlin said.