Against Leo XIV: Cardinal Burke reasserts Our Lady as Co-Redemptrix
Cardinal Raymond Burke reaffirmed Mary as Co-Redemptrix in contrast to Pope Leo XIV and his DDF’s rejection of the term, which affirms the biblical truth of baptized Christians as co-redeemers.
Cardinal Raymond Burke
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(LifeSiteNews) — Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke reasserted on Wednesday that the Blessed Virgin Mary “is rightly called Co-Redemptrix” and warned that hesitation over the title must not be allowed to weaken the Church’s teaching on co-redemption.
The address, given at the opening of the international congress The Mystery of Mary in Dogma and in the Magisterium at Rome’s Augustinianum came nearly a year after the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (DDF) note Mater populi fidelis adopted the position that the title is “inappropriate” and months after Pope Leo XIV publicly praisedthe note.
The full text, Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Kingdom of Christ the King: the Mission of the Co-redemptrix and of the Co-redeemers, was published by La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana with the organizers’ permission.
InfoVaticana reported that Burke made the defense at the opening of the congress and that the address enters the debate reopened by the November 2025 doctrinal note, which called the use of the ancient title as “always inappropriate” because it could obscure Christ’s unique saving mediation.
Burke did not name Leo XIV or the deeply scandal–plagued and heterodox DDF prefect Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández in his address, yet the contrast of his presentation is nonetheless direct.
Speaking to the DDF’s plenary on January 29, Leo claimed that Mater populi fidelis“encourages popular Marian devotion, deepening its biblical and theological foundations, while offering precise and important clarifications for Mariology,” and he said the dicastery’s recent work would be “of great benefit to the spiritual growth of the holy and faithful People of God,” in “the context of the epochal change we are experiencing.”
The pope also proposed the note “gives valuable guidance to bishops on the exercise of their pastoral action, as well as to theologians, in their service of study and evangelization.”
The note itself, dated November 4, 2025, and approved by Leo on October 7, 2025, alleged that the title “Co-Redemptrix” – which saints and pontiffs have used for centuries – has become “unhelpful” because it can require many explanations to understand and thus risks “eclipsing the exclusive role of Jesus Christ.”
Blessed Virgin Mary ‘participated in a wholly unique way’ in the ‘redemptive Incarnation’
Cardinal Burke, in contrast, clarified the long-established traditional doctrine that Christ’s sole mediation does not exclude a real, subordinate cooperation.
“Our Lord Jesus Christ, God the Son incarnate, is the sole Redeemer,” he affirmed, “but God the Father, in sending His only begotten Son in human flesh to redeem the world, willed the cooperation of man in the redemptive work, beginning with the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
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Burke, who was named a cardinal by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010, then affirmed the doctrinal truth of the term that the DDF note seeks to set aside. “The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, has participated in a wholly unique way in the Mystery of faith, in the Mystery of the redemptive Incarnation, and is rightly called Co-redemptrix.”
The same logic, Burke added, extends in a lesser way to the baptized “insofar as we unite our hearts, together with her Immaculate Heart, to the Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, we participate in the saving mission of Christ. And we can rightly be called co-redeemers.”
St. Paul affirms mission of co-redemption common to all the faithful
Drawing on the late Mariologist Msgr. Arthur Burton Calkins, Burke distinguished redemption in actu primo, the acquisition of salvation, from redemption in actu secundo, the application of its fruits. Mary, he said, shares in both. Other Christians share only in the second: “Therefore, we can all be co-redeemers in actu secundo.”
“Saint Paul affirms the truth of our participation in Christ’s redemptive work,” the cardinal taught, quoting Colossians 1:24 where the apostle states “in my flesh I complete what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church.”
“Not that anything is lacking in the sufferings of Christ for our eternal salvation,” Burke affirmed, “but his life in us, the life of grace, must come to maturity in us, especially through the union of our sufferings with his Passion and Death.”
Controversy flows from mere semantics
Further, the cardinal explained that part of the difficulty with this question is simply semantic. For example, in modern languages such as English, the term “Co-Redemptrix can indicate a joint agent, but it can also mean someone who cooperates in a work that is principally and essentially that of another.”
But quoting Calkins again, he explained how the foundational Latin term “Corredentruice” clearly affirms Mary’s cooperation “is secondary, subordinate, dependent on that of Christ — and yet, despite all this, something that God ‘has freely willed to accept … as a not necessary, but nonetheless wonderfully welcome part of that one great price’ paid by her Son for the redemption of the world.”
Vatican II affirmed title ‘Mediatrix’ and Mary’s central role in work of Redemption
Despite the Second Vatican Council not using the term “‘Co-Redemptrix’ for fear that it might be misunderstood by non-Catholics,” Cardinal Burke explained it “clearly taught Mary’s active cooperation in the work of the Redemption” in Lumen Gentium 56-58 and 60-62.
And with Mater populi fidelis also discouraging use of the term “Mediatrix of All Graces” for the Blessed Virgin Mary, the cardinal from Wisconsin clarified that “Our Lady’s mediation of grace derives from her role as Co-Redemptrix.”
With Vatican II having affirmed this title, Lumen Gentium went on to provide the appropriate clarification that “this, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficacy of Christ the one Mediator.”
“She is Mediatrix together with her divine Son, the Mediator, as had been taught in very clear terms by the popes of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as by the post-conciliar popes,” Burke recalled.
‘Co-Redemptrix’ used fruitfully for over 500 years
Citing Saint John Paul II’s general audience of October 25, 1995, the cardinal observed that “‘Co-Redemptrix’ adds nothing new to the Church’s teaching but rather develops in a coherent way the expression of what the Church has always taught.”
For more than 500 years, he said, “Co-Redemptrix” has been used to express the truth that Mary, “a creature totally dependent on Him, secondary and subordinate to Him, nevertheless united herself to Him and joined in offering Him to the Father for our salvation on Calvary.”
‘Co-Redemptrix’ firm grounding for doctrine on Church’s role in co-redemption
The cardinal summed up his conclusion with a warning regarding the doctrinal realities that this Marian title secures, observing that its marginalization could loosen a coherent understanding of God’s revelation with regard to redemption, putting it at risk in the minds of the faithful.
We should be careful that hesitation due to misunderstanding of the term ‘Co-redemptrix’ does not lead to a weakening of the teaching on Co-redemption, which applies, in a unique way, to the Blessed Virgin Mary and, in a common way, to all the baptized.
Continuing with this logical reasoning, Burke quoted Belgian Jesuit Mariologist Fr. Jean Galot, who observed, “If Mary could not be called Co-Redemptrix, neither could Christians be considered co-redeemers. The condition of the whole Church in its co-redemptive mission is illuminated by the condition of Mary, the first model of every redemption.”
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- Blessed Virgin Mary
- Cardinal Raymond Burke
- Cardinal Victor Fernandez
- Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández
- Co-redemptrix
- Leo XIV
- Mary Co-redemptrix
- Mater Populi Fidelis
- Mediatrix
- Mediatrix Of All Graces
- Pope Leo XIV
- Raymond Burke
- Raymond Leo Burke
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