Mediatrix of all graces

In 1896, French Jesuit priest René-Marie de la Broise interpreted Pope Leo XIII's papal encyclical Octobri mense[3] as teaching that all graces from Jesus Christ are imparted through Mary. Broise proposed that the pontiff should make a dogmatic definition about the role of Mary in the distribution of all graces, but did not require that it be in the form of declaring her to be the mediatrix of all graces.[4]

In the Catholic Church there are many levels of teaching, the highest of which is a dogmatic teaching. Nonetheless, there are also definitive teachings that have not been declared as dogmas, but could be declared as a dogma in the future:

"The fact that these doctrines may not be proposed as formally revealed, [...] in no way diminishes their definitive character, which is required at least by their intrinsic connection with revealed truth. Moreover, it cannot be excluded that at a certain point in dogmatic development, the understanding of the realities and the words of the deposit of faith can progress in the life of the Church, and the Magisterium may proclaim some of these doctrines as also dogmas of divine and catholic faith."[5]

— Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Vatican

In Belgium, 8 years later, Redemptorist priest François Xavier Godts wrote a book, De definibilitate mediationis universalis Deiparae (On the definability of the universal mediation of the Mother of God), proposing precisely that it be defined that Mary is the Mediatrix of all graces. In April 1921, Désiré-Joseph Mercier, Cardinal Archbishop of Mechelen, Belgium wrote to his brother bishops in support of this.[6]

In response to petitions from Belgium, including one signed by all its bishops, the Holy See approved in 1921 an annual celebration in that country of a feast day of Mary Mediatrix of All Graces.[7] In printings of the Roman Missal from that date until 1961, the Mass of Mary Mediatrix of All Graces was found in the appendix Missae pro aliquibus locis (Masses for Some Places), but not in the general calendar for use wherever the Roman Rite is celebrated.[8] Other Masses authorized for celebration in different places on the same day 31 May were those of the Blessed Virgin Mary Queen of All Saints and Mother of Fair Love and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The Belgian celebration has now been replaced by an optional memorial on 31 August of the Virgin Mary Mediatrix.[9]

Despite requests for a new Marian dogma, the Fathers of Vatican II and the Popes who presided at the Council, John XXIII and Paul VI decided not to proceed with new dogmatic definitions. The decree Lumen gentium of Vatican II would caution of the title of "Mediatrix" that: "This, however, is to be so understood that it neither takes away from nor adds anything to the dignity and efficaciousness of Christ the one Mediator".[10]

In August 1996, a Mariological Congress was held in Czestochowa, Poland, where a commission was established in response to a request of the Holy See. The congress sought the opinion of scholars present there regarding the possibility of proposing a fifth Marian dogma on Mary as Coredemptrix, Mediatrix and Advocate. The commission unanimously declared that "it is not opportune to abandon the path marked out by the Second Vatican Council and proceed to the definition of a new dogma, define a fifth Marian dogma on those titles." The Declaration of Czestochowa observed that while these titles can be given a content in conformity with the deposit of the faith, nevertheless such "titles, as proposed, are ambiguous, as they can be understood in very different ways".[11]

Groups of laity and clergy, what has been called "a small but growing movement", continue to operate for proclaiming the dogma of the universal mediation of Mary.[12] One such group calls itself Vox Populi Mariae Mediatrici.[13] On 8 February 2008, five cardinals published a petition asking Pope Benedict XVI to declare the Blessed Virgin Mary both Co-Redemptrix and Mediatrix, and over 500 bishops later added their signatures.[14] The magazine Inside the Vatican and Saint Thomas More College organized a one-day panel discussion on the question in Rome on 25 March 2010.[15]

In December 2019, at a Mass in St. Peter's Basilica celebrating the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, Pope Francis said in referring to a picture of La Morenita that three terms came to mind, woman, mother and mestiza; the latter because "Mary makes God a mestizo, true God but also true man.” He also discouraged proposals for a new dogmatic title. "“When they come to us with the story of declaring her this or making that dogma, let’s not get lost in foolishness [in Spanish, tonteras],” he said."[16]

Statue of Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace at the Carmelite convent in Lipa

Among Filipino Catholics, the term "Mediatrix" is associated with an alleged 1948 apparition of the Virgin Mary to Teresita Castillo, with title Mary, Mediatrix of All Grace in the Carmelite monastery of Lipa, Batangas, Philippines. Ramón Argüelles, the archbishop emeritus of Lipa, declared his personal belief in the veracity of the 1948 apparitions, encouraging veneration of Mary under that title.[17]

The apparition is well known in the Philippines and among the Filipino diaspora, most notably the preserved rose petals which fell from the sky and are claimed to be miraculous. Philippine Ambassador to the Holy See Mercedes Arrastia Tuason is a known devotee of the apparitions, and displays a large statue in her consulate office in Rome.[18]

Mystic / stigmatist Emma de Guzman, foundress of the “La Pieta” International Prayer Group, which had received local ecclesiastical approval at one time,[19] said that Mary had declared herself to be "the Mediatrix standing in front of the Mediator".[20] This ruling by the local bishop was overruled in May 2016 by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith declared that it had rejected the local authority's decree citing Pope Pius XII's statement in 1951 that the apparitions "were not supernatural in origin" to be definitive. [21]