"The month of May is almost here, a month which the piety of the faithful has long dedicated to Mary, the Mother of God. Our heart rejoices at the thought of the moving tribute of faith and love which will soon be paid to the Queen of Heaven in every corner of the earth. For this is the month during which Christians, in their churches and their homes, offer the Virgin Mother more fervent and loving acts of homage and veneration; and it is the month in which a greater abundance of God's merciful gifts comes down to us from our Mother's throne." Paul VI, Encyclical Letter Mense Maio, n. 1.
Six months prior to issuing this encyclical, St. Paul VI had promulgated the Second Vatican Council's Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, which urged the faithful to venerate the Blessed Virgin Mary.
“This most Holy Synod deliberately teaches this Catholic doctrine and at the same time admonishes all the sons of the Church that the cult, especially the liturgical cult, of the Blessed Virgin, be generously fostered, and the practices and exercises of piety, recommended by the magisterium of the Church toward her in the course of centuries be made of great moment, and those decrees, which have been given in the early days regarding the cult of images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin and the saints, be religiously observed. But it exhorts theologians and preachers of the divine word to abstain zealously both from all gross exaggerations as well as from petty narrow-mindedness in considering the singular dignity of the Mother of God. Following the study of Sacred Scripture, the Holy Fathers, the doctors and liturgy of the Church, and under the guidance of the Church's magisterium, let them rightly illustrate the duties and privileges of the Blessed Virgin which always look to Christ, the source of all truth, sanctity and piety. Let them assiduously keep away from whatever, either by word or deed, could lead separated brethren or any other into error regarding the true doctrine of the Church.” (Lumen gentium 67)
In this interview, Colin B. Donovan proposes five books on Marian devotion.
Colin B. Donovan, STL is Vice President for Theology at EWTN, was host of EWTN Theology Roundtable, and currently hosts the Friday edition of Open Line, and a monthly Catholic Sphere. Prior to coming to EWTN in 1995, he taught Theology at Aquinas College in Nashville. He is a member of the Mariological Society of America and the Pontifical International Marian Academy.
- Our Lady of Fatima
by William T. Walsh - The Secret of the Rosary
by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort - True Devotion to Mary
by St. Louis-Marie Grignion de Montfort - The Glories of Mary
by St. Alphonsus Ligouri - Calls from the Message of Fatima
by Sister Lucia of Fatima
Devotion to Mary is founded upon Mary’s special status within the Church and the economy of salvation, as revealed through the apostolic tradition and Scripture. Mariology is theological reflection on the Mother of Jesus. Why is it important?
It is important to be well rooted. In reviewing the books that I have suggested, I read something that St Alphonsus Liguori wrote in what is for him a very devotional work. He made a point which I too normally make. Anything that is Catholic, even if it is simply devotional, must be read through the lens of Tradition, Sacred Scripture, and the Church’s teaching on it. That is the only way to draw out the foundation of Catholic belief: divine revelation. Theologians can speculate and propose solutions. However, their speculation is of worth to all the faithful only if it is consistent with the deposit of the faith. That is why Mariology is important. It needs to speculate correctly on Mary so that the rest of the Church, reflecting on a less scientific level, can frame Marian devotion, not as something distinct from the faith of the Church, but within the faith of the Church.
Five Books for Catholics
The Dogmatic Constitution of the Second Vatican Council asks theologians and preachers “to abstain zealously both from all gross exaggerations as well as from petty narrow-mindedness in considering the singular dignity of the Mother of God” (Lumen gentium 67). What sorts of gross exaggerations or petty narrowmindedness about Mary are around today?
We seem to be an age of polarities. People stake out positions at one end or the other. Sometimes their positions are fuelled by a particular interest or devotion.
The Pope recently instructed the Pontifical International Marian Academy to curb the apocalypticism. People sometimes latch onto the spangly bobble of private revelations because they appear to be predicting the future and such like. Like certain theological speculations, they offer explanations of history that are based on new ideas but are not rooted in Sacred Scripture and Tradition. Currently, for example, there is much discussion on the popular level about whether the end of the world is imminent, or the antichrist is just around the corner. The Church, however, has a solid, structured theological teaching on eschatology and Mary, though these two sets of teachings still have not come together very well yet.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church, starting at paragraph 668, lays out the order of history. In someone like St. Louis-Marie de Montfort, on the other hand, you find the Marian side to this teaching. He talks about how Mary necessarily has a role at the end of history. We can fit the private revelations of Fatima, St. Faustina, and others into his teaching. However, people make proposals about eschatology and drag Our Lady in to prove their predictions. Not many theologians are doing this. However, quite a number of laypeople are, and they are not grounded in the Church’s teaching on eschatology or in Montfort’s understanding of Mary's place in it.
As to technical issues, there is the question of Mary as Co-Redemptrix. This doctrine has a lot of traction in Tradition. For example, the two volume Marian Missal, approved by Rome, speaks of it in many places, though not with that term. The debate is whether the Church should proclaim this doctrine, without going through the necessary theological consideration and development, or reject it.
Interestingly, St. Alphonsus Liguori describes seven categories of devotion to Our Lady, that go from the sceptic to the extremist. Then, as now, extreme positions were taken and defended. The Church wants to put a damper on that. In recent pontificates, there have been efforts in this direction, whether it be Cardinal Ratzinger's theological commentary on the secrets of Fatima or Pope Francis’s recent statements.
Those who adopt extreme positions often lack the patience that theology requires. The Second Vatican Council asked for that patience in dealing with issues concerning Our Lady. Such issues tend to become amplified in the public sphere. We should let theology do its work. From it, the Church will draw its conclusions and decide.
During the Second Vatican Council, there was a debate between maximalists and minimalists about Mary. In the end, Paul VI resolved the matter with Chapter Eight of Lumen gentium. It affirmed the traditional, settled teaching and virtually nothing much beyond it.
"The objective is to bring Jesus Christ to people. Mary is very happy to be a door for them. That is how she presents herself."
You were appointed in 2023 to the Pontifical International Marian Academy. What tasks or initiatives does this institute carry out?
Theological research is one. That is what most of the members do every day, whether in seminaries or theologates around the world, in the curia of their diocese or the Roman curia. There is another area of work which, as the pope has called it, is evangelical. This is in line with the recent reorganization of the Roman Curia in Praedicate Evanglium. Leading people to Christ is the central feature of all the Holy See’s work. Indeed, this is an important Marian theme. St. Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort, the great writer on this subject, spoke specifically of how we go to Jesus through Mary. In his True Devotion he explained how we can accomplish this. This still needs to be inculcated within the Church.
Under this mandate, the Academy is available to dioceses and other institutions where there are claims of mystical phenomena or apparitions. It hopes to support them in their discernment of the authenticity of these phenomena. It aims to send field workers to gather the data and forward it to the Academy.
Interreligious dialogue is another task. A few years ago, I took part in the academy’s congress during the COVID pandemic. I was very impressed by a Maronite member’s comment about Muslims. He said that more Muslims than Christians visit the principal Marian shrine in Lebanon. Naturally, there are more Muslims than Christians in the Middle East. Nevertheless, Mary offers a way of initiating a dialogue with them. Moreover, it begins with the devotional element. That is the way into their hearts. Their hearts will be changed by their devotion and prayer life, not by theologians developing and expounding formulas, as important and necessary as that is. So, that was a very touching story.
There are similar reports about our Protestant brethren. England’s historical devotion to Our Lady is well-known. At Walsingham and Willesden there are twin shrines to Our Lady, one for Anglicans, and one for Catholics. Moreover, many Anglicans are interested in Mariology. So, this is another area in which the Academy can engage more deeply and profoundly in evangelization.
The objective is to bring Jesus Christ to people. Mary is very happy to be a door for them. That is how she presents herself.
With the definition of the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, has Mariology reached the limits of its development?
Yes and no. There are things that follow from the Assumption: Mary’s coronation, for example. There is a much that is implicit in the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption.
Like the theology of the lay vocation, Mariology has been slowly gaining steam within the Church. The critical issues of Christology, ecclesiology, and sacramental theology have developed more quickly within the Church and out of a certain necessity. They are related directly with the Church’s core activities. However, other areas of doctrine have developed more slowly. Only recently, has a fuller theology of marriage has emerged, with impetus from St. John Paul II and Dietrich von Hildebrand, among others.
Much of what the Church has always believed about Our Lord has not been developed explicitly. Only the most fundamental truths, such as her perpetual virginity, Immaculate Conception, and Assumption have been defined explicitly.
Take her role as Co-Redemptrix. We still have to explain her participatory role in the Redemption. It was given to her once the Father chose her to be the vessel and mother of the Word made flesh. However, we have not dealt with the full implications of this. We need a much deeper discussion of how Mary figures in Sacred Scriptures. For Mariologists, she is figured not only in Eve, as the Church Fathers taught, but also in the heroic women of the Old Testament.
It is a matter of fleshing out the doctrines that have already been defined, just as we do in Christology or soteriology. It is especially a matter of applying those Marian doctrines in moral theology and the Church’s pastoral action. There is still a lot to be done in this regard.
The Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon taught that Christ is a divine person who has assumed a human nature. That means that Mary was chosen as his mother. All the graces she received during her life and the prerogatives she attained after her earthly life, such as the Assumption, follow from this election. We still need to flesh all this out so that Christology and Mariology are one. The proper role of Mariology is to be at service of Christ and Christology.
"Most people are not intellectuals. The devotional pathway is what is going to hook them and draw them closer to Mary, and through her, to her son."
Often, many of our Protestant brethren are suspicious of Catholic devotion to Mary and the saints. They fear that it is not sanctioned by Scripture and betrays a lack of faith in the sufficiency of Christ's redemptive work. Why have you not recommended any books that, primarily and explicitly, address their concerns?
In selecting the books, I was thinking primarily about how I came to a deeper and more scientifically grounded faith in Our Lady.
Of course, faith is communicated by baptism. Nevertheless, it needs to be fostered. Protestants receive that faith, but they also receive a lot of bad information that needs to be undone. They need to be won over.
Over the years, many converts, often Protestant pastors or intellectuals, have spoken on The Journey Home, an EWTN program. They have always had to get over the polemics about Mary. These polemics are not necessarily ill-willed. They are based on certain assumptions about what Scripture says and does not say. Still, they need to be undone.
Recently, a local priest, who has come into the Anglican Ordinariate of Catholic Church from Anglicanism, spoke on a show that I host, Catholic Sphere. He noted that it was probably devotion to Our Lady that brought him over. It was not a matter of wrapping his head around the theological principles. That was important once he responded to his attraction to Our Lady. However, this goes back to the point I made about interreligious dialogue. People are attracted by Our Lady and her goodness. This priest felt that she had reached out to him in many ways, even though he had been raised in an area of the United States where Protestants would caricature people who planted an image of Mary on their front lawn to show that they had devotion to her. Such a caricature fails to understand, however, how deeply Mary, and her Son, influence the life of the people who manifest their devotion in these ways.
There are books that address Protestant objections for the more intellectual non-Catholics. However, the way of deeply held devotion does not require much technical explanation for the typical non-Catholic Christian. We simply need to encourage people to show Our Lady the respect and honour that we give to our own mothers and to ask ourselves how Jesus would have respected and honoured her. As St. Louis Marie Grignon de Montfort notes in True Devotion, prior to his public ministry, Jesus spent his life in obedience to his mother and St. Joseph. That tells us more about the will of God than our intellectualism. That is why devotion inspires people more than technical writing does. That is why I have selected books that concentrate on the devotional pathway, that then led me to a more scientific pathway. Most people are not intellectuals. The devotional pathway is what is going to hook them and draw them closer to Mary, and through her, to her son.
1.
The first book, and that you have recommended is William T. Walsh's book on Fatima. Why were you chosen this as an entry point into devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary?
It was the first book about Our Lady that I read. The Sisters of Zion ran a kindergarten in my hometown, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. I was sent to that kindergarten, back in the late fifties. The sisters spoke of two things Marian: Fatima, which was the cause du jour in the 1950s and 1960s on account of the promises and the prophecies, and their own founder Alphonse Ratisbonne. Through the miraculous medal, Ratisbonne, a Jew and an atheist, converted to Catholicism, became a priest, and founded male and female orders to bring devotion to Our Lady to the Jewish people.
I came across Walsh’s book on Fatima in my mother's library sometime in the 1960s. It was the first thing I had read on Mary and which went beyond what I had learnt about her at school.
Walsh was a professor of literature. He had written biographies of Isabella of Castille and Teresa of Avila, and then decided to write a history of the apparitions of Our Lady of Fatima. In the 1950s the story was known after a fashion in the United States. However, other than the pamphlets and booklets of certain Catholic groups, there was no in-depth study available in English. So, Walsh went over to Portugal with the help of the bishop of Leiria, Jose Alves Correia da Silva, who had authorised the cult of Our Lady of Fatima in 1930, and Fr. Joao de Marchi, who had written books about it in Portuguese, and other experts on the historical events.
Walsh’s book is a particularly good account. He tried to get at what really happened. He used the accounts the children themselves gave to clergy in six interviews before, during, and after the formal process that the diocese held to study the apparitions.
There are other books on Fatima, such as those of Fr. de Marchi. Critical editions of the documents are available in Italian and Portuguese. There is a volume in English from the Shrine of Fatima that has been put together by theologians and is sponsored by the Pontifical. International Marian Academy. So, there are other, more scientific studies available in English. However, this book was my introduction to the subject and sparked my fascination with it.
"True Devotion is maybe the most packed and well-rounded book on Mary."
2.
Walsh's book was your entry point to devotion to Our Lady. Will it be the proper entry point for others, who maybe are not so drawn towards Our Lady of Fatima?
Perhaps not. Our Lady can draw people through other books, such as the two by St. Louis-Marie de Monfort that I have recommended: The Secret of the Rosary and True Devotion to Mary.
Going by my own spiritual itinerary, any book on Mary will generally encourage you to pray the rosary. If you pray the rosary, you will develop a love of it. In its fifty chapters, The Secret of the Rosary can give you a good understanding of this devotion, its importance, purpose, and mysteries.
Montfort’s True Devotion will be attractive to ordinary Catholics. However, I would suggest that non-Catholics read it too on account of all the effort Montfort puts into disabusing falsehoods about Mary’s role and Marian devotional practices. It proposes that some choose Our Lady as the path toward Jesus. She was the first disciple and the one who was most conformed to the will of God, from the moment of her “fiat”, to the Cross, and up to the end of her life. She shows us why we too should conform ourselves to God’s will.
True Devotion is maybe the most packed and well-rounded book on Mary. It has something for the ordinary Catholic who wants to know more about Mary. There is something for those wondering why they should bother with devotion to Mary. There is something for the sceptic.
Interestingly, even some Episcopalians and Lutherans say the Rosary. The Secret of the Rosary might be a good way for them into Marian devotion.
However, none of the books on my list are likely to be attractive to Christians, such as the Baptists, who do not belong to the liturgical, sacramental churches. They can always start with Scripture and ask, “How is Mary understood in the Bible?” They might even go to Scott Hahn's book on Our Lady. Maybe the conversion stories of Scott Hahn or Pat Madrid are more suitable for them. Over the years, I have known many Protestants who have found that the Catholic view of Mary is not at all what they took it to be. Once they have dipped their toe in the water, a book like True Devotion can give them a good grounding in what Catholics really think about Our Lady.
You have recommended works by St. Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort and St. Alphonsus Liguori, a doctor of the Church. These books were written during the baroque period. Today, some might be put off by the style or idiom of these works and prefer modern literature that conveys the same doctrine in a more approachable manner. Do you have any advice for such a reader?
I would say that, if they read those books, they will find that their assumptions are wrong. However, I understand your point. For many, Monfort’s talk of slavery is off-putting, even though he explains why he uses the term. As odious as we consider slavery, over the millennia the term conveyed the idea of perfect ownership and absolute right. Although God gave us freedom of choice, he does have an absolute right over us. Montfort explains this in depth.
It might be good for the modern reader to start with the Catechism of the Catholic Church and then read popular writings, such as those of Scott Hahn and others. I have not read any of them because I have been on a different path, as it were.
Converts to Catholicism who have answered this sort of question are a tremendous source of information, especially since they come from different perspectives. Some of them were Calvinists. Some were Anglicans, who already had a certain sensibility toward Our Lady. Some were Baptists, who would not have given much thought to Mary beyond that she was the mother of Jesus. Reading what such converts have written on her is one way to go.
"Montfort’s central point, therefore, is that we consecrate ourselves to Our Lady with a true devotion to reach Christ more profoundly and deeply."
3.
You have recommended two books by St Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort, who influenced St. John Paul II very deeply. What is the main teaching of each one, The Secret of the Rosary and True Devotion to Mary?
One chapter deals with this explicitly, but it underpins all his writings.
Earlier I spoke of Mary as the first disciple. Montfort does not speak of her in this way, but his basic point is that through the Incarnation and baptism we are consecrated to the Trinity through Christ. A writer on the liturgy, Cipriano Vaggagini said that everything comes from the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit, and goes back to the Father, through his Son, in the Holy Spirit. The whole Trinity is involved. However, in the Incarnation God involved Mary. For Montfort, going to Christ through Mary is a corollary of our baptismal consecration. We should go back to him through Mary, just as he came to us through Mary. Monfort argues, therefore for a Marian consecration. By surrendering to her, we learn from her how to be faithful to her son. By surrendering to her son, we learn about fidelity to the Father. That is the central point of his argument and Monfort’s process of true devotion. That is what St. John Paul II meant with his papal motto, “Totally yours” (Totus tuus): to Jesus, through Mary. His papal shield was blue but had the cross on it. Devotion to Mary is the door, the pathway, but not the end. Christ is the end. Indeed, even Christ is the means. Our end is communion with the Holy Trinity. We are still on that path, but someday that is where we will be led, as St. Paul tells us (1 Corinthians 15).
Montfort’s central point, therefore, is that we consecrate ourselves to Our Lady with a true devotion to reach Christ more profoundly and deeply. We should do as committedly as she did before the Archangel Gabriel: “Let it be done to me according to your word.” Moreover, she says, “I am the handmaid of the Lord.” This is the slavery of which Montfort speaks. This total submission to the other is the purpose of the vows taken by religious or consecrated virgins. It is the purpose of marriage as a vocation of holiness. These commitments are means to reach Christ, who brings us to the Father.
4.
In The Glories of Mary, St. Alphonsus draws on Scripture, Tradition, the liturgy, and common prayers to explain Catholic devotion to the Blessed Virgin. What makes this book so special 270 years after it was first published?
He describes his purpose in the foreword. He wished to repay a debt to Our Lady by singing her praises. To this end, he draws on Scripture. He searches all the available literature to find the Fathers, saints, and great writers, such as Dante, who spoke of Mary, her prerogatives, holiness, and graciousness. He brings all this together into one book so that the ordinary reader does not have to search it all out. This is a real compendium of what the Church has said about Mary throughout history. Obviously, it does not present what has been said since the late 1700s. Nevertheless, it is tremendously valuable.
It is of value to those who wonder what Christians believed in the past, prior to the Reformation. Alphonsus covers all those centuries and brings us well beyond the Reformation. He also discusses Mary’s virtues and the great events in her life and the Lord’s, the ones that we contemplate in the Rosary. It is a useful omnibus to have on one’s bookshelf for whenever you wonder what has been said about Mary on a certain point.
5.
Finally, you have recommended a book by Sister Lucia, one of the visionaries of Fatima. This brings us back full circle. Why is her personal experience important for the general reader rather than books, such as those by St. Alphonsus or St. Louis-Marie Grignon de Montfort, which focus on general principles?
There are two paragraphs in the Catechism of the Catholic Church should know by heart. They will save them, especially the more devout Catholics, a lot of heartache.
Paragraph 66 deals with public revelation and our obligation to believe it. Paragraph 67 deals with private revelations and says, “Guided by the Magisterium of the Church, the sensus fidelium knows how to discern and welcome in these revelations whatever constitutes an authentic call of Christ or his saints to the Church.” This same idea can be conveyed with another expression: “the signs of the times.”
I had the privilege to be at Fatima when John Paul II visited it 1981 to give thanks. He said that the message of Fatima is the Gospel for the twentieth century. It is not a new Gospel. Rather, it is the gospel for the twentieth century. It is calling people back to the central message of the Gospel: prayer, penance, contrition, reparation for our sins and the wrong we have done others. All this is contained in the message of Fatima.
As Cardinal Ratzinger said in his 2000 commentary, as Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, on the so-called third secret of Fatima, such prophesies are to be understood in the same way as the biblical prophecies. This is what Pope Francis has done. He has avoided apocalypticism and offered a calm, measured appreciation of the messages.
Catholics receive sound guidance whenever they look to the magisterium to learn about which private revelations they should follow and how they should take it. Over the last twenty-seven years at EWTN, I have been taking phone calls, responding to letters, emails, and comments. My experience has been that there are many who do not take that guidance. In the introduction to True Devotion, Montfort warns the reader to look to the Church and its teachings. We should not judge mysticism and apparitions all by ourselves. There is an awful lot of that going on and some very dangerous ideas come out of it.
The Catechism teaches about the proper place and utility of private revelations. We should give them the credence that we are allowed to give to private revelations, such as Fatima of those of St. Faustina, whose credibility has been asserted by the magisterium over decades. If we give then that credence, we receive very good advice from heaven or Our Lady on how to respond to the issues of the age.
For the children of Fatima, it was World War One. They were told to pray the Rosary so that the war would end. We missed the boat with World War Two, but the pope did consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary in 1942. All the battles between 1943 and 1945 went the way of the Allies. In 1984, the pope consecrated Russia and the remarkable fall of the Soviet Union followed shortly after. Our Lady did not come to Fatima for no reason whatsoever. She came because the Lord willed it. He used her as an instrument to call to mind these signs of the times and to find the ways to deal with them.
This book is by Sister Lucia, the eldest of the three seers. It is her lifelong reflection on the message of Fatima, first as a Dorothean and then as a Carmelite. It is integrated marvellously with the teaching and theology of the Church. If offers a mature reflection on Fatima, reads the signs of the times, and considers how we can respond to the message of Fatim according to our state in life.
Is the promotion of devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary an important means of evangelization and catechesis?
It can be, for the reasons I mentioned above. This was my experience at the Pontifical International Marian Congress of 2021.
We also know this from the innate sensibilities of Anglicans or Muslims. Obviously, nothing will necessarily turn millions of people around. However, we can dispose them one or two at a time. This is all that Jesus ever did. There were probably many who walked away from the Sermon on the Mount shaking their head and many others who, though enthusiastic, were sitting on the fence. The same is true today.
Our Lady will be a means of conversion for those disposed to open their hearts to her. For others, it will be the intellectual side of theology or complex books. For some, it will be the witness of Christians. Fulton Sheen used to say that the witness of a holy life is what was needed today more than anything else. That remains true. However, that supposes that Catholics and other Christians are striving to be holy. Like Montfort, I would argue that Mary provides us with the quickest means to attain holiness. This is evangelical and Christ-centred and so the most appropriate means toward holiness.
