Leo XIV and the Marian consistency of the papacy

The election of Robert Francis Prevost, a US citizen naturalised Peruvian, as Pope Leo XIV has been interpreted by many as a sign that the Roman Catholic Church wants to continue along the lines set by his predecessor, Pope Francis. 

Faced with the more conservative wing of the Church of Rome, represented, among others, by a substantial part of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the United States, Francis and Leo XIV present themselves as progressives on social issues.

We cannot forget that Francis sought to rehabilitate the figure of the recently deceased Gustavo Gutiérrez, the father of liberation theology. In this, he could not have been further from his John Paul II, who did not hesitate to publicly rebuke the Nicaraguan priest and poet Ernesto Cardenal, another proponent of that theology. The image of that rebuke went around the world. Francis and now Leo XIV suggest that official changes, at least in Rome, on poverty, emigration and their real causes are here to stay.

Devotion to the Virgin Mary is the true link between all popes, or even the glue that holds Roman Catholicism together. Let us take the most obvious example, that of Francis. His devotion to the Virgin was undeniable, and not only because he wanted to be buried in the Basilica of Saint Mary Major in Rome. His Marian fervour was evident, for example, in the very name that the Jesuit Bergoglio chose for his pontificate, Francis. This has been repeatedly referred to as symptomatic of his papacy, as a kind of vindication of Franciscan poverty and austerity. There can be no doubt that this was in his mind, as his pontificate has sought to move in that direction. But let us not forget that the Franciscans were supporters of the doctrine of the immaculate conception of Mary, which was finally imposed in 1854 as a dogma of faith.

Commenting on this dogmatic statement, the Spanish evangelical theologian José Grau states that: "In this way, the doctrine that St Augustine, St John Chrysostom, St Thomas Aquinas and St Bernard of Clairvaux, among others, always repudiated was imposed on Roman Christianity". And we cannot ignore that it is the Jesuits who emphasise devotion to the Virgin as a hallmark of identity in opposition to the supporters of the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century.

[destacate] This papal devotion to the Virgin Mary has no biblical basis whatsoever. The Mary presented to us by Rome is far from the image presented to us in the Gospels [/destacate]In this sense, the Roman Catholic processions of Holy Week in Spain are a paradoxical testimony that there was indeed a Reformation in our nation. The proof is the intensification of Marian worship in these processions. For, in contrast to the Christocentric emphasis of the Reformation with its 'Solus Christus', Rome responded with its growing Mariology.

The Reformed theologian Herman Bavinck stated that: "The Jesuit order is the embodiment and exponent of everything anti-Protestant. This order devoted all its energy to the destruction of the work of the Reformation. By gaining control of education, this order halted or reversed the achievements of the Reformation in many countries, and sought to compensate for its losses to the Reformation in Europe by bringing the Catholic religion to many pagan lands. In the declarations of the immaculate conception of Mary and papal infallibility, the order of Loyola celebrated its greatest triumphs".

The Jesuits are the great defenders of the pope and Marian devotion. These are also their colours. I mentioned earlier the different attitudes of John Paul II and Francis towards liberation theology and its most conspicuous representatives. But when it comes to the Virgin Mary, there are no differences. Thus, commenting on the 1979 Episcopal Assembly of Puebla and the defined tendencies of Pope John Paul II, Samuel Escobar observed "a clear shift back to Mariology, a revaluation of popular religiosity and the clear anti-evangelical statements of the Final Document".

It is very significant that Leo XIV's first prayer from the balcony of the Vatican was a Hail Mary. This papal devotion to the Virgin Mary has no biblical basis whatsoever. The Mary presented to us by Rome is not the young woman who became the mother of Jesus, but a Mary who is far from the image presented to us in the Gospels. The Virgin of the Gospels rejoiced in God her Saviour (Luke 1:47); she is not a Mary who can pray for us sinners. She needed God's grace to be saved, just as much as any of us do.

But this devotion to Mary hides something much deeper than a flagrant contradiction of the biblical texts about her. The figure of Mary perfectly exemplifies Roman theology of human cooperation in their own salvation. 

[destacate]Pope Francis has stood out as a champion of the implementation of Vatican II in various areas, but above all, he has been faithful to the Council's guidelines on Mary[/destacate]The veneration of Mary is therefore not an adventitious but an essential element of Roman Catholicism; its entire scriptural exegesis hinges on this Marian element: Eve/Mary; Mary/Church, and even if anecdotal, the appearance of Jesus to Mary is central to Roman religiosity on the day of the Resurrection. It is as if the two of them, working in tandem, were the ones who defeated evil.

What is not mentioned in the Gospel accounts is the most important thing in some manifestations of Roman Catholic popular religiosity in the Holy Week processions. Francis has stood out as a champion of the implementation of Vatican II in various areas, but above all, he has been faithful to the council's guidelines on Mary. Thus, in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, known as Lumen Gentium, it is stated that "the Holy Fathers hold that Mary was not a purely passive instrument in the hands of God, but cooperated in the salvation of men with free faith and obedience. As St. Irenaeus says, by obeying she became the cause of salvation for herself and for the whole human race".

For this reason, José Grau is right when he states that "Mariology is like a compendium and expression of what is most authentically Roman Catholic. In fact, Mariology brings together the neo-Pelagian anthropology that does not rest until it exalts man with total disregard for his fallen condition (Mary is the prototype of this exaltation of human nature—and hence also the need for her impeccability formulated in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, without any biblical support) and synergistic soteriology with its model of salvation through works, through penitential self-effort, whose ultimate paradigm we find in the cult of the saints and, above all, in Mary with all the devotions that this entails. Roman Catholicism cannot renounce Mariology without renouncing itself".

[destacate]There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all (1 Timothy 2:5)[/destacate]Thus, in the papacy we can appreciate Rome's consistency with itself. In the same way, we evangelicals are consistent with ourselves in declaring that we are saved by the pure grace of God and by faith in Christ alone. This is also our DNA, for it is the testimony of Scripture itself: ‘For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast’ (Ephesians 2:8-9).

As the Apostle Peter declared: ‘And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be save' (Acts 4:12). And Paul: ‘For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which was testified in time’ (1 Timothy 2:5).

Evangelicals "are for imitation, not veneration of Mary", says José Grau. And this means always listening to Mary. It is she who tells us all about our Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Do whatever he tells you’ (John 2:4).

José Moreno Berrocal, evangelical pastor, theologian and president of the Theology Working Group of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance.

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