Mexican cardinal says Marian devotion key to addressing problems in the Church and the world

Mexico City, Mexico, Jul 28, 2005 / 22:00 pm

In remarks opening the Guadalupan Congress at the parish of Santa Maria of Guadalupe in Mexico City, Cardinal Norberto Rivera Carrera noted “a crisis of Mariology” in today’s world and said the Virgin Mary is key to resolving many problems in society and in the Church.

“Through Mary many of today’s problems can be addressed, especially those affecting the Church.  For example, the question of priests getting married, the trivialization of sexuality, an ecology that encourages us to protect turtle eggs and whales but rationalizes the killing of human beings,” the cardinal said.

Cardinal Rivera recalled the words of former Cardinal Ratzinger, who once said that both “an exaggerated feminism that has crept into all of the convents” and a “future without a ministerial priesthood, without the consecrated life” could undoubtedly be resolved by an greater understanding of Mary and “the theological place God has given her in the history of salvation.”

He said that Mary could help to resolve many of Mexico’s problems as well. 

Among those present at the Guadalupan Congress was Father Fidel Gonzalez Fernandez, consulter of the Congregation for the Causes of the Saints, who has participated in more than 150 canonization causes, including that of St. Juan Diego.