The most extensive synthesis of Marian doctrine ever elaborated

By a decree signed on February 11, 2018—the 160th anniversary of the first apparition of Our Lady at Lourdes—Pope Francis established the liturgical memorial of Mary, Mother of the Church, and inserted it in the Roman calendar. The Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments explained that this decision was taken "considering the importance of the mystery of the spiritual motherhood of the Blessed Virgin who, in waiting for the Holy Spirit at Pentecost (cf. Acts 1:14), has never ceased to take maternal care of the pilgrim Church." Cardinal Robert Sarah also believes that "the promotion of this devotion can foster among pastors, religious and the faithful the growth of a maternal sense of the Church and of true Marian devotion.

The term "Mater Ecclesiae" had already been used by Saint Paul VI on November 21, 1964, when he promulgated the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium, whose Chapter VIII, entirely dedicated to the Virgin Mary, explores her role in the mystery of Christ and the Church. Pope Paul VI, who had a deep devotion to the Mother of God, saw in Lumen Gentium "the most extensive synthesis of Marian doctrine ever elaborated by an ecumenical council, with a view to manifesting the face of the holy Church, to which Our Lady is intimately associated."

Vatican News