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A Patroness for the Council? Building a Movement for Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Aid of Church Unity

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Catholicism Opening to the World and Other Confessions

Part of the book series: Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue ((PEID))

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Abstract

This chapter examines a little-known movement to make the Our Lady of Perpetual Help icon the patroness of the proceedings of the Second Vatican Council. Begun by American Redemptorists, it sought to integrate a Marian piety into the conciliar ethos, but one that was decidedly cross-cultural and ecumenical. Explicit in its mission for unity between Roman Catholics and the separated churches of the East, the movement promoted the icon as the key to repairing centuries-old wounds. Insofar as 2015 begins the sesquicentennial year of the icon’s association with Redemptorists, as well as its value as an ecumenical tool, the author explores whether OLPH can lend new impetus for unity between Orthodox and Catholics ahead of the proposed joint synod in 2025.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    See Pope John XXIII, alloc.  Questa festiva , AAS 51 (1959): 65–69 at 69. 

  2. 2.

    See the Cardinal’s remarks in Giovanni Caprile, ed., Il Concilio Vaticano II, vol. I, part 1: L’Annunzio e la Preparazione, 1959–1962 (Rome: Edizioni “La Civiltà Cattolica,” 1966), 177.

  3. 3.

    McGuire’s choice of magisterial texts all point to a moment when the unity of the Church would be recognizable, that is, when all Christians not in communion with the Roman Pontiff returned to the Church by accepting his authority. Thus in Pope Leo XIII ’s Adiutricem Populi (1895), he notes that “Mary will be the happy bond to draw together, with strong yet gentle constraint, all who love Christ, no matter where they may be, to form a nation of brothers yielding obedience to the Vicar of Christ on earth, the Roman Pontiff, their common father.” He cited Pope Pius XI, who in Lux Veritatis (1931) begged Mary to prohibit “the people of the East” from “unhappily wandering and still separated from the unity of the Church and thus from her Son whose Vicar on earth we are.” Finally, he cites Pope Pius XII ’s Fulgens Corona Gloriae (1953), where that pope calls out to all “those also who are separated from Us by ancient schism and whom nonetheless We love with paternal affection.” Invoking her help, he asked that Mary “look down on all those who are proud to call themselves Christians, and who, being united at least in the bond of charity, humbly raise to her their eyes, their minds, and their prayers, imploring that light which illumines the mind with heavenly rays, and begging for that unity by which at least there may be one fold and one shepherd.” Leo XIII, Encyclical Letter Adiutricem Populi, ASS 28 (1895): 129–36, no. 17; Pius XI, Encyclical Letter Lux Veritatis, AAS 23 (1931): 493–517, part III, p. 515; and Pius XII, Encyclical Letter Fulgens Corona Gloriae, AAS 45 (1953): 577–92, no. 44.

  4. 4.

    See Marie Joseph Rouët de Journel, “Marie et l’iconographie russe,” in Maria: Études sur la Sainte Vierge, ed. Hubert du Manoir, 7 vols. (Paris: Beauchesne, 1949–1964): II, 445–81. For the ecumenical reach of this icon, see also William McLoughlin and Jill Pinnock, eds., Mary for Earth and Heaven: Papers on Mary and Ecumenism Given at International Congresses of the Ecumenical Society of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Leeds (1998) and Oxford (2000) and Conferences at Woldingham (1997) and Maynooth (2001) (London: Gracewing, 2002). For Mariology emerging from Vatican II, see most recently Aidan Nichols, There Is No Rose: The Mariology of the Catholic Church (Minneapolis: Augsburg Fortress, 2015).

  5. 5.

    See Analecta Congregationis SS. Redemptoris [hereafter Analecta] 1:5 (1922): 200–6.

  6. 6.

    Analecta 9:1 (1930): 39.

  7. 7.

    As quoted in John V. McGuire, C.Ss.R., “Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Ecumenical Council,” reprint from Perpetual Help Magazine (June–July 1959): 18, a copy of which is in the Redemptorist Archives of the Baltimore Province [hereafter RABP], OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  8. 8.

    Ibid., 23.

  9. 9.

    McGuire urged Puthenangady on April 24, 1959, to write to Father General William Gaudreau in Rome to push the cause for a conciliar patroness. In RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  10. 10.

    Herat to Goetten, May 12, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  11. 11.

    Perrelli to Beatissimo Padre, May 18, 1959, Prot. No. 2580, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  12. 12.

    Larose to Archbishop Emanuele Clarizio, June 1, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  13. 13.

    Goetten referred to Bishop Frederick Hall of the Diocese of Kisumu. See the letter of Goetten to Archbishop Owen McCann of Cape Town, South Africa, May 26, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959) as well as Bishop Hall’s own letter, with enclosure of a copy of his petition to Pope John, dated May 21, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  14. 14.

    See Bishop John Toohey to Goetten, May 20, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  15. 15.

    See Reilly to Goetten, May 19, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  16. 16.

    De Lange to “Beatissime Pater,” June 3, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959) and Davis to “Beatissime Pater,” May 31, 1959, which Davis sent to the Holy Father through Cardinal Gaetano Cicognani, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  17. 17.

    See Vice-Provincial Father Francis Freel to McGuire, October 9, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959). In a subsequent letter, dated November 7, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959), Freel identified the bishops alluded to in his October 9 missive to McGuire. These were: Dom Ladislau Paz (Corumba, Mato Grosso); Dom Antonio Barbosa (Campo Grande, Mato Grosso); Dom Orlado Chaves (Archbishop of Cuiaba, Mato Grosso); Dom Jose Ferreira (Dourados, Mato Grosso); Dom Monoel de Silveira D’Elboux (Archbishop of Curitiba, Parana); Dom Aemilius Sosa Gaona (Concepcion, Paraguay); Juan Bogarin (Archbishop of Asuncion, Paraguay).

  18. 18.

    Tumbocon to Ciriaci, May 19, 1959, Prot. No. 497/59, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  19. 19.

    Kobayashi to Goetten, May 21, 1959, Prot. Nos. 216/59 and 217/59, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959); Cuenco to Goetten, May 21, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959). For Cuenco, the proposal was willingly accepted, given the prominence of OLPH devotions in his own diocese.

  20. 20.

    Esser to Tardini, May 19, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  21. 21.

    Assaf to Tardini, Mary 20, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  22. 22.

    Assaf to Goetten, June 8, 1959, relaying the content of a letter from Cardinal Tardini, Prot. No. 4938/59 and dated June 4, 1959: “Monseigneur, J’ai bien reçu l’aimable letter (Reg. XII, No. 517/59) que Votre Excellence m’adressait en date du 20 Mai dernier, et je la remercie vivement des felicitations et des voeux qu’elle voulait bien y formuler pour ma personne. La suggestion de Votre Exellence, à propos du Concile Oecuménique, a retenu aussi mon attention, et je n’ai pas manqué de la porter à la connaissance de Sa Sainteté, comme vous en exprimez le désir. Le Souverain Pontife vous en remercie par mon entremise et accorde de grand coeur a Votre Excellence et aux fideles confies a ses soins la benediction Apostolique. Etc.” In addition to this reply to Archbishop Assaf, Archbishop Pericles Felice, Secretary of the Council’s Ante-preparatory Commission, wrote the Abbott of St. Procopius Monastery in Lisle, Illinois, stating that the commission had received his petition. But Abbot Ambrose Ondrak, O.S.B., had addressed his letter to the Pope, which signaled that it had been referred to the agenda-making body in charge of the conciliar process. See the copy of the letter from Felici to Ondrak, August 17, 1959, Prot. No. 47/59, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  23. 23.

    McGuire to Wright, August 21, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  24. 24.

    For the Japanese response, see the letter of Father J. Fuller, C.Ss.R., to Father James Galvin, C.Ss.R., February 1, 1960, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1960). At the time, Fuller was stationed in Suita-shi, Osaka-fu, Japan.

  25. 25.

    McGuigan to Father Timothy J. O’Sullivan, C.Ss.R., February 8, 1960, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1960).

  26. 26.

    O’Sullivan to McGuire, December 14, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  27. 27.

    See the form letter of Franco to “Excmo. y Rvdmo. Sr. D.,” May 1, 1960 in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1960). Luis Franco Cascón was appointed a bishop in February 1962 and attended three sessions of the Council. The only evidence for any response of the Spanish hierarchy came from the Bishop Daniel Llorente y Federico of the Diocese of Segovia, who replied affirmatively that he supported the initiative. See the bishop’s letter to Franco, May 2, 1960, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1960).

  28. 28.

    Miller to McGuire, September 3, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  29. 29.

    See the packet of letters from Father Mauritius Demarey, C.Ss.R., including his correspondence with Patriarch Maximos, a copy of the Patriarch’s reply to him, and Demarey’s analysis for McGuire and Galvin, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959). Demarey was dismayed to explain that Maximos’s mentality was typical of the responses he had been getting from bishops in his area.

  30. 30.

    Thus the Bishop of Meerut in India countered that “perhaps the Orientals may be venerating Our Lady under some other title, well known and loved by them. In such supposition, perhaps it would be better to try to bring them back to Rome under the motherly lead of that icon.” See Bishop Joseph B. Evangelisti, O.F.M. Cap., to Fr. Henry Goetten, May 9, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  31. 31.

    Apostolic Delegate Eugenio Vagnozzi to McGuire, September 1, 1959, Prot. No. 58/59, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  32. 32.

    Hannan to McGuire, August 24, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  33. 33.

    See the letter of Provincial Father Wilfred Hughes, C.Ss.R., to James Galvin, C.Ss.R., September 17, 1959, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1959).

  34. 34.

    See the unsigned letter to Goetten, September 8, 1960, Prot. No. 88 CE/60, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1960).

  35. 35.

    See Congar’s white paper prepared for Bishop Weber, “Remarques sur le Schéma De B. Maria Virgine,” in the Congar Archive, Le Saulchoir, and cited in History of Vatican II, vol. 1: Announcing and Preparing Vatican Council II, Toward a New Era in Catholicism, ed. Giuseppe Alberigo and Joseph A. Komonchak (Maryknoll: Orbis; Leuven: Peeters, 1995), 260.

  36. 36.

    O’Sullivan to McGuire, September 26, 1960, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1960).

  37. 37.

    Miller to McGuire, February 26, 1961, in RABP, OLPH Files: Vatican II (1960).

  38. 38.

    See History of Vatican II, vol. 1, 483.

  39. 39.

    See Matthias Raus, Circular Letters of Redemptorist Generals with Introductory Study of The Spirit of St. Alphonsus and His Institute (Milwaukee: Bruce, 1932), 288.

  40. 40.

    See the letter of the Superior General Very Rev. Michael Brehl to “Dear Confreres, Sisters, Lay Associates, and Friends,” April 26, 2015, Prot. No. 0000 073/2015, in RABP, Provincial Files: Paul Borowski, 2015.

  41. 41.

    Thus Pope Francis made a proposal of a union with the Orthodox Church during his meeting with Patriarch Bartholomew I in November 2014. According to La Civiltà Cattolica, “The Pope picked up on a motion made in 1982 by the then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: Rome should no longer ask of the East what was formulated and lived in the first millennium. This was the restoration of an old formula from the Council of Florence in 1439: A reunification of the Latin Church and the Greek Church on the basis of equality, and not a return to the ‘mother Church.’” See Giancarlo Pani, “Per giungere alla piena unità: Dal Concilio di Firenze all’abbraccio di Istanbul,” La Civiltà Cattolica, no. 3951 (February 7, 2015): 209–312, available at www.laciviltacattolica.it.

  42. 42.

    See the remarks of Pope Francis, given at the end of the Divine Liturgy in the Patriarchal Church of St. George in the Phanar, “One single profession of faith,” L’Osservatore Romano (December 3, 2014): 9–10.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Redemptorist Archives, Philadelphia, PA, USA

    Patrick J. Hayes

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Baden-Württemberg, Germany

    Vladimir Latinovic

  2. Department of Theology, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA

    Gerard Mannion

  3. Pontifical Institute of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Rome, Italy

    Jason Welle, O.F.M.

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Hayes, P.J. (2018). A Patroness for the Council? Building a Movement for Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Aid of Church Unity. In: Latinovic, V., Mannion, G., Welle, O.F.M., J. (eds) Catholicism Opening to the World and Other Confessions. Pathways for Ecumenical and Interreligious Dialogue. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98581-7_18

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