Recent Discussion Of The Term “Co-Redemptrix”

Nov 11, 2025

Is Mary The “Co-Redemptrix”? – A Catholic Analysis (Video)

Recently there’s been quite a bit of discussion about whether the term “Co-Redemptrix” is acceptable according to Catholic teaching. Our video on this topic (see the link above) covers the matter in detail. It documents the relevant Catholic teaching, and it answers objections. It’s remarkable that so many proponents of this incorrect title completely ignore the relevant solemn definitions of the Councils of Florence and Trent, which indeed settle the matter. The statements from Florence and Trent (cited below) are the most important statements of the Church on this topic and every conclusion must be consistent with them. The fact that so many people simply don’t care about what these dogmatic statements say demonstrates that they lack faith and a commitment to God’s truth. As our video shows, they also ignore the pre-Vatican II theologians who rejected the title “Co-Redemptrix”.

Pope Pius IV, Council of Trent, Sess. 25, On Invocation, Veneration and Relics of Saints, and on Sacred Images, ex cathedra: “… the saints, who reign with Christ, offer up their prayers to God for men; and that it is good and useful to invoke them suppliantly and, in order to obtain favors from God through His Son JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD, WHO ALONE IS OUR REDEEMER and Savior… And they must also teach that images of Christ, the virgin mother of God and the other saints should be set up and kept… But if anyone should teach or maintain anything contrary to these decrees, let him be anathema.” (Denz. 984)

Pope Eugene IV, Council of Florence, “Cantate Domino” 1441, ex cathedra: “The Holy Roman Church firmly believes, professes, and teaches that no one conceived of man and woman was ever freed of the domination of the Devil, except through the faith of the mediator between God and men, our Lord Jesus Christ; He who was conceived without sin, was born and died**, ALONE BY HIS OWN DEATH LAID LOW THE ENEMY OF THE HUMAN RACE BY DESTROYING OUR SINS**, and opened the entrance to the kingdom of heaven, which the first man by his own sin had lost…” (Denz. 711)

The Church teaches that Jesus ALONE (solus) redeemed us and that He ALONE (solus) is the Redeemer. That demonstrates that Our Lady is not “Co-Redemptrix” (which means “female Redeemer with”).

One of the other points covered in the video deals with Adam and Eve. While Eve indeed played an important role in the events that led up to the fall of mankind, it was Adam’s sin alone that caused the fall. This truth was taught by Trent and emphasized by St. Thomas Aquinas and St. Robert Bellarmine.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, Pt. I-II, Q. 81, A. 5: “…On the contrary, The Apostle says (Rom. 5:12): By one man sin entered into this world. Now if the woman would have transmitted original sin to her children, he should have said that it entered by two, since both of them sinned, or rather that it entered by a woman, since she sinned first… I answer that, therefore original sin, is contracted, not from the mother, but from the father: so that, accordingly, if Eve, and not Adam, had sinned, their children would not contract original sin: whereas, if Adam, and not Eve, had sinned, they would contract it.”

St. Robert Bellarmine, De Amissione Gratiae et Statu Peccati, Book 3, Chap. 9: “For Eve gave occasion for the fall of the human race, but Adam was the true and proper cause of that fall. For if only Eve had sinned, the human race would not thereby have been corrupted; since through the disobedience of one man many were constituted sinners, and in one man, namely Adam, all have sinned (Romans 5).”

Only Adam was the true cause of the fall. Likewise, only the new Adam was the cause of Redemption.