Abstract
This chapter analyzes the reception of Mary as type and model of the Church in the post-Vatican II era, in Asia. It aims to examine how the Church has responded to the shift to a more biblically centered and ecumenical approach toward Mary after the Second Vatican Council and discusses the challenges for the future especially from a feminist and an ecumenical/interfaith perspective. More specifically, this chapter analyzes statements of the Federation of Asian Bishops’ Conferences and its offices, national episcopal conferences, and writings of Catholic theologians in Asia, especially women and feminists.
This work was supported by a grant from the University Research Coordinating Office, De la Salle University.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
The History of Vatican II, ed. Giuseppe Alberigo and Joseph A. Komonchak, vol. 4, Church as Communion: Third Period and Intersession, September 1964–September 1965 (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2004), 53. Leading the maximalist experts in the council, who desired a new dogma declaring Mary the Mediatrix of all graces were Carlo Balić, President of the International Pontifical Marian Academy, and Gabriele Maria Roschini, Dean of the Marianum in Rome. Roberto de Mattei, Il Concilio Vaticano II: una storia mai scritta, 314–24, portions translated by Francesca Romana, “Our Lady Left Behind: The Marian Question in Vatican II,” http://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2012/09/our-lady-left-behind-marian-question-in.html.
- 2.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee, “The Use of Marian Imagery in Catholic Ecclesiology since Vatican II” (PhD dissertation, University of Notre Dame, 2007), 18–20.
- 3.
The teachings of Pius X and Pius XI employed the term “coredemptrix” for Mary. Kathleen Coyle, Mary in the Christian Tradition from a Contemporary Perspective, rev. Asian ed. (Manila: Divine Word Publications, 1998), 67.
- 4.
Alberigo and Komonchak, The History of Vatican II, vol. 3, 97.
- 5.
Those in favor of an integrated document garnered 1114 votes versus 1074 for those who opposed; there were five spoiled ballots.
- 6.
It is significant to note that in the document itself, Mary is not addressed as “Mother of the Church.” It was only at the closing of the Council’s third session on November 21, 1964 when Paul VI declared her Mother of the Church. This means Mary is the spiritual mother who has given birth to all members of the Church as mystical body of Christ. Paul VI, “Speech at the Conclusion of the Third Session,” AAS 56 (1964): 1007–18; for an English translation, see https://vaticaniiat50.wordpress.com/2014/11/22/pope-pauls-speech-at-closing-session/.
- 7.
John Paul II, Discourse at General Audience, May 2, 1979, https://w2.vatican.va/content/john-paul-ii/en/audiences/1979/documents/hf_jp-ii_aud_19790502.html.
- 8.
Cf. Imperatori-Lee, “The Use of Marian Imagery in Catholic Ecclesiology since Vatican II.” For an excellent review of the development of Mariology after Vatican II, see Stefano De Fiores, “Mary in Postconciliar Theology,” in Vatican II: Assessment and Perspectives, vol. 1, ed. René Latourelle, S.J. (Mahwah, NJ: Paulist Press, 1988), 469–539; Avery Dulles, S.J., “Mary Since Vatican II: Decline and Recovery,” Marian Studies 53, article 5 (2002): 9–22.
- 9.
De Fiores, “Mary in Postconciliar Theology,” 477.
- 10.
Coyle, Mary in the Christian Tradition, 73.
- 11.
John Paul II, Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation Ecclesia in Asia, AAS 92 (2000): 449–528.
- 12.
These include Our Lady of Antipolo, Our Lady of Velankanni, Our Lady of China, Our Lady of La Vang, Our Lady of the Korean Martyrs, and Our Lady of Korea at Cana. Jonathan Tan, “Asian-American Marian Devotions as Ritual Practice,” New Theology Review (August 2010): 35–44.
- 13.
Paul VI, Apostolic Exhortation Marialis Cultus, AAS 66 (1974): 113–68.
- 14.
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, Ang Mahal na Birhen: Mary in Philippine Life Today, http://www.cbcponline.net/documents/1970s/1975-mahal_na_birhen.html.
- 15.
The Santacruzan, which dates back to the Spanish colonial period in the nineteenth century, is the most widely celebrated folk religious procession in the Philippines. It is held at the end of Flores de Mayo, a month-long celebration in May honoring the Virgin Mary.
- 16.
A Hebrew word from the Old Testament that describes the “poor ones.”
- 17.
Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines, “The Marian Year 1985: A Pilgrimage of Hope with our Blessed Mother,” http://www.cbcponline.net/documents/1980s/1985-pilgrimage_hope.html.
- 18.
John Paul II, Homily at Zapopan, Mexico, 30 January, AAS (1979): 227–31; reproduced in Third General Conference of Latin American Bishops (CELAM), Puebla: Evangelization at Present and in the Future of Latin America (Washington, DC: NCCB, 1979), 77.
- 19.
John Paul II, for instance, used the term coredemptrix for Mary in at least five occasions in homilies and talks. See Mark Miravalle, “The Pope of Mary Co-Redemptrix,” http://www.fifthmariandogma.com/articles/881/.
- 20.
Tissa Balasuriya , Mary and Human Liberation: The Story and the Text (London: Mowbray, 1997), 56.
- 21.
Chung Hyun Kyung, Struggle to Be the Sun Again: Introducing Asian Women’s Theology (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1990), 74–84.
- 22.
Samuel Rayan, “My Body for You,” in Body, Bread, Blood: Eucharistic Perspectives from the Indian Church, ed. Francis Gonsalves, S.J. (Delhi: ISPCK, 2003), 196.
- 23.
“Did the woman say, when she held him for the last time in the dark rain on a hilltop, after the pain and the bleeding and the dying, ‘This is my body, this is my blood?’… Well, that she said it to him then, for dry old men, brocaded robes belying barrenness, ordain that she not say it for him now.” Frances Croake Frank, quoted by Astrid Lobo Gajiwala, “The Passion of the Womb: Women Re-living the Eucharist,” in Body and Sexuality: Theological Pastoral Perspectives of Women in Asia, ed. Agnes M. Brazal and Andrea Lizares Si (Quezon City, AdMU Press, 2007), 193–94.
- 24.
“Proper Marian Devotion,” CBCK Newsletter, http://www.cbck.or.kr/bbs/bbs_read.asp?board_id=e5100&bid=13001596.
- 25.
The Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith of the Korean Bishops’ Conference (CBCK), “Correct Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary,” 2005, http://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/article/Article.aspx?aid=2993388.
- 26.
Catholic Bishops Conference of Korea (Commission for the Doctrine of the Faith), Proper Marian Devotion, February 11, 2009.
- 27.
Peter N. V. Hai, “Models of the Asian Church,” Australian eJournal of Theology 18, no. 1 (2011): 61–73. See also James Thoppil’s book-length study of Asian ecclesiology, which has no reference at all to Mary’s role within the Church. Towards an Asian Ecclesiology: The Understanding of the Church in the Documents of the FABC (1970–2000) (Bangalore: Oriens Publications and Asian Trading Corporation, 2005).
- 28.
The BILA meetings are composed of laywomen and men, priests and bishops. These meetings provided a venue for the articulation of developing images of Mary.
- 29.
Statement of the South Asia Meeting on Women III, “Women Living the Eucharist in South Asia,” in Discipleship of Asian Women at the Service of Life, vol. 2, ed. Virginia Saldanha (Quezon City: Claretian Publications, 2011), 283.
- 30.
“Consultation on Christian Presence Among Muslims in Asia, Recommendations of the Participants of the Consultation,” no. 6. FABC Papers no. 13, “A Glimpse at Dialogue in Asia,” 30th anniversary, First Bishops’ Institute for Interreligious Affairs, p. 19, http://www.fabc.org/fabc%20papers/FABC%20Paper%20131.pdf.
- 31.
East Asia Bishops’ Institute on Lay Apostolate (BILA), “Mary Truly a Woman of out Times: Statement,” in Discipleship of Asian Women at the Service of Life, vol. 2, ed. Saldanha, 301–4.
- 32.
Ibid., 303.
- 33.
Ibid., 301.
- 34.
Hae Young Choi, R.S.C.J., “Mary Model of Discipleship in the Church,” in Discipleship of Asian Women at the Service of Life, vol. 2, ed. Saldanha, 230–31.
- 35.
East Asia BILA, “Mary Truly a Woman of our Times: Statement,” in Discipleship of Asian Women at the Service of Life, vol. 2, ed. Saldanha, 303.
- 36.
Ibid., 303.
- 37.
She is said to have appeared to one of the revolutionaries to warn them that their plan had been discovered. It was in Balintawak where the Philippine revolution against Spain started. In the dream, the Virgin is dressed in Filipiniana peasant garb together with a boy holding a bolo shouting “Freedom! Freedom!” Gregorio Aglipay, Novenary of the Motherland—The Motherland is Symbolized in the Envisioned Mother of Balintawak (Manila: n.p, 1926), i. The Virgin of Balintawak was regarded then as a symbol of the country while the child Jesus represented the Katipuneros or revolutionaries fighting against the colonizers. Today, the image revered is the Virgin with the boy holding a tablet saying, “Father, may our independence be born!”
- 38.
It was the first labor union in the Philippines, the Union Obrera Democratica, that founded the IFI on August 3, 1902. At that time, almost a tenth of the country’s population were members of the IFI.
- 39.
Isabelo de los Reyes, a founder of the IFI, is said to be the forerunner of Filipino theology. Feorillo Petronilo A. Demeterio III, “Don Isabelo de los Reyes (1864–1938): Forerunner of Filipino Theology,” Philippiniana Sacra 68, no. 142 (September–December 2012): 883–916. In 2007, the IFI and the Catholic Church ceased hostility centered on a discussion as to which church owns the “original” Sto. Niño statue, meaning that which is worthy of veneration. For the first time both churches held a joint procession on the eve of the feast of Sto. Niño in a colorful Buling-Buling festival where the two icons meet. “‘Hidden’ Sto. Niño for 300 Years to Rise,” http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/128099/hidden-sto-nino-for-300-years-to-rise#ixzz4JFcOepL7. We hope that in the future, a joint procession of the icons of Virgin Mary would also happen.
- 40.
Sabino A. Vengco, Jr., “Mary among the Goddesses,” Landas 19, no. 1 (2005): 119–40.
- 41.
Peter C. Phan, In Our Own Tongues: Perspectives from Asia on Mission and Inculturation (Maryknoll: Orbis, 2003), 104.
- 42.
Ibid., 108.
- 43.
Antonio de Castro, “La Virgen del Pilar: Defamiliarizing Mary and the Challenge of Interreligious Dialogue, Landas 19, no. 1 (2005): 88–89.
- 44.
“Cardinals Hoping for a 5th Marian Dogma: To Declare Mary as Mother of Humanity,” February 11, 2008, http://zenit.org/articles/cardinals-hoping-for-a-5th-marian-dogma/.
- 45.
For instance, three catacomb frescoes exist in which Mary is enthroned; one dates as early as the first half of the second century. There are also three sarcophagi or sculptures of the enthroned Mary amidst the Adoration of the Magi. The title Theotokos had been employed by Hippolytus of Rome since 220 AD. Kilian McDonnell, O.S.B., “Feminist Mariologies: Heteronomy/Subordination and the Scandal of Christology,” Theological Studies 66 (2005): 560.
- 46.
See, for instance, Ivone Gebara and Maria Clara Bingemer’s discussion of the Virgin of Guadalupe as an Indian assimilation of the European Mary in the image of the mother goddess Tonantzin of the pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, a synthesis of a new Mother who provides maternal care and compassion in defense of the Indians. Mary: Mother of God, Mother of the Poor (Maryknoll: Orbis, 1989), 144–54. See also the comparative study of Hindu goddesses and Mary by Francis X. Clooney , S.J., which shows that “Mary functions analogously to a goddess, as a supreme female person who is not-God, but rather God’s Mother.” Divine Mother, Blessed Mother: Hindu Goddesses and the Virgin Mary (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005), 234.
- 47.
See Kari Børresen, “Mary in Catholic Theology,” in Mary in the Church, ed. Hans Küng and Jürgen Moltmann, Concilium 168 (New York: Seabury, 1983), 48–56; Marina Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1976); Elizabeth A. Johnson, C.S.J., “Mary and the Female Face of God,” Theological Studies 50 (1989): 507–10; Johnson, “Mary, Friend of God and Prophet: A Critical Reading of the Marian Tradition,” Theology Digest 47, no. 4 (2000): 317–25; and Johnson, Truly Our Sister: A Theology of Mary in the Communion of Saints (London: Continuum, 2006).
- 48.
Johnson, “Mary and the Female Face of God,” 514.
- 49.
Jose de Mesa, “Ate: Honoring Mary as Our Eldest Sister,” MST Review II, no. 1 (1998): 1–12.
- 50.
Boff proposes that Mary is the incarnation of the Holy Spirit. Leonardo Boff , The Maternal Face of God: The Feminine and Its Religious Expressions (London: Collins, 1989).
- 51.
Johnson, “Mary and the Female Face of God,” 500.
- 52.
Amirtham Metti, S.C.C., “Bodily Representations of Hindu Goddesses: A Feminist Perspective,” in Body and Sexuality: Theological Pastoral Perspectives of Women in Asia, ed. Agnes M. Brazal and Andrea Lizares Si (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University, 2007), 266.
- 53.
Johnson, Truly Our Sister, 92.
- 54.
George Henry Tavard, The Thousand Faces of the Virgin Mary (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 1996), 205, emphasis added.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Brazal, A.M. (2018). Mary as Type and Model of Church in Lumen Gentium: Reception in Asia. 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_11
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98581-7_11
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-98580-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-98581-7
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)