Mary, in the present of the Church and the world

Catholic theology encompasses various disciplines, including mariology, angelology, demonology, and josephology. Mariology focuses on the study of the Virgin Mary, her role in salvation history, and her various titles and attributes. Angelology deals with the nature and functions of angels, while demonology examines the doctrine of demons and demonic activity. Josephology, less commonly studied, explores the life and virtues of Saint Joseph, the husband of the Virgin Mary and the foster father of Jesus Christ.

In today’s society, not only is it global, with world events interconnected instantaneously, but it is also plural from a cultural perspective. The myth of the superiority of Western society as a superior culture that should organize the present is set aside in favor of a vision that embraces the multiplicity of viewpoints, including religious ones.This acceleration of time leads mariology into a new world governed by the encounter of the diverse. While Mary’s identification with Western culture has accompanied various cultures in the processes of colonial expansion, on the other hand, the economic crisis, inflation, unemployment, and moral issues of global economy make Mary a space of encounter between cultures due to her open and comprehensive dimension, which strengthens the yearning for the transcendent that gives meaning to life and does justice to liberation from oppression that reinforces itself in social systems that, in confrontation, tend to homologate.Today, in its majority, can be defined as *metropolitane*. The great syntheses of the past have been reduced to a relativization of references that once seemed secure and are no longer so. We can say that one element has remained unchanged and is common to all peoples: *female piety* before the fleeting nature of life.If disinterest in Christianity is noted in various social spaces, in a kind of common ethical creed where all human beings could live in harmony, it is true that the perfect disciple of the Lord, image and model of the Church, continues to inspire various fields of human culture, such as music, painting, architecture, sculpture, literature, and popular art (St. John Paul II). It is in this context that new images of Mary emerge.In reality, the world does not depend on the Bible as the Word of God, but it does produce volumes about the Virgin Mary. Think of novels, feminist anthropology, all from a secular, unconfessional, even *secular* perspective. This secular image of Mary spreads as a *presence* of a universal Mother who dialogues, who is good, true, and beautiful. Mary is then lived as different from us, completely holy, who looks at a world completely marked by sin.However, it is far from human history, touching the world through apparitions, real or presumed, and is witnessed as having extreme sensitivity to miraculous interventions of God in history, but insensitive to renewal, even a barrier to any possible change in customs and practices.On the other hand, in the theological world, we find difficulty in understanding Mary within the circuits of Catholic theology. Perhaps the testimony of Karl Rahner helps us understand how the perfectly redeemed creature before the multiple cultural expressions must be theologically understood:”I must confess: I am surprised by the Marian piety of the ‘masses’, in which the devotee places himself at the feet of Our Lady, loves her, addresses so many supplications to her with such confidence, almost as if it were the most important thing in religion! Yet I then question critically whether the cause of my embarrassment is not perhaps simply my own inability to act, and it is right that it should be so, the total spontaneity of that human intercommunication demanded by a Christianity that is truly alive.”Perhaps in this confession by one of the most significant theological minds of the 20th century, we can see how we have moved beyond the Enlightenment view of history. The triumph of reason that was supposed to lead to universal happiness only resulted in a struggle of all against all. I believe we should return to the universal roots where the three characters illustrate our life throughout all times, without ideologically spiritualizing anything: the Mother, the Child, and the Dragon (Revelation 12:1-9). God’s plan of salvation unfolds in each life, in each story, because the Father, blessing the Son, has made us sons and heirs, and in the blessed among women, the curse is transformed into a blessing, and persecution into glory.Daniel AfonsoTo delve deeper into Mary’s presence in the contemporary Church, consult Pope John Paul II’s encyclical: Redemptoris Mater on Mary in the life of the pilgrim Church.Dive deeper into your studies: explore Mariology, Marian theology, Marian apparitions, and Post-Graduate Studies in Mariology.