Mary the Savior of the People of Rome?
If you heard it, you probably could not believe your ears! Did
he really say that? Yes he did. He said it twice. Amazing! What am I talking about? The funeral for Pope John Paul II.
Towards the end of the service, after communion, Cardinal Ratzinger was
speaking as I recall. Twice in less than a minute I heard the Catholic
translator (Archbishop John P. Foley, President, Pontifical Council for Social
Communications) on MSNBC say in his translation that Mary was Savior of the
Roman people, or Mary was Savior of
the people of Rome. (MSNBC transcript) Here is the actual wording of the Cardinal's remarks
from the Vatican web site:
ULTIMA RACCOMANDAZIONE E COMMIATO
Monizione
Detta l’orazione dopo la Comunione,
il Cardinale Decano del Collegio Cardinalizio compie il rito dell’ultima
raccomandazione e del commiato. Stando presso il feretro con gli altri
concelebranti, invita i presenti alla preghiera con queste parole:
Fratres sororesque carissimi, dulcissimæ Dei misericordiæ
commendemus animam Papæ nostri Ioannis Pauli, qui, Ecclesiæ catholicæ
Episcopus, fratres in fide resurrectionis confirmavit.
Pro defuncto Pontifice Deum Patrem deprecem ur per Iesum
Christum in Spiritu Sancto, ut eum, a morte redemptum, in pacem suam assumat,
et corpus eius resuscitet in novissimo die.
Beata Virgo Maria, apostolorum Regina et
Salus populi Romani, apud Deum
intercedat ut vultum Filii sui benedicti Papæ nostro ostendat atque Ecclesiam
luce resurrectionis eius consoletur.
Fratelli e sorelle carissimi, affidiamo alla soavissima
misericordia di Dio l’anima del nostro Papa Giovanni Paolo, Vescovo della
Chiesa cattolica, che confermò i fratelli nella fede della risurrezione.
Preghiamo Dio Padre per Gesù Cristo nello Spirito Santo per il
Pontefice defunto, perché, riscattato dalla morte, sia accolto nella sua pace
e il suo corpo risusciti nell’ultimo giorno.
La beata Vergine Maria, Regina degli Apostoli e
Salvezza
del popolo romano, interceda presso
Dio perché mostri il volto del Figlio suo benedetto al nostro Papa e consoli
la Chiesa con la luce della risurrezione.
Tutti pregano per qualche tempo in
silenzio.
SUPPLICA DELLA CHIESA DI ROMA
Il Cardinale
Vicario per la Diocesi di Roma si reca presso il feretro.
I cantori
cantano le
Litanie dei Santi
e tutti rispondono alle
invocazioni.
Invocazione dei Santi
Sancta Maria, Mater Dei, ora pro
eo
Sancta Maria, Mater Ecclesiæ, ora pro eo
Sancta Maria,
Salus
populi Romani, ora pro eo ...
Source: 
UFFICIO DELLE CELEBRAZIONI LITURGICHE
DEL SOMMO PONTEFICE
In that first section of text, there are 3 sentences of a
prayer in Latin that are then repeated in Italian.
Here is the translation as posted on the
EWTN website:
|
Final Commendation and
Farewell
Following the prayer after Communion, the Dean
of the College of Cardinals performs the rite of the final commendation and
farewell. Standing next to the coffin with the other concelebrants, he invites
those present to pray with these words:
Dear brothers and sisters, we entrust to the
most gentle mercy of God the soul of our Pope John Paul, Bishop of the
Catholic Church, who confirmed his brothers with belief in the resurrection.
We pray to God the Father through Jesus
Christ in the Holy Spirit for the deceased, so that, ransomed by death, he
may be received in his peace and that his body may rise on the last day.
The Blessed Virgin Mary, Queen of the
Apostles and savior of the people of
Rome, intercede to God for us so that the face of his blessed Son may
be shown to our Pope and comfort the Church with the light of the
resurrection.
All pray in a moment of silence.
|
In the prayer that followed, invoking the Saints for the Pope,
the first three sentences are:
Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for him
Holy Mary, Mother of the Church, pray for him
Holy Mary, Savior of the People of Rome, pray for him ...
The key to really understanding what was
referred to is the Latin phrase Salus populi Romani.
Salus
Populi Romani
This icon was allegedly painted by none other than St. Luke,
and it is also claimed that it was carried in procession by Pope St. Gregory
the Great (590-604) to stem a plague that was afflicting the people of Rome.
Salus Populi Romani
Our Lady of the Snows
Salus Publica Populi Romani — the Roman goddess.
Pope John Paul II regularly visited the icon Salus
Populi Romani at St. Mary Major on December 8th, the
Feast of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.
18. It is therefore, a pleasure for
us, a full century having passed since the Pontiff of immortal memory, Pius IX,
solemnly proclaimed this singular privilege of the Virgin Mother of God, to
summarize the whole doctrinal position and conclude in these words of the same
Pontiff, asserting that this doctrine "vouched for in Sacred Scripture according
to the interpretation of the Fathers, is handed down by them in so many of their
important writings, is expressed and celebrated in so many illustrious monuments
of renowned antiquity, and proposed and confirmed by the greatest and highest
decision of the Church" (Bull Ineffabilis Deus), so that to pastors and
faithful there is nothing "more sweet,
nothing dearer than to worship, venerate, invoke and praise with ardent
affection the Mother of God conceived without stain of original sin. (Ibidem.)
33. But where — as is the case in
almost all dioceses, there exists a church in which
the Virgin Mother of God is worshipped
with more intense devotion, thither on stated days let pilgrims flock
together in great numbers and publicly and in the open give glorious expression
to their common Faith and their common love toward the Virgin Most Holy. ...
34. But let this holy
city of Rome be the first to give the example, this city which from the earliest
Christian era worshipped the heavenly mother, its patroness, with a special
devotion. As all know, there are many sacred edifices here, in which she is
proposed for the devotion of the Roman people; but the greatest without doubt is
the Liberian Basilica [St. Mary Major], in which the mosaics of Our predecessor of pious memory, Sixtus III, still glisten, an outstanding monument to the Divine maternity of
the Virgin Mary, and in which the "salvation of the Roman people" (Salus
Populi Romani) benignly smiles.
Source:
FULGENS CORONA,
Encyclical
Of Pope PIUS XII, September 8th, 1953.
Other documents on the Vatican web site that refer to Mary as
the Salvation of the Roman people:
●
Angelus — 29 Jun, 1998
●
Address — 13 Feb, 1999
●
Regina Coeli — 29 May, 2000
●
Angelus — 29 Jun, 2000
●
Speech — 5 Aug, 2000
●
Address — 13 Jan, 2002
●
Address — 8 Mar, 2002
●
Angelus — 29 Jun, 2002
●
Prayer — Dec 8, 2002
●
Homily — 31 Dec, 2002
So in their time of distress the Catholics trusted not in God,
but in the veneration of an icon of Mary, in the hope that this would persuade
the Blessed Virgin Mary to intervene and protect them from disaster.
Why Mary and not God?
Historically Catholics have viewed Christ as an unapproachable
and stern judge, quick to exact punishment on sinners with His wrath and
chastisements, who can only be appeased by the intercession and pleas of His
merciful and loving mother. When Jesus will not hear your prayers, Mary will,
and God will not refuse His mother. So the way to God and salvation, Catholics
are taught, is though Mary.
Salvation is obtained from... Mary?
THE
WORSHIP OF IMAGES
THE WORSHIP OF THE VIRGIN MARY
