Mary, Our Model in Faith

Believing and Trusting

By: Andrew Apostoli, CFR

During the Second Vatican Council, the bishops voted on whether to have a separate document about Mary or to put a chapter about her at the end of the most important document of Vatican II, which was called Lumen gentium or the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church. By one of the narrowest margins of the entire council, the bishops voted to include Mary as part of—at the end of—the document on the Church.

When the secular press reported on the vote, they presented it as a “demotion” of Mary because she wasn’t given her own special document. At the time, another brother and I were at a friend’s home. After hearing the negative news reports about Our Lady, an old Italian woman asked in great distress, “Brothers, are they throwing the Blessed Mother out of the Church?” I answered, “If they do that, I’m afraid they’ll have a big problem with her Son!”

Actually, the bishops were trying to show us that Mary is an integral part of the Church. There was a certain wisdom in that decision. The Holy Spirit seemed to have guided that vote because we need to see Mary as vitally linked to the life of the Church—and to our personal lives as well. Then we can imitate her…

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