The Impact of the Council

The Second Vatican Council and his collaboration with several theologians certainly deepened the Cardinal’s theological understanding. The priority of the People of God – before talking about the hierarchy – was certainly in line with the inspiration of the Legion of Mary, a lay movement. The Church is before all the community of those who share the divine life. Baptism introduces one into the new creation. Through Baptism we are invited to be witnesses of Christ in our everyday life in the World. The charismas about which we read in the letters of Saint Paul are not bygone exceptions, only useful in the beginning of the Church. On the contrary, even today they are a powerful means of evangelization.

The Council has presented Mary as “Figure of the Church” (Urbild der Kirche): She is the first who has believed by her FIAT, and for that reason she is the Mother of all the faithful.

Vatican II, in the Constitution Lumen Gentium has opted for a Mariology which is not a special devotion but which situates Mary in the center of the life of faith. She is the first who has believed. The council has not adapted the theme of Mary “mediatrix of all graces.” She is the Mother of graces through her FIAT.