Faithful Worldwide Petition Pope Leo XIV to Re-examine “Mater Populi Fidelis”
“May the honor, truth, and special veneration owed to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Our Mother, be restored.”
ROME, 8 December 2025 — Today, as Catholics around the world celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a global “filial appeal” initiative is being launched, respectfully urging Pope Leo XIV to re-examine Mater Populi Fidelis.
Titled, A Filial Appeal to Pope Leo XIV, the initiative comes amid persistent and intensifying concerns over last month’s doctrinal Note on the Marian titles “Co-redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of All Graces,” issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
Written by respected Italian Mariologist, Father Serafino Lanzetta, and available in six languages (with more forthcoming), the letter conveys the “dismay and consternation felt by a significant portion of the holy People of God” after the publication, on 4 November 2025, of the mariological Note.
The one-page appeal continuess:
“As children of the Church, our consciences are profoundly troubled as we read the statements contained in this Note regarding certain Marian titles that refer to the cooperation of Mary Most Holy in the work of our salvation. How can we not be afflicted to see this new mariological position set itself in clear opposition to the teaching handed down until now—teaching which has always recognized in the Virgin Mary a unique, real, and maternal role in the economy of Redemption?”
A “grassroots” initiative, it allows clergy and laity to download the letter, sign and date it, indicate their country and diocese of origin, and mail it directly to the Holy Father at Apostolic Palace in Vatican City.
Fr. Lanzetta, a lecturer in dogmatic theology and prolific author on Marian themes, said he wrote the appeal to serve the faithful who wish respectfully to address their concerns to the Holy Father in a way that is grounded in a rigorous theological assessment of Mater Populi Fidelis.
He was among the first to voice serious reservations about the new doctrinal Note. One week after DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández presented Mater Populi Fidelis in Rome, Fr. Lanzetta published an in-depth analysis arguing that the document adopts a minimalist view of the Blessed Virgin Mary and represents “a significant downgrade”—not only from the teaching of the saints, doctors, and ordinary magisterium of the popes, but also from the Second Vatican Council’s treatment of Mary’s role in the work of salvation.
Fr. Lanzetta was not alone in his criticism. In an interview with Swiss media, one of Church’s leading authorities on Mariology, Fr. Salvatore Perrella, OSM—a former Professor of Dogmatics and Mariology at the Pontifical Theological Faculty Marianum, who was esteemed by Pope Benedict XVI—offered a searing critique of MPF, saying it reveals the theological and methodological incompetence of those who produced it.
And today, Mater Populi Fidelis faced another significant blow as one of the Church’s foremost associations of Mariologists issued a theological response to the Note, concluding that despite certain positive elements, “there remain significant theological points that require substantial clarification and modification.”
Published on Dec 8 by the International Marian Association Theological Commission (IMATC), the 23-page document evaluates, in light of the papal magisterium and the Church’s great Mariologists, MPF’s stance on the Marian titles “Co-redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of All Graces,” its treatment of Mary’s instrumental and secondary causality of grace, the nature of her merit, and pastoral implications of diminishing the Blessed Virgin’s unique and active role in the work of Redemption.
The IMATC response argues that, by presenting a Redemption based on “Jesus alone” bereft of any human redemptive value on the part of Mary,” the DDF’s doctrinal Note “seems to resemble more a Protestant theology of Redemption than that of the Catholic Church.”
Calling for a “re-evaluation” of Mater Populi Fidelis, its signatories—who include cardinals, bishops, priests and lay theologians such as renowned biblical scholar Dr. Scott Hahn and noted Mariologist Dr. Mark Miravalle—offer an objective yet ultimately scathing analysis of MPF.
Their critique appears to reinforce Fr. Salvatore Perrella’s contention that the Note “should have been prepared by persons competent in the field.”
Amid these sustained theological critiques of Mater Populi Fidelis, the new “filial appeal” initiative offers clergy and laity a simple yet concrete and effective means to ask Pope Leo XIV to “hear their sorrow and intervene in whatever manner he deems most fitting, so that the honor, truth, and special veneration owed to the Most Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God and Our Mother, may be restored.”
Download and read a printable version of the filial appeal in English here below. Should you and/or your family wish to join in the initiative, simply sign the letter and mail it via ordinary post to this address:
HIS HOLINESS POPE LEO XIV
PALAZZO APOSTOLICO
00120 VATICAN CITY
You may also read and download a printable version of the appeal in Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish and German and English here (French coming soon) here: https://sites.google.com/view/supplica-mater-populi-fidelis/filial-appeal-to-the-holy-father-pope-leo-xiv
It has been clear to me since early into the Francis Pontificate that the Vatican is being run by heretics. Change my mind.
Thank you for this recent update, Diane.Since reading Fernandez’ November idiocy, I have been extremely irritated. Thank God for the cooler heads tactfully appealing to the pope, who seems to have no problem with this. I prayed he would not be another Francis….