Mother of Hope. Mary of Nazareth in Anglican – Roman-Catholic Dialogue

Abstract

Our Hope is Christ but His Mother is also ours. A difficult topic in the dialogue with Anglicans is the issue of Mariology. Mary and the various forms of liturgical and non-liturgical Marian devotion were inherited by Anglicans from the Catholic tradition. However, the influence of the Reformation has also had an impact on this topic. Hence, paradoxically, Mariology links and -at the same time- constitutes an element of polemics between Anglicans and Catholics. The Anglican doctrine about Mary of Nazareth mentions the term “complexion oppositorum”. The ecumenical Dialogue has shown us its present situation, as we can read in these pages. The authors, after presenting a historical introduction, made a presentation of all existing ecumenical documents being the fruit of Catholic-Anglican dialogue, in which there was any mention of the Mother of God. Documents at international level as well as documents from national dialogues, in particular from the USA and Canada, have been analysed.