TMA01 Option 2: Mary, the mother of Jesus
in 2024, the Shrine of Chandavila in Spain, where two girls claimed to have seen apparitions of Our Lady of Sorrows, was approved by the Vatican as a location for Catholic worship (Brockhaus, 2024). While the Vatican recognised the shrine’s importance, it did not address the visions, revealing a tension between Catholic doctrine and everyday expression of faith.
The Catholic News Agency—an organisation devoted to promoting ‘the Dogmas, Rules and Regulations of the church’ (Eternal Word Television Network, n.d.)—quoted the ‘nihil obstat’ judgment issued by the Vatican as saying that the shrine may ‘continue to offer to the faithful . . . a place of interior peace, consolation, and conversion’ (Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández quoted in Brockhaus, 2024). The girls are portrayed as virtuous, dedicating themselves to charity. A ‘nihil obstat’ judgement is an endorsement of the positive impact on the faithful, without authenticating any supernatural phenomena, which seems to reflect a tendency of the Vatican to encourage devotion while maintaining control over claims of divine intervention.
According to the Catholic doctrine of the Virgin Birth, Mary is honoured as the obedient mother of Jesus, chosen to bear God’s son. In Catholic art she is often depicted in imperial blue robes. The imagery of splendour, and her indifference to it, reinforce her purity and elevate her above humanity (Sinclair, 2019, p. 69). Blessed to bear a child without sin, she is the ideal the faithful should strive to emulate. In popular Marian devotion, however, Mary takes on a different character—an understanding Mary who suffers with her followers. She endured the pain of childbirth and her son’s death, an image central to Marian shrines and apparitions (Sinclair, 2019, p. 86-87). The power popular faith has attributed to Mary—as a divine being who can touch the world—is in stark contrast to the passive role assigned to her in the official canon.
When the Vatican approved the Shrine of Chandavila for worship in 2024, Cardinal Fernández remarked that ‘[t]here is nothing one can object to in this beautiful devotion’ (Brockhaus, 2024). By describing the pilgrims’ experiences as subjective, and stressing the girls’ virtue, the Vatican shifted the focus away from supernatural intervention. The girls’ experiences were re-contextualised in the light of how, they for the rest of their lives, sought to emulate the celestial Mary. A more overt example of the regulation of popular devotion to Mary can be seen in a 2025 article in the Catholic News Agency. Hannah Brockhaus reported that the Vatican put to rest a decades-long debate about Mary’s role in the redemption of humanity. The title ‘Co-Redemptrix,’ used in some denominations, was rejected as inappropriate (Brockhaus, 2025). Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández is quoted as saying, ‘’[t]his text . . . aims to deepen the proper foundations of Marian devotion by specifying Mary’s place in her relationship with believers in light of the mystery of Christ . . .’ This statement shows how the Vatican reasserts Christ’s role while defining boundaries for Marian veneration.
Lived religion sometimes reevaluates and supplants established religious dogma. Within the Catholic faith, Marian devotion has morphed beyond the role defined for Mary in the Bible and by the Vatican. The Vatican’s careful endorsement of the Shrine of Chandavila shows it deliberately interpreting spontaneous spirituality under official canon, while downplaying its more independent claims.
References
Brockhaus, H. (2024) ‘Vatican approves devotion to 1945 apparition of Our Lady of Sorrows in Spain’, Catholic News Agency, 23 August. Available at: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/258883/vatican-approves-devotion-to-1945-apparition-of-our-lady-of-sorrows-in-spain (Accessed: 9 November 2025).
Eternal Word Television Network (n.d.) Press Room: Our Mission. Available at: https://www.ewtn.com/pressroom (Accessed: 9 November 2025).
Sinclair, S (2019) ‘Mary, the mother of Jesus’, in The Open University (ed.), Reputations, The Open University, pp. 45-106.
Brockhaus, H. (2025) ‘Vatican nixes use of ‘Co-Redemptrix’ as title for Mary’, Catholic News Agency, 4 November. Available at: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/267563/vatican-nixes-use-of-co-redemptrix-as-title-for-mary (Accessed: 9 November 2025).