December 8 1997

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The reaction was shock, earlier this year, when Newsweek reporteda groundswell of grassroots Catholic support for declaring Mary Co-Redeemer,Mediator of All Graces, and Advocate for the People of God. Over 4 millionsignatures have made their way to the Vatican, the magazine reported, asit floated the idea that the pope might actually heed their plea.

This news came like a cold shower in an era when evangelicals have been temperingtheir traditional anti-Catholicism and warming up to Catholics throughcollaboration in the pro-life movement and the culture wars, and throughsuch dialogue as Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT).

The news also seemed alien in a time when many newly built Catholic churcheshave no prominently displayed statue or altar dedicated to Mary. And sucha move would be a sharp U-turn for the Roman church, which at Vatican IIclearly decided against such imprudent elevation of Mary and affirmed thatit should do nothing on Mary that would further alienate the "separatedbrethren," as Protestants and Orthodox were called.

STAY THE COURSE
In this issue, we report on a remarkable new development in the informaland unofficial ECT process: jointly drafted by evangelicaland Catholic theologians, it is an affirmation of key beliefs about salvationthat evangelicals hold dear, some of which they never thought Catholics wouldassent to (see "The Gift of Salvation,"p. 34). But now leading Catholic thinkers have indeed done so.

The possibility, however remote, of the pope's responding to the grassrootsgroundswell by giving Mary titles that blur the New Testament's clear visionof Jesus' unique role in our salvation endangers this uncompromising achievementof clarity. All of which prompts us to say, Don't. Don't give to Mary ...