Mary: Cunctarum Haeresum Interemptrix – Destroyer of All Heresies
La Madonna del Soccorso
Over at The Catholic Thing there is a great entry by my friend Fr. Paul Scalia about Our Blessed Mother, whom we invoke as “Destroyer of All Heresies”.
Here’s a sample…
In Pascendi dominici gregis, [thank you for the correct orthography] Pope Pius X invokes the Blessed Virgin Mary by the title Destroyer of all heresies. He took this curious appellation for the gentle, sweet maiden of Nazareth from the Mass of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The title had particular meaning in Pascendi, which was written in 1911 against modernism, the “synthesis of all heresies.” Faced with that crisis, it was proper to appeal to the Destroyer of all heresies. The title still applies, however. Indeed, it describes something that has always been true of our Lady – and is perhaps even more urgent now.
But how? How does she destroy heresies? Mary never preached a sermon against error. She never conducted an inquisition or excommunicated anyone. She never (God forbid) presented a paper at a theological conference. [She did present the Word in the Temple, as well as to the architriclinus and his staff.]
[…]
I don’t want to offer too much of it here. Rather, go there and get it in an integral reading.
And do not miss the shot he slips in about relieving people of the obligation to hear Holy Mass on Holy Days of Obligation if they fall on a Monday.
Fr. Z kudos.
Modernism, friends, is in full bloom these days, much like the gruesome “Corpse Flower” (Amorphophallus titanum), though with a much longer and far more frequent effect.
These days Modernism pervades in a form I call Modernism 2.0 (aka Imanentism Lite): most people today who spread errors and dissent aren’t smart enough to come up with errors on their own.
Let us invoke the Blessed Virgin, Destroyer of All Heresies, against the pernicious effects of obstinate dissent. In Pascendi, St. Pius calls her “cunctarum haeresum interemptrix“. In Latin, interemptrix has a particularly brutal ring to it.
Let us also invoke her chaste spouse, St. Joseph, Defender of the Church, against one Corpse Flower in particular. HERE
