What’s going on in Rome?

This, friends, is what’s going on at the Amoris laetitia (chose your own translation of that) confab.  Let this sink in.  Then use a good emetic.

At the Vatican today, Sister Helen Alford, O.P. suggested that Jesus was initially “flirting” with the Samaritan woman at the well in the Gospel of John – a theory cooked up by “one of my Dominican brothers.”

She is the President of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. 🤡 https://t.co/IgGGxD08IL

— Mason-Dixon Latin Mass Society (@MDLatinMass) October 8, 2026

On the other hand… across the street (almost literally)…

On the first day of the ‘De Maria numquam satis’ (“Of Mary, one can never say enough”) conference at the Patristic Institute Augustinianum in Rome, the major dogmatic issues underpinning the veneration of the Mother of God were discussed, with particular emphasis on her cooperation in salvation.

Cardinal Raymond Burke opened the conference with a talk on ‘Our Lady of Guadalupe and the Reign of Christ the King: The Mission of the Co-Redemptrix and the Co-Redeemers’.

The cardinal emphasised that the event at Guadalupe in 1531 is not merely a local devotion, but a manifestation of Christ’s kingship which restores the proper created order. He then explored in depth the central theme of human cooperation in the Redemption. The absolute beginning and perfect model of this cooperation is the Virgin Mother, who, having participated in a wholly unique way in the mystery of the Incarnation and the Passion, is rightly called the Co-Redemptrix. Consequently, by uniting their own daily crosses with that of the Saviour, all the baptised are called to become co-redeemers.

Prof. Rev. Manfred Hauke spoke on ‘The Divine Motherhood of Mary: The Dogma of Ephesus and Its Significance’, refuting nineteenth-century historical theories that reduced the dogma to a syncretism with the pagan cults of Artemis or Isis. Hauke demonstrated the solid biblical and patristic foundation of the Theotokos, recalling that the Incarnation requires the active cooperation of the creature and that Mary expressed her consent at the Annunciation on behalf of the whole of human nature.

The morning session was brought to a close by Father Wojciech Giertych, OP, with a paper on ‘The Primacy of Virginal Love within Mary’s Maternal Love’. The Theologian of the Papal Household outlined a profound emotional and spiritual distinction between virginal love — characterized by awe, veneration and a total absence of possessiveness — and maternal love. The latter, if left unpurified, risks degenerating into selfish attachment, whereas in Mary the two dimensions merge perfectly, offering the Church the perfect model of spiritual fruitfulness that springs from grace and charity.

In the afternoon, following the recitation of the Holy Rosary and Eucharistic Adoration at the nearby Basilica of San Giovanni dei Fiorentini, the proceedings of the second session resumed in the auditorium of the Augustinianum.

Slovakian theologian Fr Ľubomír Urbančok presented ‘The Contribution of the Roman Theological School to the Definition of the Immaculate Conception’, demonstrating how the theologians Giovanni Perrone and Carlo Passaglia provided Pius IX with the framework for dogmatic development, starting from the factum Ecclesiae — that is, from the living faith of the Church.

Subsequently, Fr Joseph Hamilton addressed the topic ‘From the Dormition to the Assumption: Mary’s Eschatological Fulfilment in Eastern Apocryphal and Patristic Sources’, analysing Eastern texts on the Dormition and highlighting how the bodily Assumption of the Virgin represents the anthropological antidote par excellence against the disembodied excesses of transhumanism and artificial intelligence.

Finally, Mgr Rudolf Michael Schmitz presented a paper entitled ‘The Virgin Mary in the Sphere of the Incarnation’. Through a rigorous systematic exposition in ten theses, Mgr Schmitz clarified that Mary belongs to the hypostatic order “terminatively” and not formally: whilst remaining a creature and without multiplying the personal union in Christ, she constitutes the created point at which the Incarnation touches humanity, thereby indissolubly linking Mariology to Christology and ecclesiology.

The proceedings will resume tomorrow morningwith a session dedicated to ‘Mary in Worship, Devotion and History’. The organisers say over 400 scholars, religious and laypeople from all over the world are attending the conference.

— Edward Pentin (@EdwardPentin) October 7, 2026