Semper Virgo

We are victims of a contagious amorphism which dilutes the mysteries of faith into a current of humdrum uniformity. We have lost the form, the principle that determines the essence of a thing, distinguishing it from all others. The invitation to become perfect is open to everyone, but we have forgotten that there is a hierarchy of levels in the states of Christian life. Consequently, both marriage and the consecrated life are going through a profound crisis, having been flattened into the same level to ease the universal call to holiness. It is a crisis that also afflicts the celibate life, which has for a long while been subjected to the epicurean transformation of our times. A solution is found in looking to the Virgin Mary. Her perpetual virginity is the original form that molded Christ and, in Him, every Christian and every Christian vocation. In her unsullied virginity we have the beginning and the fulfillment. The mystery of Mary’s virginity is the assurance of God’s primacy in the world. It is the confirmation that the Kingdom that Christ brought forth does not begin in the flesh but in the spirit—“God is spirit” (Jn 4:24) —whereby the flesh is ennobled, and man elevated into a higher dimension: that of the Kingdom in its plenitude, where God “worketh all in all” (1 Cor 12:6). Mary is the virginal womb in which the mystery of Christ and of the Church are safeguarded, enshrined, and treasured.

As we know, the dogma of the Perpetual Virginity of our Blessed Lady is one of the Four Marian dogmas of the Church, alongside the Immaculate Conception, the Assumption and the Motherhood of our Lady. We are grateful to Father Serafino Lanzetta for his reflections on the dogma of the Perpetual Virginity, and particularly how the dogma impacts the living out of chastity in the Sacrament of Marriage, celibacy in the priesthood, and chastity as lived in Consecrated Life. This timely book reveals a prayerful spiritual synthesis of Father Serafino’s insights and implications for these states of life flowing from the dogma of Perpetual virginity. —✠ Stephen Robson, (retired) Bishop of Dunkeld

The work of Fr. Lanzetta on Mary’s virginity as the ‘form’ of Christianity shows the close relation of this Marian truth to the Incarnation of Christ and to Christian life. The dogma of the perpetual virginity of Mary is presented in its Biblical testimonies, defended against rationalist critiques, and rediscovered with the help of the Church Fathers. —Fr. Manfred Hauke, president of the German Society for Mariology, author of Introduction to Mariology, (CUA Press: Washington, D.C., 2021). 

Father Serafino's recent study is, indeed, a study, something to be read, perhaps a few times. It is rich and deep. Like his study Vatican II, A Pastoral Council, it asks very precise questions about the language used in the conciliar documents and the subsequent problems that follow from the lack of the use of more precise terms. Ultimately, this careful investigation verifies a beautiful statement that the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council made: “Mary unites in her person and re-echoes the most important doctrines of the faith” (LG #65). —Msgr. Arthur B. Calkins, member of the Mariological Society of America, author of Totus Tuus: Pope Saint John Paul II’s Program of Marian Consecration and Entrustment (New Bedford, MA: Academy of the Immaculate, 2017)