ABSTRACT
Over the weekend of October 26, a vicious assault was launched in some sections of the Italian and Spanish press against the inclusion of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the schema on the Church. These assaults seemed to equate this inclusion with all that is dangerous and evil in progressismo. Those who launched them seemed to sense a threat to Latin spirituality, or even to the Latin political and social order. At any rate, II Tempo and other right-wing groups were willing to make use of the debate on Mary for their own ends. It is impossible to understand the fierce emotion that surrounded this issue, and the later scuttling of the documents on the Jews and on religious liberty without pausing to try to find the link between Mary and the social order. This social-political force has a deep personal stake in keeping the Church confined within the framework of non-historical orthodoxy.
