1. When we speak, write or meditate about the Holy Virgin Mary, about the role that She plays in the Redemption, about the relationship we Christians have with She who is the Mother of Jesus and our Mother, we should first of all start from the divine perspective so as to relate to this great mystery of the Christian faith that is Mary’s divine motherhood and consequently her spiritual motherhood of the whole of humanity.

We must go back to the Source that is God Himself, theologically position ourselves at the center of His entire redeeming economy, so as to contemplate the Virgin Mary totally immersed in the trinitarian God’s loving design, which is revealed in Jesus Christ.

It is the entire economy of redemption that makes us turn our eyes to the important and active role played by the Lord’s Mother in the plan for Redemption, in which Jesus Christ, her Son, is the center, while She, His Mother, is placed immediately next to Him, certainly not at the outskirts of our faith, but in the very heart of the Christian mystery.

Todays speeches, in the light of the Holy Scriptures, of the Tradition and the Magistery, will lead us by the hand through a Marian tour, starting first of all from the horizon of the Holy trinity.

Pope Paul VI used an intense expression and one filled with theological knowledge so as to bring us closer to this mystery of love between God and the Virgin, when he wrote in the Marialis Cultus:

"God loved Her and in Her He wrought wonders (see Luke 1,49); He loved her for Himself and also for us; He bestowed her upon Himself and also upon us".

Before she is our Mother, the Mother of the Church, Mary belongs to God: she belongs completely to Him, she lives only for Him. She is Immaculate because from the very first moment of her creation, her soul belonged entirely to God, entirely immersed in God, It is only His glory that she looks for and that she finds in an inexpressible measure.

2. The Fathers of the Church, its Doctors, Saints, and Blessed, innumerable formations of souls, in every corner of the planet, in all times, have exalted the glory and the divine magnificence that shines in the Mother of God.

When one reads those words in Like’s gospel: "all generations will count me blessed, because He who is mighty, He whose name is holy, has wrought for me His wonders" (Luke 1, 48b-49), I am moved by the thought that they have come to us through the centuries in these words until our times.

As far as John Paul II’s Pontificate is concerned, and his emblematic "totus tuus" that marks him, one cannot help seeing how those words of the Magnificat come true, in such a visible manner, in the universal Ministry of our beloved Holy Father, who has studied in-depth, and enlightened, the Church’s Marian dimension, recalling that arcane truth on the unity of the Marian profile to Peter’s profile of the Church itself:

This bond between the Church’s two profiles, that of Mary and that of Peter – teaches the Pope - , is a close bond, a profound and complementary one, although it is the first one as preceding in God’s plan as it is in time, and also higher and more prominent, richer with personal and communitarian implications for the single ecclesial vocations…

That She may help us to discover more and more, and to live this richness in an ever increasing authentic manner, a richness that is for us, I would say, essential, decisive; that she may help us to consciously join this symbiosis between the Marian dimension and that of Peter’s apostolic one, from which the Church each day draws orientation and support. (see Pope John Paul II - 22.12.1987)

3. I would like to warmly thank the Theologians who will be speaking today directly linked with ten countries on five continents, also including since our last video-conference, Russia and Germany.

The three twenty minute conferences, divided into three parts, will be held by: Professor Bruno Forte, from our Seat for the Congregation for the Clergy, by Professor Alfonso Carrasco Rouco from Madrid, and by Professor Michael Hull from New York.

The three minute speeches will respectively held by: Professor Louis Aldrich from Taipei; Professor Silvio Cajiao from Bogotà; Professor Guido Castelli from Moscow; Professor Sabino Vengco from Manila; Professor Julian Porteous from Sydney; Professor Gerard Müller from Munich; Professor Stuart C. Bate from Johannesburg, to whom we wish to express our condolences for the death of the Bishop of Johannesburg, Monsignor Orsmond, whose funeral will be celebrated today.

Finally, once again from Rome, we shall listen to speeches by Professor Jean Galot and Professor Georges Cottier, Theologian for the Papal Casa Pontificia.

I wish you all pleasant listening and intense participation