This pilgrim statue of Mary, Mother of God has visited all of the diocese's parishes and schools during the diocese's 50th anniversary year. (SueAnn Howell, Catholic News Herald)
Bishop Jugis announces survey results during special Jan. 1 Mass
CHARLOTTE — The Diocese of Charlotte has petitioned the Vatican to officially designate “Mary, Mother of God” as its patroness, Bishop Jugis has announced in a special letter to the faithful and during Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral.
The bishop’s letter was read out at all Masses across the diocese on Jan. 1 – the feast day of the Blessed Virgin Mary under her title as “Mother of God.”
“Today's Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God, has special importance for us in the Diocese of Charlotte,” Bishop Jugis declared, releasing the results of a diocese-wide survey held as part of the diocese’s 50th anniversary.
The survey, conducted over six weeks last summer, garnered more than 1,400 responses from people at 81 of the diocese’s 92 parishes and missions.
“I am pleased to announce that the Blessed Virgin Mary was the choice of an overwhelming plurality of the respondents, receiving almost twice as many votes as any other option,” Bishop Jugis announced. “Of those who selected the Virgin Mary, they indicated the title ‘Mary, Mother of God’ as the most fitting for our patroness.”
The diocese’s petition is being submitted to the Vatican’s Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for formal approval.
The Vatican is expected to approve the petition, diocesan officials said, but they do not know how long that process might take.
- > Read the full letter from Bishop Peter Jugis
- > Related story: Bishop Jugis closes out 50th anniversary year, announces patroness
During a Jan. 1 Mass at St. Patrick Cathedral in Charlotte, Bishop Jugis commented further on the effort to designate an official patron for the diocese, as the diocese's 50th anniversary celebrations come to a conclusion later this month. Celebrations have included dozens of acts of charity, special family events, and a Marian statue pilgrimage that has crisscrossed western North Carolina since the 50th anniversary year kicked off Jan. 12, 2022.
“The Lord definitely has given us many blessings, and this will be one more tremendous blessing the Lord will give to us in formally designating – finally, after 50 years – an official patronal feast for the diocese,” the bishop noted in his homily. “May God continue to bless us through her powerful intercession.”
Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is deeply rooted in the Catholic history of western North Carolina. Yet during historical research in preparing for the 50th anniversary, officials discovered that the diocese did not have an official patron – even though bishops over the years have invoked Mary as patroness under various titles.
“When Irish gold miners built the first Catholic church in Mount Holly in 1842, they chose to honor Mary by name,” Bishop Jugis said in his official announcement letter. “The Benedictine monks who established Belmont Abbey chose Mary, Help of Christians, as their patroness and named the church they built with their own hands in her honor. With the creation of the Diocese of Charlotte in 1972, Bishop Michael Begley, our first bishop, publicly entrusted the new diocese to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
By the time Bishop Jugis was appointed to lead the diocese in 2003, “Mary, Mother of God” was already commonly referred to as the diocese’s principal patronness in liturgies and prayers.
“We in the Diocese of Charlotte delight in the special privilege to proclaim many times over in our daily prayer our special loving bond with her as our Mother and the Patroness of our diocese,” the bishop noted in the letter.
Catholics invoke the name of Mary as “Mother of God” when praying the Hail Mary and the Litany of Loreto, and by the priest in the Eucharistic Prayer at every Mass. Mary is also referred to as “Mother of God” in the Second Vatican Council’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, “Lumen Gentium” (“Light of the People”).
The phrase “Mother of God” goes back to the third or fourth century, but the Greek term “Theotokos” (“The God-bearer”) was officially consecrated as Catholic doctrine at the Council of Ephesus in 431, thus becoming the first Marian dogma. At the end of the Council of Ephesus, crowds of people marched through the streets shouting: “Praised be the Theotokos!”
The dogma is based on the doctrine of the Incarnation, as expressed by St. Paul: “God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the law” (Gal 4:4).
— Catholic News Herald