The Blessed Virgin Mary has always had a special place in the hearts of Catholics of the Australian Church over its comparatively short history. The “mother church” of Australia, St Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, first built in 1821, witnesses to the devotion of early Sydney Catholics, both clergy and laity, in being named in honor of the Blessed Virgin.

Our first bishop, John Bede Polding, had a particular devotion to the Virgin Mary, writing her initials atop all his writings. Two years after the establishment of the Australian hierarchy, Mary Help of Christians was proclaimed patroness of Australia. Devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, expressed in the 20th century particularly by a love of the rosary, is a strong element of Australian Catholicism.

In more recent times various devotional movements have brought about a renewed love of the Blessed Virgin Mary, following a dip in devotion in the latter quarter of the last century.

There are two references to Mary in “Nostra Aetate” [the 1965 declaration on the relation of the Church to Non-Christian religions].

The first notes that Muslims “also honor Mary, his virgin Mother; at times they even call on her with devotion” (NA, 3). The second emphasizes the Jewish roots of Jesus and his mother quoting Paul “about his kinsmen: ‘theirs is the sonship and the glory and the covenants and the law and the worship and the promises; theirs are the fathers and from them is the Christ according to the flesh’ (Romans 9:4-5), the Son of the Virgin Mary” (NA, 4).

Since Vatican II, the main areas of Mariological research in other religions have been in Judaism where the symbol “Daughter of Zion” has been studied and on the place of Mary in Islam (see “The Virgin Mary in Intellectual and Spiritual Formation,” [VMISF], Congregation for Catholic Education, March 25, 1988; No. 15).

In the beautiful final chapter of the dogmatic constitution of the Church “Lumen Gentium,” dedicated to the Virgin Mary, we read, “After this manner the Blessed Virgin advanced in her pilgrimage of faith, and faithfully persevered in her union with her Son unto the cross, where she stood, (see John 19:25) in keeping with the divine plan, grieving exceedingly with her only begotten Son, uniting herself with a maternal heart with his sacrifice, and lovingly consenting to the immolation of this Victim which she herself had brought forth. Finally, she was given by the same Christ Jesus dying on the cross as a mother to his disciple with these words: ‘Woman, behold thy son’ (see John 19:26-27)” (No. 58).