During the “Bible Week” held from August 27 to September 2, organised by [name omitted], with speakers including [names omitted], reference was made to the prayer Salve Regina.

It was said:

“This prayer has nothing to do with the message of Jesus; it is the product of an outdated theology, an image incompatible with the theology of Jesus.”

The speaker expressed surprise at “how the Church still insists on reciting this prayer.”

The origin of Salve Regina was traced back to a time when the spirituality of clergy, religious, and believers was shaped not so much by the Gospel—which, it was claimed, “was not known”,—but rather by two books:

-” The Misery of the Human Condition” (written by Lotario de’ Conti di Segni, later Pope Innocent III, the pope of St. Francis of Assisi)

– “The Imitation of Christ”, considered the most widely read religious text in Western Christian literature after the Bible (attributed to the Augustinian friar Thomas à Kempis, theologian Jean Gerson, and Benedictine monk Giovanni Gersen).

These two texts were described as “devastating,” even “treatises on psychopathology,” and their authors as “madmen. What they wrote is chilling.”

Given all this, I ask: how is it possible that such statements provoke no debate, and everything continues as if nothing happened? (And I don’t believe these views are a minority within the Church.)

After reading the two texts and analysing the words of Salve Regina, one must acknowledge the validity of what was courageously stated during that Bible Week.

With gratitude,

Cesare

Response from the Priest

Dear Cesare,

1. I have no reason to doubt what you’ve written, complete with quotations.

I’ll omit the names of the speakers to avoid embarrassing their religious Order, which has given the Church saints deeply devoted to the Virgin Mary.

Reading such statements is disheartening and wounding. If not outright blasphemous, they are certainly shameful—especially coming from consecrated individuals.

Regarding Salve Regina, we must first correct a historical falsehood: it is inaccurate to say that when it was composed, the only religious text after the Bible was The Imitation of Christ.

The Imitation of Christ dates to the 14th century, as do the authors you mentioned.

Salve Regina, however, dates back to the 11th century.

This discrepancy speaks volumes about the speaker’s competence and the gullibility of some listeners who accepted everything said as truth.

2. Salve Regina is a liturgical antiphon of the Church, and the Church does not err in its prayer because Lex orandi est lex credendi (“the law of prayer is the law of faith”).

The text first appeared in a manuscript from the Abbey of Reichenau, on Lake Constance, and its melody is attributed to a monk of that abbey, Hermann of Reichenau (nicknamed “Contractus” due to physical disabilities), who died in 1054.

Monks of Cluny and the Cistercians adopted Salve Regina as a choral and processional chant. It was also widely used by pilgrims and sailors.

The Dominicans, in the 13th century, introduced it as the final chant of their solemn Compline, significantly contributing to its spread.

3. Already in the time of Saint Dominic, Compline ended with Salve Regina, but it was his successor, Blessed Jordan of Saxony, who instituted it as a chant with a daily procession.

Blessed Jordan wrote:

 “How many tears of devotion this holy praise of the venerable Mother of Christ has drawn!

How often it moved the hearts of those who heard and sang it, softening their hardness and inflaming them with holy fervour!

Shall we not believe that the Mother of our Redeemer delights in such praises and is moved by such prayers?

A trustworthy religious man told me he often saw in visions, when the friars sang Eia ergo advocata nostra, the Mother of the Lord herself kneeling before her Son, pleading for the preservation of the entire Order.”

(Libellus de initio Ordinis Fratrum Praedicatorum, n. 120)

4. Another ancient text on the early Dominican Order reads:

 “That this procession is pleasing to God and His Mother is shown by the participation of the faithful, the devotion of the clergy, the warm tears, the pious sighs, and the wondrous visions of some who saw, as the friars processed to her altar, the Virgin herself descending from heaven with a multitude of heavenly citizens.

When the friars implored her with the words O dulcis Maria, she bowed toward them and blessed them; and when they returned to the choir, she too returned to heaven.”

(Vitae Fratrum, 70)

5. Other episodes recount that at the greeting Spes nostra salve, the Virgin was seen smiling kindly; at Eia advocata nostra, she was seen prostrating before her divine Son to intercede for the friars; at illos tuos misericordes oculos, she turned her gaze toward them; and at Jesum benedictum fructum, she offered them the infant Jesus (cf. Ib., 71–74).

6. Regarding The Imitation of Christ, I’ll quote Enzo Bianchi’s 2010 introduction to the Paoline edition:

 “Personally, I am deeply convinced that this little book cannot be dismissed too quickly.

Though it cannot be considered ‘the fifth Gospel’ as Bossuet called it, or ‘the most beautiful book ever written by human hands, being the Gospel written by God,’ as the Abbot of Olivet believed,

The Imitation of Christ is a profound, spontaneous guide to Christian asceticism, attentive to daily life, and above all simple—making it a truly ‘common path’ for every Christian, offering consolation, peace, and serenity in every situation.” (p. 6)

7. He continues:

 “It’s significant that the Church figure who best spoke to and dialogued with modern people—Pope John XXIII—was, as anyone studying his life will find, a Christian who, after Scripture and alongside the Church Fathers, held The Imitation of Christ in high regard.

In his Journal of the Soul, among the life rules of the not-yet fifteen-year-old Roncalli, we find his daily resolution to ‘read attentively and reflectively a full chapter, or at least a part, of the devout Latin book by Thomas à Kempis.’

This book, ‘the dearest and one of the most precious gems’ he received from his holy parish priest, accompanied him throughout his pursuit of true wisdom—wisdom born more from self-awareness than from knowledge.” (p. 10)- 

8. After noting that Pope John drew his sanctification efforts especially from rereading chapter 9 of book 3, Bianchi writes:

 “The peace of Pope John—his inner peace and the peace he offered as a blessing during his pontificate—certainly found its foundation and inspiration in this book.

Near death, after issuing Pacem in terris, he said: ‘This encyclical—what resonance! What is mine in this document is, above all, the humble example I tried to give during my poor life: de bono homini pacifico (who is the man who loves good and peace)’ (cf. The Imitation of Christ, book 2, chapter 3).”

Can we accuse The Imitation of Christ of being a source of a mutilated Church, unfit for today’s missionary and worldly engagement?

No! Our generation can still embrace this message that leads to Christ, encourages the journey along the royal road of the cross, invites listening to the Word and encountering the Lord in the Eucharist, and demands living truly in God’s love to share it with others.

After such a presentation, I leave it to you to judge whether this little book is “devastating” and a “treatise on psychopathology,” or whether those who uttered such words are themselves devastated and perhaps a case of psychopathology, as more than one person bitterly commented.

With the hope that both Salve Regina and The Imitation of Christ will be your faithful companions on the journey, I bless you and remember you in prayer.

Father Angelo

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