The Vatican-based Catholic Church on November 4, 2025, issued a decree admonishing Christians who believe that the Virgin Mary helped Jesus save the world.
The decree, issued by the Church’s Supreme Patriarch, Pope Leo XIV, states that Jesus may have learned from the wise words of his mother, Mary, but that this does not mean that she helped him save people who were about to perish.
The decree states: “It would not be appropriate to use the term ‘helper of salvation’… This term would cause confusion and disagreement about the truth of Christian believers.”
The decree could cause a long debate among the more than 1.4 billion Catholics, as some pastors believed that Mary played a role in saving people.
Catholic scholars and other Christians in general have long debated whether “Mary, Mother of God” helped Jesus save people.
Pope John Paul II, who led the Catholic Church from 1978 to 2005, initially affirmed that Mary helped Jesus save people, but by the 1990s he had stopped saying it because the Vatican had begun to doubt it.
Pope Francis, who led the Catholic Church from 2013 to April 2025, in 2019 stated that affirming that Mary helped Jesus save the world was “madness” because Mary never had that will.
What the Catholic Church believes, as confirmed by the decree issued today, is that Mary became the link between God and humanity, because she gave birth to Jesus, opening the doors of salvation to people.
