Over a hundred Catholics in Chiclayo, Peru, are appealing directly to Pope Leo XIV to reconsider what they call a “scandalous” doctrinal note on the Marian titles “Co-redemptrix” and “Mediatrix of All Graces,” recently issued by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF).
In their Dec. 1 letter mailed from Chiclayo’s central post office, they say “the People of God” in the diocese are “deeply saddened” by Mater Populi Fidelis, the doctrinal Note signed by Pope Leo and presented in Rome on November 4 by DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández.
The Holy Father has deep personal ties to Chiclayo and to Peru as a whole. He spent nearly twenty years in the country, first as a missionary priest and then as Bishop of Chiclayo, a post he held from 2015-2023, before being appointed prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops.
Signed by over a hundred faithful, the letter testifies both to the enduring love many Catholics in Chiclayo have for the new pontiff — whom they affectionately call “Pope Robert”— and to the scandal and harm they see being caused by Mater Populi Fidelis.
They hold him in such a regard that they have already erected a five-meter-high statue in his honor.
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