Papal power is not limited by the names traditionally used for documents or by the limited scope of those whom the Pontiff wishes to address. In fact, mighty words of Magisterial authority may arise in the most unexpected texts. This happened exactly 90 years ago, on March 22, 1918, when Pope Benedict XV issued "Inter sodalicia", a commemorative letter to an old Roman sodality, the Confraternity of Our Lady of Good Death - that is, the Addolorata, or Sorrowful Virgin. The praise of the Addolorata, appropriate for this Holy Saturday, as Christians remember the entombed Christ, brought forth from the papal hands a teaching reaching into the depths of Apostolic Tradition:
The fact that the Sorrowful Virgin is elected and invoked as the Patron of a good death wonderfully corresponds to Catholic doctrine and to the pious Tradition of the Church. (...)
Because the Doctors of the Church by common consent profess that, if the Most Blessed Virgin did not apparently have any participation in the public life of Jesus Christ, and then suddenly reappeared on the path to Calvary and under the Cross, she could not have been present without Divine design. For, as she suffered and almost died together with her suffering and dying Son, she gave up her rights as mother over this Son for the salvation of men and, to appease Divine justice, she, as much as it pertained to her [quantum ad se pertinebat], immolated Him, so that it can be said appropriately that she has, together with Christ, redeemed the human race [Ipsam cum Christo humanum genus redemisse].
But if for this reason, every kind of grace we receive from the treasury of the redemption is ministered as it were through the hands of the same Sorrowful Virgin, everyone can see that a holy death should be expected from her, since it is precisely by this gift that the work of the Redemption is effectively and permanently completed in each one. (...)
... further, there is a most constant belief among the faithful, proved by long experience, that as many as employ the same Virgin as Patron will not at all perish forever.
