(LifeSiteNews) — The Superior General of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) is warning about “negative repercussions” from the recently released Vatican doctrinal note advising Catholics against the use of the title “Co-Redemptrix” for the Blessed Virgin Mary.

In an exclusive interview with FSSPX.news Wednesday, Fr. Davide Pagliarani said the document, Mater Populi Fidelis, had a “profound impact” on him as it is “tantamount to dethroning the Most Blessed Virgin” of her traditional titles.

“Although Pope Leo XIV had already expressed his desire for continuity with his predecessor, I did not expect a document issued by a Roman dicastery aimed at restricting the use of those titles—so rich in meaning—which the Church has traditionally attributed to the Virgin,” Pagliarani said. “My first reaction was to celebrate a Mass in reparation for this new attack against Tradition and, still more, against the Most Blessed Virgin Mary.”

Pagliarani also noted that the document “in practice, amounts to forbidding” the use of the title Co-Redemptrix even though “John Paul II himself employed this title on several occasions” and despite the fact that it represents “a homogeneous development of Catholic dogma” invoked by many other popes.

Pagliarani’s remarks come on the heels of other statements made by prominent traditional clergy. Former Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S. Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò called the document “perverse” and the latest “scandalous affront from a treacherous and deviant Hierarchy” that is using “its authority to speciously impose its own doctrinal and moral deviations on Catholics.”

The Transalpine Redemptorist community in Scotland similarly denounced the note as Jansenist in orientation and something that seeks to “further an agenda” in opposition to the Church’s traditional teachings on Mary.

Pagliarani, 55, hails from Italy. He succeeded Bishop Bernard Fellay as the Superior General of the SSPX in 2018. He has kept a rather low profile over the past seven years, though occasionally grants interviews on topics of significance. Catholic commentators often speculate on whether the SSPX will consecrate bishops without the approval of the Vatican, as the community is currently down to two from the original four that founder Marcel Lefebvre and Brazilian Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer co-consecrated in 1988.

READ: Bishop Schneider: Saints, doctors affirmed Mary as Co-Redemptrix, Mediatrix of All Graces

In his interview, Pagliarani argued that ecumenical relations are just one of the reasons the document was published.

“The notion of co-redemption, like that of universal mediation, is absolutely incompatible with Protestant theology and spirit,” he recalled. “The text, in its entirety, constantly repeats that the Most Blessed Virgin must in no way offend against the uniqueness and centrality of the mediation of Our Lord and His unique role as Redeemer. This concern seems almost pathological — a kind of spiritual paranoia, inexplicable in a Catholic.” The persons “who drafted this document are truly convinced that these are dangerous terms for the faith. This is catastrophic.”

Pagliarani also noted the somewhat ironic fact that the note recalls that Our Lord is the only mediator between God and mankind while the Vatican just held a 60th anniversary event for the Second Vatican Council’s document Nostra Aetate featuring representatives from false religions.

“This truth ought to be preached and made known to Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, and all those who do not know Our Lord, whether non-Christian believers or atheists,” Pagliarani said. But Nostra Aetate “forms the basis for dialogue with non-Christian religions. This is, at the very least, paradoxical, since this dialogue … is a clear and explicit denial of the fact that Our Lord is the only mediator between God and mankind.”

Pagliarani further explained that the title Co-Redemptrix is “not an exotic term suggested by a visionary after a doubtful apparition, but an expression which the Church has employed for centuries and whose precise meaning has been clearly established by theologians.” He also pushed back against the document’s supporters by noting that just because it “cites the unfavorable opinion of Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, who held that the concept of co-redemption was not sufficiently rooted in Sacred Scripture,” Catholics “must not forget that Cardinal Ratzinger himself upheld theories on the subject of Redemption which were not traditional,” pointing to his 1968 book Introduction to Christianity.

Pagliarani stressed the negative effect that downplaying Mary’s role in Catholic spiritually will have on the faithful.

“I have witnessed with my own eyes how a simple and sincere devotion to the Blessed Virgin is capable of securing the salvation of souls who do not have the possibility of seeing a priest regularly,” he said. “Never before has the Church needed as much as today to rediscover the greatness of the Blessed Virgin: in the face of worldly pressure, which increasingly plunges souls into apostasy and impurity, her greatness offers the sovereign means to resist this pressure and remain faithful.”

This note is “indefensible and pastorally irresponsible,” he said, as “for the most abandoned, the Blessed Virgin often remains the only refuge in the current desert.”