Pontifical Academy of Mary

The Pontifical Academy of Mary (Latin: Pontificia Academia Mariana Internationalis, Italian: Pontificia accademia mariana internazionale, PAMI) is an international pontifical organization tasked with promoting mariology. The academy is one of the Pontifical academies at the Vatican in Rome. The PAMI also has the task of coordinating the other Marian academies and societies that exist worldwide and of exercising vigilance against any Marian excess or minimalism. For this purpose the Pope directed that the Academy have a council that examines the organization of congresses, and that coordinates Mariological societies and those who promote or teach mariology.

The Academy was established in July 1946 by the Order of Friars Minor with the specific task of organising scientific debates and conferences and caring for the publication of the Bibliotheca Mariana. It was also responsible for studies relating to the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, on its first centenary. The first president of the Commission was Friar Charles Balic, who directed the Chair of Marian Studies at the Pontifical Atheneum Antonianum.

On December 8, 1959, Pope John XXIII, with the motu proprio Maiora in dies gave the Academy the title of “Pontifical”. In this way he instituted in it the permanent Committee charged with organizing the celebration of International Mariological and Marian Congresses. Said Committee, with the Statutes approved by Pope John Paul II, is the Council of the Academy.

In 1950 the Academy gained international recognition with the organisation of the first International Mariological Congress and the eighth International Marian Congress. Congresses in 1948 and 1958 followed. The 23rd International Congress was held on September 4–9, 2012, and emphasized developments and new perspectives in contemporary Roman Catholic mariology (since Vatican Council II, after which it declined, and then was revived starting with the pontificate of Pope Paul VI).

The work of PAMI has a twofold purpose: to promote and favor the scientific studies of the Virgin Mary, be they speculative or historical-critical, and to organize periodic Marian Conventions and Conferences. The results of which are edited and published in mariological collections, both historical and theological.

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