he Mission of the Immaculate Mediatrix Movement (MIM) is a Roman Catholic public association of the faithful erected according to the norms of Canon Law (nos. 303, 312-320). It was approved canonically by the Archbishop of Benevento, Italy, Msgr. Carlo Minchiatti on January 6, 1991.

The establishment of the MIM was an inspiration of Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli on September 8, 1990 on the occasion of his pilgrimage to the Holy House of Loreto in Italy, It was clear that the the charism and spirituality of the religious family of the Franciscans of the Immaculate can not be confined only among the friars and sisters. It should also include and embrace everyone who is called to share in the same Franciscan-Marian charism according to their particular state in life.

MIM, in the broad sense, the abbreviation for MISSION OF THE IMMACULATE MEDIATRIX, designates the goal of the Franciscans of the Immaculate, both those in the cloister following the first order rule of St. Francis, and those in the world cooperating with them in this. MIM, in the narrow sense, designates the public association of the faithful, those precisely "in the world but not of it" do so cooperate.

This goal, known as mission or cause of the Immaculate Mediatrix, is nothing other than that assigned her by her Son and Savior when dying on the Cross. At that moment the Heart of the Coredemptress was transpierced for the salvation of the Church and of all her members. She is the Mother through whom all will be reborn in Christ and without whom rebirth in and through the Church is impossible. Moreover, she is the Mother to whom all must be consecrated, into whom all must be "transubstantiated" in order that the Church might be "without stain, without wrinkle" - like the Immaculate, at the glorious coming of her Savior (cf. Eph 5,27).

This mission explains why our Lord died, but our Lady remained on Calvary to be present in the midst of the disciples when the promised other Paraclete (Advocate) would come on Pentecost. In the words of St. Francis of Assisi, she is the Spouse of the Holy Spirit, our Mother and Advocate therefore, and this because she is the Immaculate Conception, worthy of becoming the Mother of God.

Hence, the mission of the Church to save souls postulates a unique presence of the Virgin Mother in the Church, especially at the moment of eucharistic Sacrifice and Communion, a prolongation of her presence in the life of the Savior and at its consummation on Calvary. This presence in turn presupposes in her a singular grace, the grace of a unique "preservative" redemption. Thereby the Redeemer, by the merits of His Cross, preserved the Virgin from all taint of original sin, thus preparing her to be His Mother and ours as well.

Her role, then, as Mother of the Church and of all the faithful, consummated under the Cross in the maternal sacrifice of her Heart transpierced, is made possible by this singular grace of her Immaculate Conception. Her "preservation" from sin is the means by which the Savior effects our "liberation" from sin. That is why He insists with Nicodemus that one cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, unless born again of water and the Holy Spirit, that is to say, unless we become children of Mary and of the Church.

This is the Marian key to the spirituality and missionary fervor of St. Francis of Assisi and his modern son, St. Maximilian M. Kolbe. It is the reason for the existence of the Franciscans of the Immaculate.

In the narrow sense MIM connotes all those means whereby Catholics can be involved in this specific cause entrusted for the good of all to a particular branch of the Franciscan family: the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Immaculate.