An excerpt from Andrew Greeley’s review, “Mary Makes a Comeback”: “Like Charlene Spretnak, I would like to think of myself as a pro-Mary progressive. I would like to believe that it is the genius of Catholicism to say ‘both … and.’ I would like to be able to persuade myself that one can say ‘both ecumenism and Mary,’ ‘both liturgy and the rosary,’ ‘both Mary and dialogue with Islam’ (which devotes a whole chapter of the Quran to her), and ‘both the Council and the Salve Regina.’"

“In her well-researched original work, Spretnak has composed one of the most profound theological reflections on the post-Vatican II church. With clear and lyrical prose, she names the challenges and points us well beyond….

In her passionate and courageous work, she reclaims and celebrates Mary as Queen of Heaven and her reemergence in the modern church: with the author we embark on a pathway to wisdom that is both ancient and new; we reclaim a church that provides access to mystery and the energy necessary to become instruments of engagement that are constitutive to the gospel – compassion, non-violence and deep communion with life.”

"By a narrow majority, and after much argument, the Council Fathers decided in 1963 that the chapter on the Blessed Virgin should be incorporated in the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, and not given the dignity of a document on its own. This decision signified the importance of Mary's role in the economy of salvation, yet emphasized her creaturely dependence on the grace of redemption.... It is sad to be reminded, in this week's review of Charlene Spretnak's Missing Mary, that this had led to a split between an excessively politically and ecumenically correct reductionism of Mary by "progressives," on the one hand, and an overblown, sentimental apotheosis of Mary by "conservatives" on the other.... As Charlene Spretnak's book shows, true devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary is always a force for reconciliation, and never a source of division."

"She [Charlene Spretnak] has no argument with the biblicalonly Mary.... The Protestant (and modernising Catholic) view of housewife-Mary is perfectly valid. It's just a little ... empty. I found myself sympathising with her stance.... What Spretnak wants back is the mystery, the mysticism, even the magic of Mary."

"Just as the Church adjusted its official view of Mary to a more strictly biblical understanding, intellectual developments outside made the merits of the old Marian piety seem wonderfully contemporary. That is to say, the ecological, Gaia approach to the cosmos emphasised the connectedness of all living things. And according to Charlene Spretnak, the Virgin Mary symbolises that interconnectedness in what she calls the Maternal Matrix.... Spretnak has made the point that Marian devotion has been an unwarranted casuality of the Vatican Council."

“The importance of Mary is the subject of some debate at the moment, as two new books make a case that the institutional Catholic Church has been downplaying her traditionally rich and powerful role among Catholics. Popular theologian Andrew Greeley’s The Catholic Revolution and feminist professor Charlene Spretnak’s Missing Mary make similar arguments: that changes in the church flowing from the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s have ‘stripped the altar,’ in Greeley’s words, of a powerful symbol that was a mainstay of Catholicism for nearly two millennia.”

"Spretnak, a feminist Catholic and religion professor, argues forcefully that while the 'progressive' (rational, modern) wing of Catholicism that intitiated reforms in Vatican II made some very good changes, it was utterly wrong to 'disappear' Mary.... The book is a nice blend of theological argument and reportage of popular piety, outlining a fissure within the Catholic Church between those who miss the old Mary and those who support her more limited status.... Spretnak's writing is engaging ....."

"In her newest book, Missing Mary, Charlene Spretnak crosses the bridge between the left and right within the church to champion the recovery of the full spiritual presence of Mary. She begins by explaining where the modern worldview came from in order to understand why Mary was suddenly diminished in the 1960s by Vatican II on the basis of biblical exegesis. She moves on to trace the growth of the current grassroots resurgence of Marian spirituality which began in the 1970s.... Whatever your position on Mary, this book will provide deep insight on Mary in this modern age."