Editorial

Catholic beliefs about Mary

Catholics have long used the month of May for special devotions to Mary, the mother of Jesus. It’s one of the things that differentiates Catholics from other Christians, who find it hard to understand this strong devotion to Mary. Catholics, by the same token, don’t understand why all Christians don’t have a greater devotion to her.

Catholics and Orthodox honor Mary because God himself did so by making her the mother of the Incarnate Word, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity. Luke’s Gospel quotes Mary in her Magnificat as saying, “From now on all ages will call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me” (Lk 1:48, 49).

For those who claim to follow Scripture alone, you’d think they would be quick to call Mary blessed and venerate her. She appears in the New Testament more than any other woman.

The objection that some have toward Catholic and Orthodox devotion to Mary is that this devotion seems to put Mary on the same level as Jesus. If this were true, it would be heretical. Neither the Catholic nor Orthodox Churches makes Mary an equal with Jesus. We do not adore Mary. Mary’s role is to lead us to her Son, to deepen our devotion to Jesus as the Christ, our Savior.

Catholics and Orthodox believe Mary is the greatest saint, and they pray to her for her intercession with her Son. In the Hail Mary prayer, we ask Mary to “pray for us sinners now and at the hour of our death.”

Here are the four Catholic doctrines about Mary:
 

• She is the mother of God. The Council of Ephesus in 431 solemnly established that Jesus had two natures, the divine and the human, but he was one person, and Mary was the mother of that person. If Jesus was God, as Christians believe, and Mary was his mother, then Mary was the mother of God. It’s a simple syllogism: Jesus was God; Mary was his mother; therefore, Mary was the mother of God.
• Mary remained a virgin all her life. Both Luke’s Gospel (Lk 1:35) and Matthew’s (Mt 1:20) tell us that Mary conceived Jesus through the power of the Holy Spirit, while remaining a virgin. The conviction that she remained a virgin after Jesus’ birth emerged early in the Church. As for the “brethren of Jesus” referred to in Scripture, Catholics believe either that they were cousins or, along with the Orthodox, that they were Joseph’s children by a previous marriage. In this view, Joseph was an older widower who agreed to care for her. Some Protestants deny that Mary remained a virgin, although it’s interesting to note that Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Wesley all held that she was ever-virgin.
• Mary was conceived without original sin. This doctrine is called the Immaculate Conception, and should not be confused with the doctrine of the virgin birth. It means that, when Mary was conceived by her parents, she was preserved from the sin that, according to Christian doctrine, we are all born with. This doctrine, not formally defined until 1854, states that Mary had a “preservative redemption” in anticipation of the foreseen merits of Jesus. The only biblical basis for this doctrine is the angel Gabriel’s address to Mary, “Hail, full of grace” or, in modern translations, “Hail, highly favored one” (Lk 1:28). If Mary was full of grace, according to Catholic teaching, it meant that she did not have original sin on her soul.
• Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven. This doctrine, called the Assumption, was not defined as dogma until 1950, but the feast of the Assumption was celebrated as early as the sixth century. There is no biblical basis for this dogma.

It’s not dogma, but we also believe that Mary has appeared to some highly favored people at various times since she was assumed into heaven—especially at Guadalupe, Lourdes and Fatima.

Through the centuries, various saints have had a great devotion to Mary, and painters delighted in Madonna and Child paintings. She has always been seen as a loving friend in heaven and the mother of all who are born to life.

—John F. Fink