by Mary
Ann Collins
July 2001
INTRODUCTION
Jesus said that the truth will set us free.
(John 8:32) However, He
did not say that the truth would necessarily be easy to accept.
It was painful for me to learn the information that I am about to share
with you, but it was also liberating and it led to a closer relationship with
God.
As a faithful Catholic, and later as a nun, I practiced Mary worship
for many years without realizing it. The
prayers and practices were so familiar. They
were taught to me by good people, sincere people that I trusted.
I prayed rosaries and wore a scapular and engaged in other
“devotions” which I honestly thought were good and pleasing to God.
Because of my lack of knowledge of the Bible and of Church history, I honestly
had no idea that I was actually worshipping Mary.
If modern Catholic teachings and doctrines about Mary are true, then
they will not be contrary to Scripture, the writings of the Early Fathers, or
the decrees of past popes. For a
devout Catholic to question these issues and put them to the test can be
painful. It certainly was for me.
However, it would be far more painful to have God correct us when we
face Him on Judgment Day.
LETTING
THE CATHOLIC CHURCH SPEAK FOR ITSELF
I believe in letting people speak for themselves.
Therefore my primary sources about Catholic doctrines and history come
from the Catholic Church.
First and foremost is the official Catechism
of the Catholic Church which was written for the purpose of
summarizing the essential and basic teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.
It was approved by Pope John Paul II in 1992 and the English
translation was released in 1994. The
latest English edition was printed in 2000.
Most of my other sources are either practicing Catholics or else former
Catholics whose approach is loving and respectful and who have thoroughly
documented their work.
When I cite the Catechism
I will give paragraph numbers rather than page numbers.
I will summarize what it says. If
you want to see the paragraphs for yourself, there are two web sites with
search engines for the Catechism.
(Their addresses are given in the Notes.)
You can search by topic or by paragraph number.
[1]
Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Holy
Bible.
If you really want to understand Catholic teaching in the light of
Scripture and the history of the Catholic church, then I strongly recommend
reading the following two books. The
authors are former Catholics who love and respect Catholics.
They are gentle and respectful in their approach.
(See the Bibliography for information about these books.)
The
Gospel According to Rome: Comparing Catholic Tradition and the Word of God,
by James G. McCarthy. This book
is easy to read, well documented, objective, and gentle.
It is a comprehensive guide to Catholic beliefs, based on Catholic
sources. It examines Catholic
teachings in the light of Scripture.
The
Church of Rome at the Bar of History
by William Webster. This book
compares modern Catholic doctrines with the teachings of the early Church.
For a good overview of Catholicism, I recommend the video Catholicism:
Crisis of Faith. A
friend of mine said that in one hour, this video gave him a better
understanding of Catholicism than he had received from a college course on the
subject. This video is gentle and
respectful. An annotated
transcript is available on‑line. (Information
about videos follows the Bibliography.)
WILL
THE REAL CATHOLIC CHURCH
PLEASE
STAND UP?
When I was in the convent, our mother superior told us about Catholics
in Mexico who, in their devotion to Mary, were doing things that we would only
do when worshipping God. We were
concerned about this. We
considered this practice to be unusual and unbalanced.
We thought that the American practice of Catholicism was the true
thing. However, many years later
I realized that if you want to know what something really is, then look at how
it behaves when it is in a position of power.
In America, Catholics are in the minority.
To see the true spirit behind Catholicism, watch what the Catholic
Church does in countries where it is in power.
One place where the Catholic Church is strong is Spain, which is known
for the Spanish Inquisition. I
always thought that the Inquisition was ancient history.
However, the last official Spanish execution for heresy occurred in
1826. A schoolmaster was hanged
because he substituted the phrase “Praise be to God” in place of “Ave
Maria” (“Hail Mary”) during school prayers.
[2]
I always thought that abuses of power by the Catholic Church were
something that happened long ago. However,
look at the following example from the Philippines, where the Catholic Church
is strong.
Beginning in 1948 there was a series of apparitions of Mary in the city
of Lipa. These apparitions were
sometimes accompanied by showers of rose petals and other supernatural
phenomena. They occurred in a
convent. The local bishop
personally experienced a shower of rose petals and thereafter supported the
apparitions. The media mocked the
supernatural events in Lipa and street vendors sold phony “holy rose
petals.” In response to the bad
publicity, the Vatican sent a Papal Administrator to take over the diocese
where the apparitions occurred. He
replaced the bishop and the mother superior.
The nun who saw the apparitions was forced to leave the convent.
The nuns were ordered to destroy all materials associated with the
apparitions, including a statue. The
convent was sealed and the nuns were not allowed to talk to anyone outside the
convent. An official Commission
of Inquiry was convened, which unanimously ruled that the apparitions were not
valid. However, they did not
interview anybody who had personal, first-hand knowledge of the events.
Several of the bishops who were part of the Commission of Inquiry
stated on their deathbeds that the Papal Administrator had forced them to sign
the verdict by threatening to excommunicate them if they did not sign it.
[3]
After years of no longer being a Catholic, I attended a Catholic
funeral. When I went into the
church something hit me hard. It
had always been there, but I had never noticed it before because I was used to
it. There were statues of Mary
and the saints. They looked
solid, real, as if they represented people of power.
Jesus only appeared as a helpless baby in Mary’s arms, as a dead man
nailed to a cross, and as little wafers of bread hidden inside a fancy box.
Visually and emotionally the message was very clear ‑- if
you want real power, if you want someone who can do something for you, then go
to Mary and the Saints.
DEVOTION TO MARY
If you want to see what a person's real priorities are, then watch what
they do when their life, or the life of a loved one, is in danger.
When Pope John Paul II was shot, while the ambulance was rushing him to
the hospital, the Pope was not
praying to God or calling on the name of Jesus.
He kept saying, over and over, “Mary,
my mother!” Polish pilgrims
placed a picture of Our Lady of Czestochowa on the throne where the Pope
normally sat. People gathered
around the picture. Vatican
loudspeakers broadcasted the prayers of the rosary.
When the Pope recovered, he gave Mary all the glory for saving his
life, and he made a pilgrimage to Fatima to publicly thank her.
[4]
Jesus said, “[W]here your treasure is, there will your heart be
also.” (Luke 12:34)
Some statues of Mary have real crowns made of gold.
The web sites listed in the Notes show pictures of statues of Our Lady
of Fatima and Our Lady of Lourdes wearing crowns.
[5]
The statues in the pictures are replicas, and their crowns are ceramic
and painted gold. But the crowns
on the original statues at Fatima and Lourdes are real crowns made of real
gold.
Vast sums of money are spent on some special statues of Mary.
For example, the statue of Our Lady of the Pillar in Saragossa, Spain
has a crown made of 25 pounds of gold and diamonds, with so many diamonds that
you can hardly see the gold. In
addition, it has six other crowns of gold, diamonds and emeralds.
It has 365 mantles which are embroidered with gold and covered with
roses of diamonds and other precious stones.
It has 365 necklaces made of pearls and diamonds, and six chains of
gold set with diamonds.
[6]
In Sabana Grande, Puerto Rico, preparations are underway to construct a
huge statue of Our Lady of the Rosary. Inside
the base of the statue there will be chapels, conference rooms, apartments, a
food court, and radio and TV stations. There
will also be observation decks. This
statue will be part of a 500-acre “Mystical City” complex.
According to an article in Caribbean
Business, this statue “will top at 1,500 feet”.
According to an article by the Associated Press, the statue will be 305
feet high.
[7]
The discrepancy in numbers can be explained by looking at the Statue of
Liberty, which is a 151 foot statue on top of a 154 foot base.
Some sources say that the Statue of Liberty is 305 feet high (which
includes the height of the base) and some say that it is 151 feet high (which
is the height of the actual statue). What
we probably have in Sabana Grande is a 305 foot statue with a 1,200 foot base.
I have personally participated in American processions which honored
Mary. We walked through the
streets following a statue of Mary which was carried on a platform, high up
where it was clearly visible. We
sang songs in Mary’s honor. We
prayed rosaries and other prayers to her.
These were small processions. At
Fatima, Portugal, crowds of over a million people gather on the
anniversary of the apparition of Our Lady of Fatima.
The celebration includes a procession of a million people following a
statue of Mary and singing her praises.
[8]
One popular prayer in Mary’s honor is the Hail
Holy Queen, which is known in Latin as the Salve
Regina. It is
traditionally included as part of praying the rosary.
For Catholics who are reading this, please try to overcome your
familiarity with this text and really look at the words.
Doesn’t this sound like worship?
“Hail,
holy Queen, Mother of Mercy! Our
life, our sweetness and our hope! To
thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve.
To thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping, in this valley
of tears. Turn, then, most
gracious Advocate, thine eyes of mercy toward us; and after this our exile
show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.”
Alfonsus de Liguori (1696-1787) was a principal proponent of the
Marianist Movement, which glorifies Mary.
He wrote a book entitled The
Glories of Mary which is famous, influential and widely read.
In this book, de Liguori says that Mary was given rulership over one
half of the kingdom of God; Mary rules over the kingdom of mercy and Jesus
rules over the kingdom of justice. De
Liguori said that people should pray to Mary as a mediator and look to her as
an object of trust for answered prayer. The
book even says that there is no salvation outside of Mary.
Some people suggest that these views are extreme and not representative
of Catholic Church teaching. However,
instead of silencing de Liguori as a heretic, the Catholic Church canonized
him as a saint and declared him to be a “doctor of the Church” (a person
whose teachings carry weight and authority).
Furthermore, his book is openly and officially promoted by the Catholic
Church, and his teachings have influenced popes.
[9]
Pope Benedict XV said of Mary that “[O]ne can justly say that with
Christ, she herself redeemed mankind.”
[10]
Pope Pius IX said, “Our salvation is based upon the holy Virgin... so
that if there is any hope and spiritual healing for us we receive it solely
and uniquely from her.”
[11]
A lay movement called “Vox Populi” (“Voice of the People”)
gathers signed petitions to send to the Pope, seeking to have him officially
declare that Mary is Co‑Redemptrix.
Over six million signatures have been sent to him, representing 138
countries and all seven continents. This
doctrine is supported by over 40 cardinals and 600 bishops worldwide.
[12]
The Catholic Church exalts Mary as an idealized, larger-than-life,
perfect mother. However, the
Bible shows that at one point Mary misunderstood Jesus’ calling to the point
that she thought He was insane and she tried to prevent Him from doing what
God wanted Him to do. Look at
Mark 3:20-34.
“And
the multitude cometh together again, so that they could not so much as eat
bread. And when his friends heard of it, they went out to
lay hold on him: for they said, He
is beside himself.’” (Mark 3:20-21, emphasis added)
The
New International Version says “His family”.
The New King James Version says “His own people.”
The King James Version says “his friends”.
According to Strong’s
Greek/Hebrew Dictionary the Greek word has a variety of meanings,
including “kinsmen”. However,
we don’t have to depend on the exact meaning of the word here because it
will be made clear in verse 31. Strong’s
defines “lay hold on” as “to use strength, i.e. seize or retain”.
It defines “beside himself” as “become astounded, insane”.
Verses 22 through 30 describe a confrontation between Jesus and the
scribes. Then we get back to what
is happening with the people who thought that Jesus was out of His mind and
were so concerned that they were coming to “lay hold on him” (seize him).
