"The title of 'mediatrix' only came into use very late in Church documents; it was rarely used; it is difficult to be interpreted exactly; it seems to contradict the biblical text which calls Christ the sole mediator.
Cardinal Paul Emile Léger (1).
What name did the Catholic Church give to the mother of Jesus?
Mary is called "Madonna", a Latin word ( mea domina ) which means "my Lady".
Is it true that in Catholicism the mother of Jesus is presented as an object of worship?
The Catholic Church teaches to invoke Mary by calling her: Queen, Mother of mercy, Life, Sweetness, Our Hope, my most holy Queen, Light of the soul, my Advocate, my Hope, my Protection, my Refuge, my Consolation and Happiness (see the page on the Rosary ).
But the Mary of the Bible, the humble and blessed mother of Jesus the man, is not the Madonna, a divinity created later by the clergy on the basis of the figure of Mary.
Here is one of the many Catholic prayers of adoration and consecration. Notice how these teachings defraud the Lord of worship due to Him alone. There is only to replace the name of Mary so that it can be addressed, exactly as it is, to God the Father or to Jesus Christ:
"Immaculate Heart of Mary, who in exchange for your love for us received so many offenses. I offer you and consecrate myself in perpetuity, to correspond in the best way to your maternal tenderness, to repair the injuries to which you are the object of so many ungrateful children ... Deign to accept this humble, but sincere offering. My soul, my body, my life are yours; and since they entirely belong to you, keep me and defend me as your own " (2).
But shouldn't worship be given only to God?
In fact this is the mandatory order of the Word of God. And it is something natural and spontaneous for those who have received Jesus in their life as their Savior. Jesus himself said, "Worship the Lord your God, and to Him alone do you worship" (Matthew 4:10). Worship, by its very definition, implies worship, and must be rendered only to the Creator.
The cult of the human creature is forbidden to us by God, and the mother of Jesus was a human creature, born and deceased like all other human beings. Furthermore, when Mary is invoked by calling her "life, hope and advocate" there is an evident lack of faith in Jesus Christ. The Bible says that if anyone has sinned, we have an advocate with the Father: Jesus Christ (I John 2: 1), while, contrary to this statement, the Catholic church teaches that we have a principal advocate (Jesus Christ) and others. secondary (Madonna and saints).
Elsewhere, the Catholic Church even goes so far as to affirm that Mary is "the sole advocate" of sinners (see below) and "the spotless lamb" (a title which belongs only to Christ; read the words of the
So how is the cult of creatures justified?
Rather than simply sticking to God's Word, subtle distinctions are made that are meant to make the false acceptable. The Catholic Church teaches, without any biblical foundation, that only God should be worshiped (cult of "latria"), but that angels and saints can also be worshiped, prayed and invoked (cult of "dulia").
As for the Madonna - says the reigning pontiff - to her "a special, exceptional cult is due". A cult of "hyperdulia", says the catechism. This term expresses something that goes beyond the common measure. Therefore, according to Catholic theology, we will never be able to fully satisfy our duty of veneration towards Mary,
For what reasons should this Catholic doctrine be rejected?
This distinction of various degrees of worship is entirely arbitrary. Not only from the Bible, but also from a simple common sense standpoint, it is not possible to make distinctions in worship. When one kneels before someone, and prays to him, one invokes him, one confides in him for one's eternal salvation, one carries him in a religious procession, one raises him on the altars, this is not simple "veneration", but true and proper adoration, which in no case belongs to the creature, but only to the Creator.
To realize that changing names is not enough to change things, one has only to read this prayer of Saint Bernard (1090-1153), where he speaks of Mary in exactly the same terms that the Gospels attribute to Jesus Christ:
"In dangers and anguish, when in doubt think of Mary, invoke Mary. If you follow her, you will not get lost; if she supports you, you will not fall; if she protects you, you will not be afraid; if she leads you, you will have no tribulations. ; if it is propitious to you, you will arrive at the goal " (4).
Which and how many mediators does the Gospel speak to us?
The Gospel declares in a constant and peremptory way that between God and men there is only one Mediator, only one who can save us, Jesus Christ. " There is only one God and also one mediator between God and men, Christ Jesus the man " (I Timothy 2: 5). " In no other is there salvation; for there is no other name under heaven given to men, by which we must be saved " (Acts 4:12).
What does the Catholic Church teach instead?
To try to convince evangelicals and Protestants to approach the cult of the Madonna, Catholic theologians try to present it in the most seductive way possible, denying, against all evidence, that the Catholic Church places Mary as mediator alongside Jesus. At the same time, however, they teach the exact opposite. For example:
"... august Queen of victories, o virgin Sovereign of Paradise, whose mighty name the heavens rejoice and the abysses tremble in terror, o glorious Queen of the Most Holy Rosary, all of us ventured your children, whom your goodness has chosen to raise a Temple for you in Pompeii. Prostrate at your feet, on this solemn day of the feast of your new triumphs, on earth from idols and demons, we pour out the affections of our hearts with tears, and with the confidence of children we expose our miseries ... Mother, hold back the arm of justice of your wrathful Son , and overcome the hearts of sinners with clemency ... " (6).
Here, Jesus, who for love of us came to give his life on the cross to save us, and who shed his innocent blood for us, is instead described as the "wrathful son" of whom Our Lady must "hold back the arm"?
What is the mother of the Lord Jesus also called?
At the Council of Ephesus (431), Mary was called "mother of God". And Catholic theologians deduce that - being Jesus true God - she would also be the mother of God (7).
Why shouldn't we call Mary "mother of God"?
1) First of all because not once do we find any indication of this teaching in the Word of God.
2) Because this title favors the misunderstanding of attributing divinity to a human creature.
3) Because Mary was the mother of Jesus' human nature , certainly not of his divine nature. Mary herself, like every living being, was created by the eternal Word of God, that is, by Jesus (see John chapter 1).
What is the new title given to Mary?
In the third session of the Second Vatican Council there was a long discussion on whether to call Mary "mother of the Church".
The Catholic Bishop S. Mendez Arceo, speaking on behalf of 40 Latin American bishops, presented a series of 12 arguments against the inclusion of the title "mother of the Church", noting, among other things, that "if the Church is ours mother, as we usually consider her, then Mary, as mother of the Church, would actually be our grandmother. She would also be the mother of angels, since St. Thomas says that angels are part of the Church ".
Without taking into account these objections, the reigning pontiff instead established: "We proclaim Mary Most Holy Mother of the Church ... and we want the Virgin to be honored and invoked even more by all the Christian people with this most gentle title from now on" (9).
What is the Immaculate Conception?
On December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX (GM Mastai Ferretti, 1846-1878) declared that "the most blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instant of her conception, by the singular grace and privilege of God ... was preserved immune from any stain of the original fault " (10).
Mary would therefore be born without sin, unlike all other human creatures, who are born under original sin, that is, with a tendency to sin. In the past, the most learned minds of the Catholic Church took sides against the idea of the Immaculate Conception: St. Bernard, St. Bonaventure and the supreme doctor of this church, Thomas Aquinas. The Franciscans and Jesuits supported this doctrine, while the Dominicans fiercely fought it.
Why should Christians not accept this doctrine?
Because not only does it have no biblical foundation, but it is contrary to what the Word of God says about the radical corruption of human nature. The apostle writes: " through one man sin entered the world, and through sin death entered, and in this way death passed on to all men, because all have sinned .. . "(Romans 5:12; also read Romans 11:32, Romans 3: 9-10, Ecclesiastes 7:20, etc.).
Moreover, Mary herself did not define herself as sinless or superior to others, rather she humbly praised God as her Savior: " My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior , because he has looked at baseness. of his servant ... "(Luke 1:46).
Among the first Christians, a testimony is that of Saint Eusebius (260-340 AD), who wrote: "No one is exempt from the stain of original sin, not even the mother of the Redeemer of the world. Jesus alone is exempt from the law of sin, although born of a woman subjected to sin " (Eusebius, Emiss. in Orat. II de Nativ.).
What is the Assumption?
The Catholic Church teaches that "Mary, after having completed the course of her earthly life, was raised body and soul to celestial glory ..." (11).
This legend, which began to make its way only several centuries after Christ, is called the Assumption (and therefore Mary is called the Assumption), and was proclaimed a doctrine of the Catholic Church only in 1950. The priest prof. Romano Guardini, precisely with regard to the legends that flourished around the Virgin, wrote: "Legend can delight us with its delightful images, but legends are not lived, much less when substance is lost" (12).
Why shouldn't we believe in the Assumption of Mary?
1) Because, if it were true, the Gospels and the other writings of the New Testament would surely have passed down the memory of it.
2) Because we know, instead, that it is a legend of which we find the first traces only from the 6th century AD. The Catholic historian M. Jugie speaks of these stories thus: "From the historical point of view, their value is absolutely null" (13).
3) Because, if the Assumption corresponded to a historical fact, and of such great importance, it would be inexplicable that the Catholic Church waited many hundreds of years before making it known authoritatively.
4) Because the Assumption not only has no historical foundation, but contradicts the explicit affirmation of the apostle John, according to which no one but Jesus the Son of God has yet risen (John 3:13), and that, no less explicit, of the apostle Paul (I Corinthians 15:50).
What is the misunderstanding presented by the "Hail Mary" prayer?
The Catholic Church teaches to invoke the mother of Jesus with the words "Ave Maria, gratia plena" , that is: "I greet you, Mary, full of grace" , thus favoring the misunderstanding that Mary is the giver of graces.
Conversely, the angel who announced the birth of Jesus to Mary had said to her: " Hail, you, who have been given grace " (Luke 1:28, original Greek text: "Chaire, kecharitômenê ..." ) . And to exclude that it could be interpreted differently, the same angel added: " Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found grace before God " (v. 30).
St. Ambrose comments on this passage as follows:"Let no one divert this word towards the Virgin Mary! Mary was the temple of God and not the God of the temple. Only He who was at work in the temple must be worshiped " (14).
What other strain has been brought to biblical doctrine to exalt Mary?
In the Genesis account, God says to the serpent, "I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; this offspring will crush your head and you will bruise her heel" (Genesis 3:15) . According to the Second Vatican Council, Our Lady "is already prophetically foreshadowed in the promise made to the progenitors who have fallen into sin, about the victory over the serpent" (15).
What's the meaning? The Bible of "Cardinal Ferrari" notes: "According to the Hebrew text the winner is one" (male gender). Many interpreters have rightly understood that it is Jesus Christ, which does not prevent, however, that Catholic children are still taught that it will not be Jesus but Our Lady.
What does the Bible teach about Jesus' mother?
It is significant to note how, apart from the episodes of the birth of Jesus, the Bible speaks very little of Mary (only five times), and always highlighting her humble and subordinate position , very different from that which the Catholic Church claims for her:
1) Twelve-year-old Jesus in Jerusalem, when he expresses his amazement because his parents did not think about looking for him immediately in the Temple (Luke 2: 41-52).
2) The wedding at Cana, where Jesus points out to his mother that it is not his job to interfere in the mission of the Son (John 2: 1-12).
3) The episode of Mary and the other family members, who go to look for Jesus, considering him "beside himself" (Mark 3:21). On this occasion, Jesus, painfully struck in his dearest affections, exclaims: "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers?" (Matthew 12:48).
4) Mary at the foot of the cross (John 19: 25-27).
5) Mary in prayer with the disciples in Jerusalem after the Ascension (Acts 1:14).
Is there an episode in the Gospel that teaches precisely the opposite of the Ave Maria?
Yes, someone once praised Mary in the presence of Jesus: "A woman from among the multitude raised her voice and said to him: Blessed are the breasts that bore you and the breasts that you suckled!"
But Jesus, answering, taught her that glory belongs only to God: "Blessed rather are those who hear the word of God and keep it!" (Luke 11: 27-28).
Why did the cult of the Virgin take such a development in the Roman church?
1) First of all, in the cult of the Madonna the pagan exaltation of the feminine principle, as creator and giver of life, relives (16).
2) Furthermore, in the cult of the Madonna the pagan cult of Isis, who was the "Holy Mother" of the ancient world for two centuries, relives in a concrete way. Isis "who sees everything and can do everything, star of the sea, diadem of life, giver of law and redeemer" was the deified woman (cult repeated in other mythologies, see here). She was represented as a young woman, garlanded by the blue lotus of the crescent moon, with her son Horus in her arms. Not a few statues of Isis were later transformed into images of the Madonna. Even the Druids (pagan priests) honored the wooden statue of a woman, representing fertility (17).
3) Another reason is to be found in the heresies that denied the divinity of Jesus. To combat these heresies, the Church emphasized the divinity of Jesus, and this over time led some to divinize the mother of Jesus as well.
4) But, above all, the cult of the Madonna is the cult of the human creature in what it believes to have the most noble. Through the cult of the Madonna, man says to God: "You, in order to act, needed us. It is therefore not true that humanity is lost without remedy, if it has been able to express a being as perfect as the Queen. of heaven, the Madonna ". Jesus would therefore have died for us in vain.
In conclusion, what should we think of the doctrine on Mary?
This doctrine remains one of the fundamental obstacles for the reunion of Christianity, and the most evident expression of the deviationism of the Roman Catholic Church. As prof. Vittorio Subilia:"Protestants often consider Mariology as a strange and uninteresting appendage of the Catholic faith, a kind of popular superstition officially or tacitly tolerated by the enlightened ruling spheres and linked in particular to the southern regions, however a marginal and non-essential element on which it is not the case will stop too long and it will be swept away as the influence of progressives asserts itself. This attitude is indicative of a fundamental misunderstanding of Catholicism ... One must realize that Mariology is connected with the essence of Catholicism, it is the expression of Catholicism " (18).
Therefore every Christian who "knows in whom he believed", knows that apart from Jesus Christ there is no other Mediator, nor Salvation,there is no other name under heaven that has been given to men by which we have to be saved "(Acts 4:12).
NOTE
1 - Card. P.-É. Léger, at the Second Vatican Council. See: Docum. Cathol. October 4, 1964.
2 - The devotee of the SS. Virgin of Fatima. Published with ecclesiastical approval by the Archiepiscopal Curia of Trani, 1953, p. 47.
3 - Speech at Castel Gandolfo. See: Docum. Cathol. September 6, 1954.
4 - Bernard, Homily II on Ev. East Missus; Cit. from: P. Gasparri (Card.), Catéchisme catholiqne, p. 184.
5 - Alberto Bellini, consultant of the Secretariat for Christian Unity, in: "La Rocca", 1 May 1964.
6 - Supplication to the Queen of the SS. Rosary of Pompeii, in: Come adoremus., Boll. Eucharistic Studentate, San Benedetto del Tronto, 5/64.
7 - G. Gasparri, op. cit., p. 82.
8 - Cit. from "Bulletin of the Federal Council of the Evangelical Churches of Italy", n. 21, 9 December 1964.
9 - Paul VI, Address delivered at the close of the third session of the Second Vatican Council. See: Docum. Cathol. ., December 6, 1964.
10 - Bull "Ineffabilis Deus", December 8, 1854. See: Denzingher, op. cit., 2803, p. 562.
11 - Pius XII, Coit. dogm. , Munificentissimus Deus, November 1950 (Denzingher, op.cit., 1903, p. 782).
12 - R. Guardini, Il Signore Milano, Ed. Vita e Pensiero, 1955, p. 10.
13 - M. Jugse, La mort et l'Assomption; Cit. from G. Mirece, The Virgin Mary, Torre Pellice, Ed. Claudiana, 1959, p. 103.
14 - De Spiritu Sancto, III; II, 80.
15 - Dogmatic Constitution. on the Church, 55.
16 - Louis-Paul Favre, in: Réforme., April 16, 1960.
17 - R. Puaux, Rome and the avenir des nations, p. 46.
18 - V. Subilia, The new catholicity of Catholicism, Turin, Ed. Claudiana, 1967, p. 67.
(Adapt. From "The Gospel does not say so", by R. Nisbet, Ed. Claudiana)
The cult of Mary
Every Christian thanks God for Mary and we honor her as God's "chosen vessel"; but to give it a status bordering on divinity is cult of the creature.
No doubt even many Catholics don't even know that there was a time when the pope himself excommunicated people for praying to the Virgin Mary. The cult of Mary (mariolatry), today acclaimed as an infallible dogma, was once condemned by the Roman church itself as a mortal sin.
There is no historical evidence before the 5th century that the Virgin Mary was exalted. Only then was she called for the first time "Mother of God". The traditions concerning her were added one after the other until the last pronouncement by Pius XII, on 11 October 1954, which affirms that Mary was "
Beginning with the adoption of the term "Mother of God", there were several steps in the development of contemporary mariolatry. It was not that from 451 d. C. that the dogma of Mary's "perpetual virginity" was made obligatory for all Roman Catholics. The logically subsequent step was on December 8, 1854, when Pope Pius XII declared the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary.
Once that step was taken, the pope declared that all Roman Catholics must accept it without being able to question it, under penalty of disciplinary action. Precisely for this logic of development, it would not be surprising if Rome one day proclaimed the dogma of the divinity of Mary as binding and infallible. They are already addressing her as Queen of Heaven, which is equivalent to considering her divine, because a queen is the king's wife, and since she is called the Queen of Heaven, it follows that she is the wife of the King of heaven. It does not take much for such a dogma to be confirmed by a papal bull.
The teachings of the Roman Catholic Church regarding Mary are summarized by Alfondo de Liguori in his book "The glories of Mary", written in the late eighteenth century. Liguori writes about Mary: "... she really was made mediator of peace between sinners and God. Sinners can receive forgiveness (...) only through Mary. We will be heard much faster if we invoke her holy name , faster than it is by invoking the name of Jesus (...) Mary is called the Gate of Heaven because no one will be able to enter that blessed Kingdom without passing through her. (...) The way of salvation is open to anyone who do not pass through Mary ".
These teachings are clearly blasphemous and non-Christian.
In 1803 the Congregation of Rites decreed: "In all the writings of Alfonso de Liguori notthere is no word with respect to which it can be said to be wrong. " Thus the Roman Catholic Church has formally declared that all of Liguori's teachings are right and recognized by the Catholic Church.
What, then, does he teach about Mary? it is Mediatrix of redemption, because he says (vol. 1, p. 178): "Desiring to redeem mankind, God has placed the price of redemption in the hands of Mary, so that it can dispense to those who want it."
in summary, the Catholic Church considers Mary an even more powerful mediator than the Lord Jesus Christ: "Sometimes we can be heard much sooner by invoking the intercession of Mary than by praying to Jesus , our Savior"(p. 209); and again (p. 183): "If my Redeemer rejected me because of my sins, I would throw myself at the feet of His mother, Mary, and I would remain prostrate before her, until she obtained my forgiveness". Rome exalts Mary to such a graph that " everything, even God, obeys Mary's commands "! (p. 265)
The Lord Jesus is completely ignored as the Advocate and Intercessor of His people, and as the only Mediator between God and men (1 Timothy 2: 5), and indeed these titles and functions they are taken away and given to Mary! Christ is represented as a Judge full of anger and without mercy, from whose hands Mary saves sinners. For this, according to the Catholic Church," the sole advocate of sinners" (p. 190ff), and "her Son, the Judge of the world, cannot condemn those sinners whom she defends" (p. 282), and "when God is angry with a sinner which Mary takes under her protection, she holds back her son, so that he does not inflict punishment, and save the sinner " (p. 193).
In Mary, therefore, the papists place their hope (p. 257): "Most holy Virgin, take us under your protection, because without you we have no other hope of salvation" , because, they say, "he who is protected by Mary he will be saved; he who is not protected by her will be lost ".
It's still:"O Most Holy Virgin, no one can abound in the knowledge of God except through you; no one, O Mother of God, obtains salvation except through you , no one receives any gift from the throne of grace except through you" (Pope Leo XIII, Adiutricem Populi).
"Mary was by grace exalted above all angels and men, second only to her Son, as the most holy mother of God who shared in the mysteries of Christ: she is justly honored by a special cult in the [Catholic] Church. " (Second Vatican Council," Dogmatic Constitution of the Church ", n.66).
Roman Catholicism, therefore, is fundamentally Marianism, and this is what the Catholic Church still teaches today. Even the Mass was converted into a cult of Mary by adding to it prayers addressed to her, giving them great importance.
It was Pope Leo XIII who surpassed all his predecessors in this regard so as to be considered "the Pope of the Rosary". The Rosary consists of 166 beads of a necklace, on which Catholics must recite 1 "creed", 15 "our father", and 150 "ave maria".
The repetition of prayers and the use of many words in prayer are practices condemned by Jesus (see Matthew 6: 5-13). Yet, reciting them in this way, Pope Leo XIII said, is "the most powerful and pleasant way" of "honoring" Mary. The cult of Mary is particularly promoted today by the current pope, who considers himself particularly consecrated to Mary.
We conclude with a consideration. Who did the Magi worship? Matthew 3:11 gives a clear answer: "When they entered the house, they saw the child with Mary, his mother; they fell down and worshiped him"(Mt. 2:11). Did Jesus or the Holy Spirit-inspired apostles who wrote the New Testament ever say that Mary, the mother of Jesus, should be worshiped, served, or "especially honored"? None of this. Jesus, responding to Satan who claimed to be worshiped, clearly said: "" Go away, Satan, for it is written: " Worship the Lord your God and to Him alone you render worship " (Mt. 4:10).
- If Mariology is so fundamental to faith, why after Christ's death is Mary explicitly mentioned only in Acts 1:14?
- How come Paul, in Galatians 4: 4, speaking of the incarnation of Jesus, simply says "born of woman", without even mentioning her name and without spending a single word more about Mary?
- Why is there an almost total silence of the most ancient Christian writers on Mary (in particular on the "Mary" of today)?
- How come, in the New Testament, of all the "truths of faith" about Mary enunciated over the centuries by Tradition and the Magisterium - perpetual virginity, immaculate conception (dogma of 1854!), Assumption into heaven (dogma of 1950), impeccability , co-redemption, recipient of a more sublime redemption than anyone else, celestial royalty, mediation, veneration, ability to work miracles on earth - isn't there the slightest hint? On the Immaculate Conception, for example (and it applies to every other aspect), the Board says: "In the Tradition of the Church, the common sense of faith ... little by little has also come to acquire the certainty of its exemption from sin original. Finally in 1854 Pope Pius IX solemnly defined ... ».
- Is it possible that the more time passes and we move away from the first historical source (eyewitnesses, etc.), the more we can learn, both about earthly and celestial things? It is even "known" that during childbirth Mary remained miraculously a virgin: how can one believe in a miracle that Scripture does not report, and that no one ever said they saw?
- The Bible speaks of the "rapture" of Enoch and Elijah to heaven (Genesis 5:24; 2 Kings 2,11); if Mary was taken up into heaven, why doesn't the Bible mention her at all? While Mary was alive and in the decades after her death (New Testament period), she never worked miracles, nor was she ever venerated; the sacred writers have not bothered to say where and when she died, or how she lived, nor have they developed any theology concerning her.
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