Why Catholics Are Right: What to do with Mary?

The Roman Catholic Church embraces a number of doctrines that non-Catholic churches reject, and Mary, the mother of Jesus, is the focus of several:

The immaculate conception, which is often confused with the doctrine of the Virgin Birth (that Jesus was conceive by the power of the Holy Spirit, without any human father), is central. While virtually all Christian Churches believe in the Virgin Birth, the Catholic Church alone proclaims the Immaculate Conception.

This doctrine teaches that when Mary was conceived in her mother, by the normal process of conception, she was preserved from any stain of original sin. Coren defends this doctrine with the traditional defence that the mother of God must be absolutely pure, since it is absurd to imagine that God would enter the world through a soiled vessel. Considering, however, that he entered a sinful world, was laid in a manger, ate with sinners, touched lepers, and died on a cross between two thieves, it seems a bit presumptuous to imagine that we have any idea what’s too absurd for God to do. But again, the consequences of the doctrine, more than the doctrine itself, are the real concern.

When they set Mary apart from all other human beings at conception, the Catholic Church starts down a road that leads to a veneration of Mary that most non-Catholics would regard as excessive. As part of her preservation from sin, Mary is imagined to have lived a sinless life. And she has, thus, become a super-saint: the “Queen of Angels and Saints”, the “Mother of the Church”, the “Mediatrix (feminine form of mediator) of all Graces”.

When, in the 1960s, Mary was officially declared to be “The Mother of the Church”, I pointed out to one of the Catholic priests who taught me in high school that, since the Church is the Bride of Christ, this was a potentially embarrassing situation. He was not amused, but I was not, as he insisted, just trying to be funny. I was, in my adolescent way, pointing out that we can get carried away with veneration. And, when we do, the ridiculous is apt to run over the sublime.

The perpetual virginity of Mary (that Mary was not only a virgin when Jesus was born, but remained one all her life), Coren insists, goes back to ancient, non-biblical tradition. According to this tradition, Mary had taken a vow of celibacy, and Joseph, who was a widower with children, took on the task of caring for her and Jesus, but was never her husband in the full sense. This explains why Joseph is often depicted as an old man in Catholic art. It also, according to Coren, explains the biblical references to Jesus’ brothers and sisters (Mark 3:31, 6:3; John 2:12 ) and why Jesus, as he was dying, commended her to the care of John (John 19:26-27), though what had become of her supposed stepchildren is not explained.

Non-Catholics dismiss this doctrine as unbiblical and superfluous, but the objection goes deeper than that. In the Bible, virginity is valued prior to marriage, and celibacy outside of marriage, but neither are valued in and of themselves, and sex within marriage is celebrated. But, in the Catholic Church, virginity and celibacy are given preferential status, resulting in the requirement of celibacy for priests and nuns. This results in sexual intercourse being seen as, though not sinful per se, spiritually compromised. This attitude, I believe, has led to an unhealthy, and unbiblical focus on sex in Catholic teaching.

The practice of praying to saints, including Mary of course, Coren defends as an extension of the universal Christian practice of intercessory prayer. All Christians ask others to pray for them, why not those who have died and are, therefore, closer to God than anyone on earth? This is a helpful explanation of the Catholic practice in that it puts it in a context that non-Catholics can understand, and clarifies that “praying to saints” is not worship. I have often used this explanation myself when discussing Catholic practices with my Baptist friends, but I also point out that non-Catholics follow a solid biblical principle of “not talking to dead people”. We discourage praying to saints, not because it’s idolatry, but because it’s a distraction. God, through Christ, is the focus of our prayers, though I wouldn’t make too much of the matter.

Most Evangelical pastors I know would readily admit that we have tended to ignore Mary. This has been a reaction to the Catholic Church and what we would perceive as an unhealthy focus on her. But it’s one thing to admit a problem, and another thing to fix it. What to do with Mary? Indeed.

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