The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1904-01-09
(San Francisco Monitor.)


Does not the Catholic devotion to Mary as mat
ter Of fact dertcat from the worship due to Christ?
On the contrary, it Is an historical fact that
the Catholic church. which has always cherished
great love for the Mother of Christ has ever been
The great defender of the divinity of Jesus Christ
her son. Outside her fold, thousands of nomnally
Christian ministers and people deny the divinity
of the Sen of God because, among other reasons,
their forefathers lost the true sense of the unique
dignity of that Sons Blessed Mother
If we look through Europe" writes Cardinal
Newman, "we shall find on tie whole that just
those nations and countries have lost their faith
in the divinity of Christ who have given up devo-
ton TO His oMther, and that those on the other
hand who had been foremost IN her honor have
retained their orthodoxy. Contrast, for instance,
the Calvinsts, with the Greeks, CT France with the
north of Germany. the rotestant and Catholic
eommunions in Ireland" ("Dificulties of An
elicans,' vol il, p. 92.)
All prayer to Mary indeed, is virtually and ulti-
niately prayer TO God. Love her, by its very ma
ture, carries us to the love God whose master
piece she IS. Strangers at times have entered our
churches and been scandalized at what they deemed
Rn excessive manifestation OF devotion on the part
Cf our people, who were praying douvtly before
some statue of the Blessed Virgin. They forget
however, that the altar is Jesus Christ really
present, and that during Mass in the early morn
ing those same devout souls have knet in adora-
tlon TO Him alone. Catholics ever make an in
Unite difference between their love for the Son
and the Mother, realizing perfectly that all her
graces and privileges from Him. If some words
Or expression of devotional writings seem to con-
tradict this. let the objector remember that it is
unreasonable TO insist that devotional tract be
oouched in the accuracy of dogma. Love never
expresses itself in the exact language of mate
matical formula.
Did not the alteration of in the Virgin Middle Ages
tend to encourage harmful superstition by overshad-
owing enlllely the mediatorShip of Christ?
There has never been any alteration of the Vir-
Sin in the Catholic church. In the fourth century
the heresy of the Colyridans who paid divine
honors, was expressly condemned by the Fathers of
the time; for instance, ST. Epiphanius adv Colly-
1ldians). The love and reverence for the Mother
Of God which characterized the ages of faith
helped greatly to keep the doctrine of the Incarna-
ton free from all faint of heresy. and also in the
days OF chlvalry begot a spirit Of respect for wo-
man. which could not be but beneficial in its in
tCence on the fierce manners of the period
This many Protestants and unbelievers from
free controversial bias, have been forced TO ad-
nit. The world" writes the nationalist Lecky SIS
governed by ideals, and seldom or never has there
been one which has exercised a more salutary in
huence than the medieval conception of the Vir-
sin" ("Rationalist in Europe" ch Ill D. 2341
There is, I think little doubt that
the Catholic reverence for the Virgin has done
much to elevate and purify the ideal woman, and
10 soften the manners of men, ("Ifistory of Eu-
ropean Morals" vol. ii, p. 3S9)
The Middle Aages had too perfect knowledge