Mary in Catholic Teaching

Blessed Among Women

Few people in Scripture are more worthy of honor than Mary of Nazareth. God chose her to bear His Son. An angel greeted her, Elisabeth blessed her, and Mary herself foresaw that all generations shall call me blessed (Luke 1:48). Bible-believing Christians should say so gladly. In reaction to Rome, Baptists have sometimes said almost nothing about Mary, and that is not the Bible's way either.

The Roman Catholic Church goes much further than Scripture. It teaches four Marian dogmas, invokes Mary as Advocate and Mediatrix, honors her as Queen of heaven, and commends prayer to her, above all in the Rosary.

• Mother of God. Affirmed by the bishops of the state church at the Council of Ephesus in 431.
• Perpetual virginity. Mary remained a virgin all her life, even in giving birth (Catechism, §§499–500). The title ever-virgin appears in the canons of the Second Council of Constantinople in 553.
• Immaculate Conception. Mary was preserved from original sin from the first moment of her conception. Defined by Pius IX on December 8, 1854.
• Assumption. At the end of her earthly life Mary was taken body and soul into heaven. Defined by Pius XII on November 1, 1950.

Catholics do not believe they worship Mary. The Catechism says devotion to her “differs essentially from the adoration which is given to the incarnate Word” and to the Father and the Holy Spirit (Catechism, §971). Theologians call it hyperdulia, the highest honor given to a creature, distinct from latria, the worship due to God alone (see Saints, Images, and Relics). We should represent that sincerely. The question is whether the honor Rome gives Mary, its titles, dogmas, and prayers, is the honor God gives her in His Word.