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Question: Why do Catholics worship Mary? Answer: Well, of course very often in a question there is hidden a statement. So, the hidden statement in this question is that Catholics do worship Mary and that, of course is something that we would very much object to. We would regard the charge that we worship the Blessed Virgin Mary as unjust. What exactly does "worship" mean? Now, you know that it is an English word and it comes from old English. Actually, it is a combination of two words. In England, sometimes judges are addressed as "Your Worship" which is an extraordinary address, if you don't understand the origin of the word. The origin of the word "worship" is "worth-ship", which means that the object of worship is worthy of regard and so on. And "worth-ship" has since been corrupted into "worship". Now, with regard to the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary and God, we offer worship only to God because in modern English and in a religious context, worship implies an attitude towards a Supreme Being and there can be only one Supreme Being. So God says in Chapter 34 of the Book of Exodus that "I am a jealous God, my name is Jealous. I am a jealous God". So one of the characteristics of God in the old testament is his jealousy. And what does that mean? God is never jealous of somebody, God is for something. So, the jealousy of God means a unique kind of anger on God's part. It is an anger provoked when something belonging exclusively to Him is taken from Him and given to another. This property of God which is exclusive to Him is the property of worship and adoration. No creature can be the object of worship. No creature can be the object of such adoration; only God can be the object of that. Now, on the other hand, we think of people like the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary as being especially endowed by God, specially endowed with grace. The angel said to Mary, "Blessed are you among women", and Mary herself said in her Magnificat that "All generations will call me blessed." So these are Biblical data that we simply cannot deny and cannot ignore. Now, we know about the saints and the Blessed Virgin Mary that their glories are reflected glory. The glory really is God's glory and the wonder of God is seen in His saints. And when we are honouring the saints, we really honour God himself who is the source of their grace and the source of their greatness. So instead of saying then that Catholics worship Mary, we should prefer to say that we honour Mary; that we recognize that she is blessed among women and that we like to join all those future generations that will call her blessed. So we honour her and we venerate her and we regard her as the supreme creature, but she is always a creature and there is an infinite distance between her and the Creator. So that is the best I can do to answer that question, "Why do Catholics worship Mary?" Very simply, we don't worship Mary; we do venerate her, we do honour her as the supreme creature supremely blessed by God. (Source: "Questions People often Ask", a booklet dealing with some questions people often ask about our Catholic faith. The answers are provided by Fr. Sean Kelleher C.Ss.R., a well known biblical scholar and writer, based on the questions put by Fr. Paul Pang C.Ss.R.) | Back to Main Page | |