Sir, I understand your objections and as you might expect, I have heard them all before. I have studied this inside and outside the Church.
As you also know for sure, I don't feel that is necessary for me to justify every Catholic belief from a Bible verse, not only because I don't see Holy Writ as a mere repository of propositional truth, but also because as a Catholic, I reject--after careful, years of long analysis that took me for a while outside of the Church--the tenet of sola scriptura which btw, it's also unscriptural.
The tenor of the article is what we have always said, though one will be unable to find a biblical verse directly stating a mariological truth, neither will you find one directly undermining one. Mariological truths are Christological ones, deny one, and you undermine the other. The Fathers understood this and it is on their insight and on their knowledge of the received Tradition upon which the Church builds her understanding of the Blessed Virgin.
I also take a dim view to your objection of proselytizing protestants, since many Protestants do not extend a similar courtesy to Catholics. If the field is to be level, Protestants have a right to hear what Catholics have to say when it comes Apostolic Christian truth.
Finally, let me state that in the Communion of Saints there are no Christians separated by the mere accident of physical death. That's what enable us to belong to the same prayer team whether here, or in heaven. That's what the veneration of Mary and all the saints really means.
I ask for your prayers and also ask the Lord to richly bless you, by the prayerful intercession of his Most Holy Mother who, in the Lord, is present to each and everyone of us.
-Theo
Actually, I wasn't objecting to the proselytization of protestants. I was simply acknowledging that this thread is of that variety.
I view some of the catholic threads as "in house" discussion of doctrine, interests, church policies, etc. I am not an insider on those kinds of threads, so I tend to bypass them out of courtesy, or, if I do comment, I'm careful not to be confrontive.
This thread, on the other hand, was overtly of a proselytizing nature, so I didn't mind registering an alternative viewpoint.
I have no problem with any church/sect/group proselytizing. After all, we are free, we are instructed, and this is America.