Please pardon the mistake. My husband who used to be a Catholic, also hates it when anybody says anything about Catholics and what they believe, because they are always wrong. Of course usually it comes from what a Catholic once said they believed or said they do. But it is always either something that is out of date or something that some Catholic thinks but doesn't really reflect the teaching of the head honchos. For example: all of the Catholic masses where I've been to and seen people appear to worship Mary and had it explained to me, after my asking, that yes, they do pray to her. But I guess I can never see anything in mass and know what it means or hear anything that a Catholic says they do and really know anything about it-a most confusing religion and most frustrating to hear come up in conversation. Usually I just keep my mouth shut since I have long been aware of this difficulty of knowing what is real and what is not with respect to the Catholic church. Every single thing my Catholic grandfather ever told me about it has been refuted by my husband as out of date or just misunderstood. But for the record my mother in law who is the most devout Catholic I have ever come in contact with does pray to Mary; and praying is an act of worship. So what is your take on Mary? I'm always willing to listen and try to learn.
Dear fromscratchmom,
"Please pardon the mistake."
Sorry, I just couldn't resist. Sometimes I get a little mischievous. Or at least my wife tells me. ;-)
"For example: all of the Catholic masses where I've been to and seen people appear to worship Mary and had it explained to me, after my asking, that yes, they do pray to her."
Please tell me at what point during the Mass that people worship Mary. I go to Mass every Sunday, and ordinarily, the Mother of God gets a quick mention or two, and that's about it. During the Eucharistic Prayer, she is mentioned briefly, but no prayers are directed toward her.
Occasionally, we say a "Hail Mary" at Mass, but there we are mainly quoting Scripture. I'm sure you have no problem in us repeating the words of the Archangel Gabriel, do you?
"But for the record my mother in law who is the most devout Catholic I have ever come in contact with does pray to Mary; and praying is an act of worship."
Ah, there's your difficulty. For Catholics, prayer can be involved in worship, but prayer is not worship. If we're praying to God, that might be worship. But if we're praying to a saint, we're merely asking their intercession with God. We're asking them to pray for us. That's it.
Please try not to overlay your religious beliefs on ours. We are not worshipping Mary or any other saint when we ask for them to pray for us. We're just asking them to pray for us. If you disagree with our asking for their intercession, then you're free to do so. But you mischaracterize it badly when you call our actions "worship."
Even if you don't make the same distinction, we distinguish between the veneration, the honor owed to the saints who have gone before us, and the worship due to God alone.
sitetest
My take on it is that Catholics belief that you can pray to Mary, Jesus, and saints to intercede on your behalf with God. It's not idol worship so much as it is a result of Catholic assimilation of other religions that had gods for certain areas (think the Roman pantheon, where each god had his own bailiwick). Voodoo has taken a lot from Catholicism, and in a lot of countries, Catholicism has taken over the local religion--witness the Day of the Dead in Mexico, Easter just about everywhere, and Christmas in Europe where Yule traditions have spread. Heck, even the Mass ritual itself is essentially Mithraic religion with Christianity interjected.
Anyway, back to the point--"worship" of Mary (or the saints) in the way Catholics do today is essentially just prayer to a pal of the big guy in the sky himself asking them to nudge God for the poor mortal praying. Nothing more idolatrous about that than asking for you to pray for me, or for you to ask me to pray for my dying relative. But I'm sure some here will disagree.