[boatbums]

if Mary were divine, there would be no mystery in the Incarnation at all

Thanks, that was a good way of putting it. Why then the insistence on the titles "Mother of God", "Queen of Heaven", "Spouse of the Holy Spirit"? Are these not the basis for the confusion in Catholics and non?

[annalex]

But these are not statements of divinity. They describe what Mary scripturally is: Mother of Jesus Who is God; Queen Mother of Christ Who is King (don’t forget the crown wearing mother of Christ in Rev. 12), and one who the Holy Spirit overshadowed and a miraculous childbirth resulted.

They tend to elevate and praise her, but not divinize her.

Granted, if “Mother of God” were all we know of the gospels, and a Martian came down and heard this, he would be correct in assuming that Mary preexists God and so is divine. But that is not all we know; we say those things in the light of the complete knowledge of the gospel. Nor are our Protestant critics Martians. They should not act like ones.