Mary Worship
            QUESTION from Patricia on July 16, 2003

I recently ran across a website which is very anti-Catholic. I won't list the site because it is not worth the trouble. On this site are the following quotes. 'Let me tell you something about Mary-she is not co-Redemptrix, she doesn't mediate grace. She's never heard a prayer from anybody. Mary has never heard anybody pray, and Mary has never done anything for anybody! She can't hear prayers. Mary is just another one of myriad of saints who are in the presence of God. They don't hear prayers-they don't answer prayers. They don't help people. They have nothing to do with what is going on in this world. They don't know what you are thinking, what you are praying-they can't hear you speak. They are not involved. No saints are, and Mary certainly is not. That is a fabrication; that is a form of idolatry that has created in Mary another member to the Trinity, who hears and answers prayer and who mediates and dispenses grace. Nothing could be more foreign to Scripture. Mary has never heard anybody pray-ever at any time. Mary has never appeared to anybody, nor has she ever assisted anybody in anything.' My first thought was how do they know that Mary and the Saints do not hear our prayers. They go on to say: 'Immaculate Conception, that she also was born by the Holy Ghost without a man. All of those have come, or will come by Papal decree-they have nothing to do with the Bible.' How do you respond to something like this? It is so frustrating to see such an obvious distortion of our beliefs espeically the last quote. Thank you so much Patricia