Why would the Catholic Church want to "promote" Mary, the mother of Jesus ?

Answer 1

Pastor Billy says: " the little respect we show Mary the less respect we show our Lord and God Jesus Christ.

"honor thy mother and father" why not our Lord's mother?

I find it more odd that non-Catholic Christian in their attacks on Catholicism villify the mother of God. Study the divisions of Christianity what you'll discover is the further you move away from Catholicism the greater the development of heresy. At first those groups protesting Catholicism will attack such things as Marian doctrine but eventually they will move on and attack ancient Christology the true person of Christ as God and man.

Catholicism continues to "promote" what was always orthodox in Christian thought and belief.

Answer 2

The text actually states "until she had given birth to her firstborn son." There are two things you need to realize about the language used here. First off, the word "until" simply means "up until that time." It does not mean that things changed after that point and that Mary and Joseph had relations. It simply means there were no relations before that point. The second is the Protestant misinterpretation of the phrase "firstborn son." In Biblical times, this was PURELY a legal term. It was never an indication that there were other children after Jesus. Also, Mary states herself that she is "the handmaid of the Lord." (See Luke 1:38) This is indicative that she was a temple virgin. This was rare for Jewish girls, but still acceptable. As a temple virgin, Mary would have been completely consecrated to the Lord, as indicated by her own statement. Yes, she was betrothed to Joseph at the point that Jesus was conceived within her womb by the power of the Holy Spirit, but Joseph was much older than she was, most likely at least twice her age at the time, and most likely, also, a widower. His pledge would have been to respect her vows of virginity and consecration to the Lord, which is why he would have been chosen to be her spouse. Many Protestants also point to the Bible saying that Christ had brothers and sisters. Again, this is a confusion of language. While Joseph may well have had several step-siblings from Joseph's first marriage, the word "brother" or "sister" simply meant "close relative" at this period of time. In fact, we still use the term today, when we call close friends or cousins our "brothers" or "sisters" or when we refer to other Christians as our "brothers" and "sisters" in Christ.

Answer 3

Because:

(A) Mary glorifies God

(B) Because Jesus honored her

(C) Because "all generations will call her blessed" (i.e., the Bible says to!)

(D) Because she is a human who exhibited perfect faith in Christ, which is what we are all called to do, so it's good and proper to follow her example and try to develop the kind of faith in Christ that Mary has.

Answer 4

Catholic do not "promote" the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Bible clearly states that Mary is important to God.

+ Mary is the handmaid of the Lord (Luke 1:38), a servant of God just like us.

+ Mary is the first Christian. All other Christians follow her on the road of faith. She is the model for all of us because she actively cooperated with the Will of God by saying "Yes" to God in the plan of salvation.

+ Mary is the model of faith. Mary's faith never wavered throughout Jesus' life, even while watching him die on the cross when most of the Apostles ran away.

+ Mary is full of grace. The angel Gabriel called her, "Full of grace" and said, "The Lord is with you." She is full of grace at that moment; the Lord is with her at that moment, before she says "yes" to the angel's question. Catholics believe the state of grace was with her since her Immaculate Conception. God prepared her for her later role as the mother of Jesus.

+ Mary is the mother of Jesus Christ, of God the Son.

+ Mary is a dwelling place of the Holy Spirit, a tabernacle. The angel Gabriel says to her, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will cover you with its shadow." (Luke 1:35)

+ God praised Mary through His messenger, the angel Gabriel, "Rejoice, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you." If God and his angels praise Mary, shouldn't we?

+ Jesus honored Mary. Jesus kept the Commandments and did not sin. Jesus fulfilled the Commandment to honor both his father and his mother. WWJD? What would Jesus do? Jesus would and did honor Mary, his mother.

+ The Holy Spirit inspired praises of Mary. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said, "Most blessed are you among women," and "Blessed are you who believed that what was spoken to you by the Lord would be fulfilled." (Luke 1:41-45)

+ The Scriptures tell of Mary's place with Jesus. Mary gives birth to Jesus, presents him to the shepherds, to the wise men, to God in the Temple. She lived with him for many years in Nazareth, intercedes with Jesus in Cana, suffers with him at the foot of the Cross, and prays to him with the apostles in the Upper Room.

+ Mary was a prophet. "Behold, from now on will all ages call me blessed. The Mighty One has done great things for me." (Luke 1:48-49) As Christians who believe the Bible, we must call Mary "blessed."

+ Mary is our Mother too. While he was on the Cross, Jesus said to his beloved disciple (who represents all Christians), "this is your mother." (John 19:27)

For more information, see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, section 484 and following: http://www.nccbuscc.org/catechism/text/pt1sect2chpt2art3p2.htm

With love in Christ.

Answer 5

We attended a Catholic church until I was 12. After my parents divorced, I didn't go anywhere until after I was married. I had a wake-up call about my upbringing because I realized that it was wrong to pray to Mary and disciples. The Bible tells us that Jesus is our intercessor. Praying to Mary or the disciples is like putting them up there in the Trinity. It isn't right. No where in the Bible does it say to do this. And as I think back now, no one brougth Bibles to Mass. In fact, they had a booklet in the foyer that we grabbed each time and we all had rehearsed things to say.
If you do some research, you will see that Roman Catholic religion is a mixture of Pegan religion and Christianity that the Roman government put together.

Answer 6

The Spaniards needed something that would appeal to the people in the Americas. They lied about the need for the exalting of the Virgin Mary. They also lied about the salvation of people - The entire Spanish Inquisition. They thought that if you tortured people, you would save them. Listen to the Truth! Read the Christian Bible and know that there is only God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost.

Answer 7

Fundamentalists are sometimes horrified when the Virgin Mary is referred to as the Mother of God. However, their reaction often rests upon a misapprehension of not only what this particular title of Mary signifies but also who Jesus was, and what their own theological forebears, the Protestant Reformers, had to say regarding this doctrine.

Since Mary is Jesus’ mother, it must be concluded that she is also the Mother of God: If Mary is the mother of Jesus, and if Jesus is God, then Mary is the Mother of God. There is no way out of this logical syllogism, the valid form of which has been recognized by classical logicians since before the time of Christ.

Although Mary is the Mother of God, she is not his mother in the sense that she is older than God or the source of her Son’s divinity, for she is neither. Rather, we say that she is the Mother of God in the sense that she carried in her womb a divine person—Jesus Christ, God "in the flesh" (2 John 7, cf. John 1:14)—and in the sense that she contributed the genetic matter to the human form God took in Jesus Christ.

To avoid this conclusion, Fundamentalists often assert that Mary did not carry God in her womb, but only carried Christ’s human nature. This assertion reinvents a heresy from the fifth century known as Nestorianism, which runs aground on the fact that a mother does not merely carry the human nature of her child in her womb. Rather, she carries the person of her child. Women do not give birth to human natures; they give birth to persons. Mary thus carried and gave birth to the person of Jesus Christ, and the person she gave birth to was God.

The Nestorian claim that Mary did not give birth to the unified person of Jesus Christ attempts to separate Christ’s human nature from his divine nature, creating two separate and distinct persons—one divine and one human—united in a loose affiliation. It is therefore a Christological heresy, which even the Protestant Reformers recognized. Both Martin Luther and John Calvin insisted on Mary’s divine maternity. In fact, it even appears that Nestorius himself may not have believed the heresy named after him. Further, the "Nestorian" church has now signed a joint declaration on Christology with the Catholic Church and recognizes Mary’s divine maternity, just as other Christians do.

Since denying that Mary is God’s mother implies doubt about Jesus’ divinity, it is clear why Christians (until recent times) have been unanimous in proclaiming Mary as Mother of God.

Answer 8

Mary is just a human being.She was sinful and needed a saviour.The catholics THINK she stayed a virgin.Her and Joseph had other children after Christ was born.Many catholics call her the co-redeemer.

http://www.whateverycatholicshouldknow.com

Answer 9

I don't know, but from what I have experienced on here, Catholics will defend Mary a lot faster than they will ever defend Christ.

Did you know they call her Queen of Heaven? Did you know there is another Queen of heaven in the Bible? Old Testament. Look it up and read it for yourself.

Some catholics are even trying to name her co-redemptress! They pray to her, as if she could hear their prayers. They think she is sinless and still a virgin. Another sign of their pagan, man-made false religion.

Answer 10

It's because Catholicism came from a combination of Christianity and a pagan Babylonian religion. In the Babylonian religion they worshipped a mother and child.