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I can prove the Catholic Church worships Mary from its own writings; here's a quote from an official Catholic prayerbook:
"Holiest Virgin, with all my heart I WORSHIP THEE above all the angels and saints in paradise... I consecrate my soul and all its powers...I WORSHIP THEE the spouse of the Holy Ghost..." (quote from Devotions to Our Blessed Lady, All for Jesus: Approved Devotions and Prayers for Church and Home, p 283. Imprimatur: John Cardinal McCloskey, Archbishop of NY, Mar 13, 1884)
Interesting that you cite such an old book, obscure enough that hardly anyone could find a copy today to confirm the quotation or read it in context (it might be accompanied by an explanatory footnote). But even assuming that the quote is genuine, it still does not prove that Catholics offer Mary the divine worship of latreia. As the Catholic Answers tract "Saint Worship?" explains:
The word "worship" has undergone a change in meaning in English. It comes from the Old English weorthscipe, which means the condition of being worthy of honor, respect, or dignity. To worship in the older, larger sense is to ascribe honor, worth, or excellence to someone, whether a sage, a magistrate, or God.
For many centuries, the term worship simply meant showing respect or honor, and an example of this usage survives in contemporary English. British subjects refer to their magistrates as "Your Worship," although Americans would say "Your Honor." This doesn’t mean that British subjects worship their magistrates as gods (in fact, they may even despise a particular magistrate they are addressing). It means they are giving them the honor appropriate to their office, not the honor appropriate to God.1
Also, in the Solemnization of Matrimony ceremony of the Book of Common Prayer, when the groom placed the ring on the bride's finger, he said to her: "With this ring I thee wed, with my body I thee WORSHIP, and with all my worldly goods I thee endow" (emphasis mine). Did he consider his wife a goddess? Was he committing idolatry? No, for he was using the word "worship" in its original sense of "honor". The same goes for that above quote from a Catholic prayerbook.
Note that the prayer says "I worship (ie. honor) thee above all the angels and saints in paradise", not "I worship thee above God" or equal to God, or as my God. As we discussed above, Mary should receive a higher honor than any other mere creature, such as angels and saints, but never equal to or greater than the supreme honor given to the Creator of all.
Finally, I can't help but point out that the Catholic book containing this prayer is entitled All for Jesus! Anti-Catholics just can't seem to understand that all the honor given to Mary and the saints redounds to the greater honor and praise of their Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ! So the above quote is hardly the "smoking gun" they think it is.
Raymond S. Kraft wrote:The history of the world is the history of civilizational clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.
mappatazee wrote:Catholics are Christians.
Strange church ya have that seems to want you to villify the mother of Jesus, Mindia.
Darcler wrote:SHE GAVE BIRF OUTTA WEDLOCK.
The virgin excuse is so played out
Really Mindia, noone cares. Do you want a cookie or something?
Zanchief wrote:Harrison wrote:I'm not dead
Fucker never listens to me. That's it, I'm an atheist.
Taxx wrote:Mary was a whore who was hiding the fact by saying she was impregnated by nothing.
Mary should have kept her fucking legs shut then maybe we wouldn't have to listen to all these religious whiners looking for guidance in their pathetic lives.
Insanityfair wrote:Taxx wrote:Mary was a whore who was hiding the fact by saying she was impregnated by nothing.
Mary should have kept her fucking legs shut then maybe we wouldn't have to listen to all these religious whiners looking for guidance in their pathetic lives.
say what again?
Taxx wrote:oh noes lack of sleep:
Mary was a whore who was hiding the fact by saying she was impregnated by trains of other men nightly.
Tikker wrote:Insanityfair wrote:Taxx wrote:Mary was a whore who was hiding the fact by saying she was impregnated by nothing.
Mary should have kept her fucking legs shut then maybe we wouldn't have to listen to all these religious whiners looking for guidance in their pathetic lives.
say what again?
Taxx is saying Mary the 'Ho got it on with Dave teh pool guy and didn't tell Joseph
Joseph came to the conclusion that since he had married the tart AND hadn't gotten a peice of tail yet, that no one else had (who the fuck gets married and doesn't get laid, wtf) God must have knocked up his woman
some wise guys also saw a star or some shiznat, and Michael Jackson style came to ply the baby with drugs
then Santa swooped down out of the sky and offered mary and the baby a coke
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