Criticism of veneration of Our Lady

Dear Editor, The Redemptorists in Ireland are celebrating the 150th anniversary of when the icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help was given into their care for veneration. The icon has been taken to various parishes around the country, and questions have been raised about the ‘Marymobile’ carrying the icon being “paraded” on a tour of the cathedrals of Ireland. The revelation that people would offer jewellery to be inserted in Our Lady’s crown was also received with incredulity in the media.

It is important to place Mary, the mother of Jesus, in her proper context. The December 2015 issue of National Geographic has depicted an image of Mary by Sandro Botticelli on its cover with the title “Mary, the most powerful woman in the world”. 

Mary is powerful because her son is Jesus Christ. We are all familiar with the wedding feast at Cana when Jesus listened to the request of his mother. 

In the course of her National Geographic article, award-winning journalist Maureen Orth visited the two most famous shrines in the world where Mary is honoured – Lourdes in France and Guadalupe in Mexico. The prophecy of Mary in the Magnificat is fulfilled when she said to her cousin Elizabeth that all generations would call her blessed.

Yours etc.,

Gerry Glennon,

Dun Laoghaire,

Dublin.