True devotion to Mary is not adoration

"Is it really necessary to ‘go through Mary’ to reach the Lord? I’m asking this because the way people are praying to Mary around me looks like a kind of idolatry." This question was asked by a caller on the "Why Padre?" program on KTO TV, a French Catholic channel.

Here is the answer Father Grosjean, who presents the program, gave:

"It is true that the Church has sometimes been criticized for the place given in private devotions and in the Christian faith to the Virgin Mary. So what’s Mary’s proper place?

First you have to learn from God Himself. It isn’t the Church who gives that place to Mary, but the Church recognizes the place that God himself gave to the Virgin Mary in the history of Salvation, in His plan. It was God who decided that Jesus would come to us through Mary’s yes; it is also Christ Himself on the Cross who entrusted the Virgin to Saint John, by telling him: "Son, here is your Mother," and who entrusted us to Mary: "Mother, here is your Son."

So we are simply trying to receive the Virgin Mary in the place that Jesus wants her to have in our lives. Let us be clear: there is only one Lord and one God, and there is only one Savior, who is Christ. The Virgin Mary never wished to take His place! It is very clear in the Gospel. At Cana for example, the Virgin Mary, with great delicacy, intercedes with her Son because she saw a difficult situation, and then she trusts him, leaves him alone to act. She simply encourages us to do what he tells us.

This gives us a beautiful image of Mary's role in bringing us to Jesus. Really, when we pray to Mary, we ask her to present our prayers to Jesus; we go through her because she knows her Son (who else knows her Son as well as Mary?) and because she is able to bring us to her Son.

Mary keeps nothing for herself. She helps us to become disciples of Christ, which is what she wants most. True devotion to Mary is not adoration—we pray to the Virgin to ask for her intercession—but true devotion to Mary leads us to a greater faith in her Son. Mary does not compete with Jesus: she is the Servant of the Lord and she helps us to serve Him too."

Father Pierre Hervé Grosjean

Roman Catholic priest