A correspondent writes: I just wanted to bring to your attention that the information you posted on your website about Mary the Mother of God is, in fact, wrong. Devotion to Mary stems from the Catholic Church not from a pagan religion. And this devotion which comes from the Church (in its original and true form) strictly empahsizes that Mary is NOT a goddess and that she is neither a reincarnation of any pagan goddess nor is She in opposition of patriarchy. In fact, historically, Mary is never recoreded to have been disobeident to the Faith of Her ancestors which included patriarchy. I, as well as my fellow Catholics, would greatly appreciate if you would kindly edit the information you have on this website concerning Mary. Thank you so very much!

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Thank you so much for your kind interest in our site. There seems to be a small misunderstanding here, so let us try to clarify the question. Devotion to Maryam of Nazareth, the human mother of Jesus of Nazareth was indeed originated by the Christian Church (the use of the term "Catholic" here is a little misleading since it originates long before the division of that church into Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant denominations). The devotion to Our Lady, the Queen of Heaven, Star of the Sea, and Her imagery long predates the birth of Maryam of Nazareth. The Worship of the Queen of Heaven was practised by the ancient Hebrews among many, many other peoples. In fact it seems to have been at one time the universal religion of humanity (and so, perhaps ironically, the only faith that could ever literally be called Catholic.) The image of Mary used in Western Christian iconography uses the symbolism of the Queen of Heaven, though we are of course aware (and have clearly acknowledged) that Christian doctrine does not accept the divinity of Mary. As for ourselves, we certainly do not and would not advocate the worship of the human person Maryam of Nazareth as God.