Do Catholics Worship Mary?

Here's my latest newspaper article. Been some time in coming...
Catholics worship God only, as the Church and the Scriptures have always taught is the first and greatest Commandment. If “Mary Worship" existed in the Catholic Church, it would constitute idolatry.

Catholics are just as aware as non-Catholics that Mary is a human creature and therefore not entitled to the worship reserved solely for God. Not only does God forbid such worship, but the Church also forbids it.

“What the Catholic faith believes about Mary is based on what it believes about Christ, and what it teaches about Mary illumines in turn its faith in Christ” (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 487). Everything the Church teaches about Mary, and everything and everyone else, is founded completely in Christ, teaches more about Christ, and makes us love and obey Christ more. To honor Mary, then, is to honor Christ.

Historically the Christian Church has always significantly honored Mary, because God Himself exalted her as the Mother of Redemption, and in so doing He elevated her more than any human person under Christ has ever been elevated before or since. Catholics, along with three quarters of Christians today, simply honor Mary as God honored her, and as Jesus honored His Mother.

The Scriptures themselves exalt Mary, even prophesying her future honor in the Church: “from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed. For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name” (Luke 1:48-49). She appears in the eternal, heavenly temple as the Queen of Heaven (Rev. 12).

Historical writings also illustrate the honor that the Church has always paid her Mother, Mary. In 434 St. Vincent of Lerins defended Marian honor saying, “since the flesh of the Word was born of an undefiled mother, God the Word Himself is most Catholicly [universally] believed, most impiously denied, to have been born of the Virgin; which being the case, God forbid that any one should seek to defraud Holy Mary of her prerogative of divine grace and her special glory” (The Commonitory).

Furthermore, if the angel Gabriel, a messenger directly from God, called her "full of grace," who are we to do any less (Luke 1:28)? As is God’s way, the one most humble is “full of grace,” or the most holy.

In the ancient world there were several different meanings for love which appear and are used in the Scriptures: agape, love of God, phileo, love of neighbor or brotherly love, and eros, spousal or erotic love.

Because the ancient Christian Church did not use English as its founding language, worship had several meanings then as well: latria was, and still is, the worship of God alone. After God, there is hyperdulia, with which the Church honors Mary, the Mother of God. Then there is dulia, with which the Church honors all others.

One can honor others without worshiping them. Americans honor soldiers who died in defense of our freedoms. We honor those who have been instrumental in a great way in the development of our lives or country. Other than the Savior Himself, who played a more vital role in the history of salvation than the one person who brought the Savior into the world?

Ultimately though, Mary herself teaches the Catholic position concerning her, exactly, through the Scriptures: “Whatever He says to you, do it” (Jn. 2:5).