FRIDAY POTPOURRI: DID IT REALLY SAY THAT?

Granted, this was earlier on in the whole Vatican II frenzy and has (at least in my experience) largely passed, but for a while there was a strong push to rid the Catholic Church of too much Mary.  Statues were taken down or moved aside, devotions were cancelled, and songs not sung because Vatican II said we should stop focusing on her and solely focus on Jesus.

 

That’s what was said about Vatican II (along with a host of other things) not what Vatican II actually said.  (Thank goodness we seem to be recovering well from this misconception.)  In one of the Church’s constitutions, Lumen Gentium, (para. 67) it, in fact, says the Council, “admonishes all the sons of the Church that the cult, especially that the liturgical cult, of the Blessed Virgin, be generously fostered . . .”

 

Now what it did advise against is an extreme in either direction.  On the one end, we do not attribute to Mary that which is not attributable to her or does not point toward her Son (makes sense) especially when such false doctrine would cause scandal to our “separated brethren,” but neither should our attention of her grow sterile lest we miss out on her excellence as Mother of God and in her example of virtues.