The Virgin Mary
By Apolinario Villalobos
When I asked a Catholic friend about the so many titles bestowed upon the Virgin Mary, she told me that they are based on the location of her appearance, such as Guadalupe in Mexico, hence, “Our Lady of Guadalupe”. I believed her, then. However, when I heard the “Tower of David” (Tore in David) in the litanies being read by a group of religious women who offer prayers at the wake of a dead person asking intercession for mercy, I began to question the seriousness in the practice of “naming” the Virgin Mary. Wow!…even the tower of David can intercede?…for me it is sheer stupidity!
On her title, “Our Lady of Fatima”….who is the Catholic Church referring to as the “lady”? Fatima is mentioned in the Koran as the Virgin Mary… it is a Moslem name, not Christian, so indeed, who is the lady?…is she another woman who acts as a maid of Fatima or Virgin Mary, as in “lady-in-waiting” of queens in their royal court?
On the title, “Our Lady of Medjugorie”, if the basis is the “place” of manifestation or appearance, the signs such as the “dancing sun” and the “appearance” of the image of a woman to the children took place in the sky and not on the ground. The children had to stare at the sky to supposedly “see” her. Why not then call the woman who appeared to the children and manifested her appearance with the “dancing sun”, as “Our Lady of the Sky” or “Our Lady of the Dancing Sun” to give it a universal touch and not a selfish ownership limited to where the children live?
Every time I go home to my hometown, I would pass by a small barangay that claims a certain “Nuestra Seἧora de la Regla” as its patroness as shown by a signboard with such title above the door of their small chapel. What I know of “regla” is the “monthly visit” of fertile women, or scientifically referred to as menstruation. Is the title then, got to do with the appeal of fertile women to the Virgin Mary’s intercession for them to have a comfortable monthly discharge of menstrual blood?. Why go to that extent when such occurrence is normal, if indeed, it is true? Is that not asking too much?
There are claims of people about “appearances” of the Virgin Mary on doors, leaves, petals, floor tiles, etc. How sure are these people that it is the “Virgin Mary”? Do they have her photo? It should be noted that the images of saints, Virgin Mary and even Jesus, that the Catholics adore are “interpretations” of painters based on what they “imagined” per instruction given them. They even use models, as in the case of San Pedro Calungsod whose face is based on that of a popular Filipino basketball player. The images even differ according to the various cultures of Catholics all over the world. For Chinese Catholics, their Virgin Mary sometimes looks very Chinese. For Filipinos, some of the images look very Filipina, even brown in color. The Mediterranean Catholics have their own flat version of the face. And, the Japanese Catholics have their own “Japanese Madonna”. I consider this as a deception to the highest degree.
In the case of San Pedro Calungsod, I have no qualms in the use of a model, but they should have used a living relative of the saint. There are plenty of them in Cebu….why use a popular PBA basketball player?….dahil pogi?….now, that is a big shitty question to the seriousness on the part of the Catholic church in propagating Catholicisim. The guy or priest or whoever should be made responsible for this stupidity. If he is a priest, he should be booted out of the Catholic church, for what he has done has brought enormous shame to the said Christian congregation.
If something is wrong somewhere, the concerned authority should rectify it for the sake of their followers, so that the latter will not come out as victims of a foolery or deception. The bad eggs in the Catholic Church including those who gained age but still maintain their stubbornness in supporting evil instead of what is good should be defrocked!
penpowersong 