Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 122.  Thu  8-15-91  6:51
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Dan Pacheco
 Subject: Perpetual Virginity of Mary

³        Concerning Mary's virginity, I have heard many things.  All Christians
³ accept that she was a virgin up until the birth of Jesus and was made
³ pregnant through the intervention of the holy spirit.  But what about
³ after Jesus?  I have heard Catholics say that she was a virgin all her
³ life, but there are certain references in the Bible that would suggest
³ that she had others after Jesus, such as "James, the brother of Jesus" and
³ "Mary, the mother of James and Joses" (Matt. 27: 56).  Is this referring
³ to another Mary, perhaps Magdalene or another?  A conversation I had with
³ some Baptists suggested that they believed Mary not to have been a virgin
³ after Jesus.  What is the official Catholic teaching, and how does it fit
³ in with such Bible passages as quoted above?
 
Dear Dan:
 
I wish all Christians DID believe that Mary was a virgin before and
during the birth of Jesus.  Unfortunately, every many Protestants
have lost this belief and many others, for example, the divinity of
Christ.  There has been a steady hemorrhage of faith among many
Christians since the wound of the "Reformation," especially among
"liberal" Protestants.
 
With regard to Mary's virginity, it is of Catholic faith, declared by
the 5th Ecumenical Council (A.D. 553) that she was virgin all her
life and had no other children.
 
In the files of this network we have two articles on this subject,
which you can download:  1) Karl Keating's BRETHREN OF THE LORD
(ANSWER15.ASC in CATHOLIC ANSWERS directory), and 2) Father Mateo's
OUR LADY'S LIFELONG VIRGINITY:  SOME OBSERVATIONS (MATEO.ZIP in USERS
directory).
 
The words translated "brother" and "sister" are, in Greek, members of
the ADELPH- family of cognates.  These words are used in the Koine
Dialect (the Greek of the Septuagint and the New Testament) to mean:
brother/sister, relative/kinfolk, related/associated/cognate, and
several other similar notions.  The language used in Matt. 12:46-50,
13:55-56; Mark 3:31-32, 6:3; Luke 8:19-20; John 2:12, 7:3-5; Acts
1:14; 1st Cor. 9:5, and Gal. 1:19 does not prove the existence of
Jesus' siblings.  The ADELPH- words cannot support the strain of such
a violent departure from the faith of the Church.
 
Actually, there were a few early Christian writers who did deny the
perpetual virginity of Mary.  They were invariably met with indignant
protests and finally with the conciliar declaration of A.D. 553.
There is also a consistent liturgical witness to the doctrine, shared
by both Catholics and Orthodox.  Protestants usually ignore Orthodox
witness in Marian theology, but in fact East and West are joined in
one confession of Mary's perpetual Virginity, a truth quietly shared
in peace until the emergence of Protestantism.
 
Frankly, I cannot see what the problem is!  Many, who deny Mary's
perpetual virginity, nevertheless affirm her virginity before and
during Jesus' birth.  Yet the Virgin Birth of Jesus required an
astounding miracle, and Mary's lifelong virginity afterwards required
none.  To object to the latter doctrine while admitting the former
seems to strain out a gnat while swallowing a camel.
 
                                     Sincerely in Christ,
                                     Father Mateo