A Catholic Goddess by W. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jul 19, 1906

A Catholic Goddess

By W. A. S.

Just across the bay of Rio, as I sit on the ship's deck, I can see a shining statue on the hills of Nictheroy. It was plainly visible by day, a giant figure of a woman, with the moon under her feet, and a crown of twelve stars upon her head. Now, by night, the electric light is turned on, and the figure shines as though “clothed with the sun.”

The idea, of course, is the Catholic interpretation of the symbol of Rev. 12:1. With churches and shrines in honor of “Our Lady,” the virgin Mary, all abounding, doubtless this statue stands for her, in the minds of the people. She is as truly worshiped as a goddess in these Catholic lands as is the goddess Kali in Hindu India. The church has crowned every available eminence in these cities with churches and shrines, where Mary is apparently the most highly honored object of devotion.

It is amid actual idolatry of the most materialistic kind that our laborers in South America have to raise the voice of warning. Here the teaching of the Roman Church regarding the worship of Mary finds full expression. The blasphemous nature of that teaching is shown by this one quotation from St. Bernardine, of Siena:—

Therefore setting each individual thing one against another, namely, what things God hath done for man, and what things the Blessed Virgin has done for God, you will see that Mary has done more for God than God has for man; so that thus, on account of the Blessed Virgin (whom, nevertheless, he himself made), God is, in a certain manner, under greater obligations to us than we are to him.

To these poor people who are still groping in medieval darkness, worshiping the creature instead of the Creator, is now coming the cry of the threefold message, “Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.” Right here in Nictheroy our work has a foothold. W. A. S.

Rio de Janeiro.