Mary, Mariamman, Maryam

[Guest guest]

LOURDES, FRANCE (August 20, 2004): In an unexpected twist of

globalisation, Hindus, Buddhists, Muslims and other pilgrims

regularly worship at famous Roman Catholic shrines to the Virgin

Mary such as Lourdes in France and Fatima in Portugal.

 

They drink the holy water, light votive candles and pray fervently

to the Madonna for help with life's hardships. Many venerate her

like one of their own goddesses, a view that would be a heresy if a

Catholic theologian tried to defend it.

 

Rather than turned away, the newcomers are free to join the crowds

from Ireland, Italy, Spain, and other traditionally Catholic

countries who flock to Europe's most popular shrines.

 

In Fatima, the warm welcome they have received has caused an uproar

among traditionalist Catholics.

 

No one can say how many non-Catholics worship at shrines where the

Virgin is said to have appeared, but they have become a familiar

minority there over the past five to 10 years.

 

"There are lots of them," Bishop Jacques Perrier of Lourdes told

Reuters during Pope John Paul's visit to the southwestern

French "miracle shrine" on August 14-15.

 

"Their numbers may be small as a percentage of the 6 million

pilgrims here each year, but they're big in absolute terms."

 

The sight of some south Asian women in splendid saris mingling with

the European pilgrims is the first hint that reverence for Mary has

crossed religious borders.

 

Standing near the grotto where she was said to have appeared in

1858, two women wearing the Hindu red dot or "bindi" on their

foreheads said they prayed daily to the Madonna.

 

"I come here for peace of mind and heart," said Buvaneswary Palani,

a Hindu from southeastern India who now lives in southern France.

 

"Gods are the same everywhere," explained her mother Darmavady. "She

is like our mother goddess Mariamman."

 

MARY, MARIAMMAN, MARYAM

 

Catholics revere Mary and believe she can intervene with Jesus to

help them, but they do not consider her divine.

 

Hindu or Buddhist pilgrims could be forgiven for thinking she is,

though, when they see the faithful kneeling in silent prayer before

her statue or admire the huge mosaic of her that looms over the

altar at the Lourdes basilica.

 

The Virgin also resembles goddesses they venerated back home before

moving to Europe.

 

Tamils in southeastern India and northern Sri Lanka worship a

goddess Mariamman who protects villages and wards off disease.

 

Among the Buddhists of China, Vietnam and other Asian states,

the "compassionate Saviouress" Kwan Yin offers the maternal love

that Catholics find in Mary.

 

Although Islam teaches there is no god but Allah, folk traditions in

some Muslim societies have smuggled in a devotion for saints much

like that seen in other religions.

 

The Koran contains a whole chapter on Mary, far more than the

Gospels have on her. In it, Maryam (her Arabic name) is a virgin and

Jesus a great prophet but neither is divine.

 

With its mass pilgrimages, devotion to a mother figure and belief in

water with miracle healing powers, Lourdes combines elements

familiar to followers of several other faiths.

 

"In a globalised age, it's normal that Lourdes attracts them," said

Patrick Theillier, a physician who heads the Medical Bureau which

examines every claim of miracle healing at Lourdes. The bureau has

certified only 66 healings as genuine miracles.

 

FATIMA UNDER FIRE

 

Perrier saw no theological problem with pilgrims of other faiths

worshipping at a shrine central to Roman Catholicism.

 

"There are no religious services at the grotto," the bishop

explained. "They have great respect for Mary. They come to drink the

water and touch the rocks. But they don't attend mass here. That

would have no meaning for them."

 

But the line between hospitality to outsiders and blurring of

religious borders is close, as Portugal's Fatima shrine to the

Virgin has learned.

 

Traditionalist Catholics are up in arms against the shrine's

directors for allegedly being so open to Hindu pilgrims that they

let them perform religious rites there.

 

"They have sinned against God and given scandal to the faithful,"

thundered the U.S. monthly Catholic Family News. "They allowed Mary

to be worshipped as God by pagan apostates."

 

Fatima's director, Father Luciano Guerro, issued a statement in late

June denying that a Hindu pilgrim group led by its own priest had

somehow defiled the shrine during a visit in May.

 

"The priest sang a prayer which lasted a few minutes," he said. "No

gesture was made, no rite was performed, on or off the altar."

Guerro also denied charges that a new church now being built there

would be open to rites from all faiths.

 

VATICAN CONCERN

 

The blurring of religious borders that globalisation has brought to

Marian shrines has also touched the higher levels of Catholic

theology, causing deep concern at the Vatican.

 

Father Jacques Dupuis, an 80-year-old Belgian Jesuit who spent 20

years in India, has broken new ground in recent years by arguing

that God works through many faiths to save all believers.

 

This contradicts the Catholic position that faith in Jesus Christ is

the only way to salvation and even other Christian churches are

imperfect paths to that goal.

 

Challenging that view earned the respected theologian a secretive

three-year investigation by the Vatican's stern doctrinal chief,

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger.

 

The issue calmed in 2001 when Dupuis, under heavy Vatican pressure,

issued a statement saying his writings had contained some doctrinal

ambiguities. But he has not changed his view.

 

"The Holy Spirit is present in the Hindu and Buddhist traditions,"

he said in a lecture in February. "The diverse paths are conducive

to salvation because they have been placed by God Himself."

 

SOURCE: Express India, "Twist of globalisation: All faiths come

together," Reuters, Posted online: Friday, August 20, 2004 at 1407

hours IST

URL: http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=35246#compstory