Although any Roman Catholic will recognise a parallel with her (unlike a Protestant), he will most probably not use the term ‘the Mother of God’ or ‘the All-Holy’, but a term like ‘the Virgin’, the Holy Virgin’ or ‘Madonna’, ‘My Lady’. Their emphasis is on her virginity, not on her motherhood, and that is very significant.
And Patirck Sheridan reminded me of Fr. Andrew's excellent post today:
All this stuff is related. The so-called "Gregorian reforms," attributed falsely by their zealous proponents to St Gregory the Great and Preacher of Dialogues (who would no doubt have been horrified by them), were a fundamentally secular revolution, not unlike the rather secular reforms of the Second Vatican Council. Carried all over Europe by the Romanising monks of Cluny, the proto-Ultramontane party of the early feudal world, these reforms destroyed Orthodoxy in Western Europe and established Popery in its place. Feudalism, enforced celibacy, the sharp disparity between Church and State (epitomised in the Road to Canossa and the murder of Thomas Becket), legends and images of St Mary that obliterate the divine motherhood, the maintenance of Latin, the decline of liturgy as corporate worship and its confinement to portable breviaries, competing religious orders, &c.
Occasionally, I think what I should do if I somehow gain power. It does seem it would be good for America to insist on a change-over to ordaining married men. This has nothing to do with doctrine- the insistence on celibacy is just an abuse of Papal authority- or, if you are still imagining it to be so, merely use of Papal authority. Additionally, if we were to extend our insistence to all religions (we wouldn't want to be accused of singling anyone out) we could provide very good effects among the Protestant churches too. An insistence on married men would be a de-facto ban on womenpriests/ministers/witches/whatever.
I am normally quite libertarian in my outlook, but I have come to notice that true liberty necessitates constraints, especially on certain classes. Let celibates go to the monasteries. American Catholics like to pretend the corrosive effects on family formation are coming solely from outside their realm, but this is nonsense, as the priests who find themselves closing parishes that once had thriving schools attached to them must know. No children come from virgins, nor do relationships developed outside of the church often find their way back in.
Most people don't understand doctrine. They are tribal. A change in a non-doctrinal practice often has a far more profound effect on the people- as progressive well know, since they've been constantly tinkering with everything in order to screw us up. In this particular case, assuming high compliance, I suspect we could see very good effects by the second generation.
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