> In Mexico, worship of the Virgin was almost an
> >independent thing from regular Church, but I wasn't old enough and
> >didn't stay long enough to really get what was going on. It was as if
> >women, especially old women had a god of their own. It is hard to
> >remember without too much later overlay.
>
> I'm not sure that what is being worshipped is the "virgin" part of the
> woman; I think Mariolatry had more to do with worship of the "merciful
> mother."
While there are contradictions, and interesting tensions between those elements of the role -- the entire point of the Blessed Virgin Mother is that she is both. As Mother alone she wouldn't manage precisely the kind of immediacy she is supposed to, and her 'motherhood' is very strictly delimited by her virginity, in part to maintain some distance between her and the faithful. It's complicated and anything I write here is going to do too much and too little. I hate the giving references kind of reply on an email list, but I have quite a lot including stuff I've written myself.
> I myself never saw the point of virginity in any form; it always seemed to
> me that virtue (virtu) in action was much more
> difficult/challenging/interesting than the virtue of abstention. Perhaps
> some catholic on this list....could set me right :)
But virginity in this sense is meant to be active, the kind of activity which is approved, but of course only so long as it doesn't go too far. I love some of the treatises on not taking virginity so seriously as to devalue marriage, or dissociate from men, and so on. It's so amusing to find those moments of backpedalling.
But it's one of those things, there's not a 'right' I or anyone else could assert. Despite the church's desire to have canonical statements it's a complex and contradictory field even within canon -- for example recent debates over whether or not the Virgin's virginity should be declared symbolic rather than physical have not gone away despite the current pope putting his foot down. And even more varied in practice, even in liturgical practice.
Catherine
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