Obama and the BVM
Who knew? I pass along a PoliticsDaily item I wrote about this news, which I had missed until Catholic World News reported it:
…[D]uring her vacation in Spain in August, First Lady Michelle Obama revealed that her husband — a.k.a. President Obama — “always carries a picture of Mary Help of Christians in his wallet.”
Mary Help of Christians is the patroness of the Salesian order of priests and nuns, and during an Aug. 13 visit to the Spanish city of Ronda with her daughter, Sasha, the first lady stopped at the Salesian community there.
According to the Salesian news service, she told the priest in charge that her husband “always carries with him a photograph with an image of Mary Help of Christians, to whom, those present reported, the first family of the United States has great devotion.”
Of course, as I note, Mary Help of Christians was famously invoked during the Battle of Lepanto and the Seige of Vienna, both battles of Christendom against Ottoman Turks — the Muslims. So what that says about Obama’s Muslim bona fides, I don’t know.
But this Marian devotion could be further proof of my colleague Jeff Weiss’s contention that Obama is a crypto-Catholic rather than a Morisco.
The feast of Our Lady of Victories is October 7. (Novena in preparation begins today.)
“Ali Pasha is supposed to have told his Christian galley-slaves: ‘If I win the battle, I promise you your liberty. If the day is yours, then God has given it to you.’ Don Juan, more laconically, warned his crew: ‘There is no paradise for cowards.’”
– http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Lepanto
G. K. Chesterton’s “Lepanto”:
– http://www.bartleby.com/103/91.html
What a cool story! President Bush used to have an icon of the Virgin in his office, too, I think – a gift from his brother, a Catholic convert. We’d never hear about this kind of thing with presidents even a relatively short while ago.
General Andrew Jackson acknowledged the help of Our Lady of Prompt Succor in his victory over the British at New Orleans.
“In years after the Battle, President Jackson’s trips to New Orleans always included visits to the Ursuline Convent. Every year, since 1815, a solemn promise has been kept to honor Our Lady in a Mass of Thanksgiving on January 8 celebrated by the Archbishop of New Orleans in the National Shrine.”
http://ursulineneworleans.org/olps-shrine/history/
There is a Madonna in George Washington’s “small dining room” at Mount Vernon, and he contributed to the building of St. Mary’s Church in Alexandria, presumably in honor of his friend Colonel John Fitzgerald.
All of these anecdotes illustrate that a lively devotion to the Blessed Mother does not confine itself within denominational boundaries.
Which shouldn’t be surprising: those boundaries are formal organizational markers; and Marian devotion is much more of a grass-roots thing.
Jim,
While I agree there are a lot of non-Catholics with a devotion to the Blessed Mother I know some. But I think your second statement doesn’t follow.
What do you mean? Is it your point that Marian devotion is a thing of the people and not the “formal organizational” Catholic Church?
In my experience dealing with many Protestants, and in talking to my convert friends, Mary is not just a stumbling block, she is THE stumbling block for them when it comes to Catholic doctrine and practice.
But devotion to Mary is entirely compatible with being a devout Muslim, maybe not under the title of Help of Christians but still ….
Pilgrims to Mary’s house in Ephesus when I was there seemed equally split between Christians and Muslims.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_views_on_Mary
Thus we have one more example of Obama’s transcendant appeal!! Or for the conspiracy-minded I offer this speculation –Medieval Christians saw Islam as a Christian heresy founded by Mohammed when he did not win a Cardinal’s hat. So perhaps Muslims are themselves crypto-Catholics and therefore Obama is a crypto-crypto Catholic.
Fr. Martin picked this up at the America blog (HT to David) and Tim Reidy over there noted the Pres spoke about his Christian faith today at the house gathering here in the Land of Enchantment – worth a read!
“What do you mean? Is it your point that Marian devotion is a thing of the people and not the “formal organizational”
Catholic Church?”
Well … the formal-organization Catholic Church certainly does acknowledge and even highlight Mary, in everything from documents to the liturgical calendar to church names. And I don’t doubt the genuineness of love for Mary on the part of various and sundry modern-day popes, cardinals, bishops and other public figures.
But …
My sense is that love for Mary, and concern to maintain devotion to her in the public life of the church, runs more fervently through the people than the chanceries and parish offices. If people are praying the rosary regularly at a parish, it’s quite likely it’s because some parishioners got together and organized it; and it may not be viewed as an unmixed blessing by the People In Charge. Same with May crownings.
Devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe may be a little different; that’s viewed more favorably by professional ministers, as it brings with it the cachet of ministering to a disadvantaged minority.
So yes, I do think that Marian devotion is thriving in spite of, as much as because of, support from the formal church organization.
Sean, what sort of Protestants are you talking to who have such a big problem with Mary? I’ve been in Methodist and Lutheran churches that have images of her, one Methodist church even had Our Lady of Guadalupe proudly displayed. The Lutheran Church honors Mary in their liturgical calendar and of course one would be hard-pressed to find an Episcopal church without a Lady Chapel.
Patrick, in three interfaith pilgrimages to the Holy Land, the Muslim pilgrims always considered Nazareth a highlight, especially the Grotto of the Annunciation below the basilica. Some of the Muslims cried with joy at being able to be in that place. One Muslim friend told me that as a child, his mother would offer a reward for behaving; if he was good, she would tell him a story about Mary.
I’d imagine it’s not Mary herself who is necessarily problematic for at some Protestants – after all, she’s certainly Biblical – but rather some of the specific dogmatic claims that Catholics make about her, i.e. ever-Virgin, Immaculate Conception, Assumption.
I’ve met Protestants who buy in to reports of apparations – not talking about Lourdes and Fatima, but Connecticut and Ohio.
It is true, many Evangelical Protestants have major problems with Catholic devotions to the Theotokos. I know many who say “she is a demon.” However, it is also true that this is not universal, and many do have some sort of respect for her.
As for President Obama having an image of the Theotokos, the big thing is not that he has a devotion of some sort to Mary, but that he has an image. Remember the traditional rejection of images in most of Islamic thought (some sufi traditions allow them). President Obama probably picked this up when he was educated in… a Catholic school.
Consider visiting http://www.sistermarie.com to learn about the cause for the beatification of Sister Marie deMandat-Grancey, DC, Foundress of Mary’s House in Ephesus where Muslims and Christians pray side by side in peace as they love and honor the Blessed Virgin Mary. It’s a common ground and hope for peace in these troubled times and all thanks to Sister Marie. God gives us particular saints for particular times.
I see I’m a subscriber. I am now swollen with feelings of moral superiority, yet deign to mention to the rest of you that an online subscription is quite affordable, simple to order, and makes for convenient reading of the magazine.
And I thought I was the only non-subscriber!
Will subscribers get other perks, for example, the right to edit their comments after posting, or the right to delete other people’s comments?
Even though I too enjoy the rarified status of “subscriber,” I’m glad to see the royal title has been removed from posters’ names. Better to appear egalitarian even when one is only feigning it. ;)
My family have been Protestants since Jan Hus, not very likely we’ll be coming back any time soon. I myself am a Calvinist of the deepest dye.
That said, when attending Roman Catholic services (typically but not always of the pro-life memorial variety) it is not difficult in the least to show some respect and reverence when Marian devotion is the order of the day.
Mr. Pauweis is onto something. When Pope John Paul II was shot and lying in St. Peter’s Square, he searched in vain for a representation of the Blessed Mother. Lots of statues of undidentified saints, but the Blessed Mother was not there. As he recovered, he had the “Mater Ecclesiae’ (Mother of the Church) painting installed in a window, where it is now quite visible to all. Go to http://saintpetersbasilica.org/Exterior/SP-Square-Area.htm and click on No. 19 on the map to see it.
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