Expert: Marco - 12/8/2007

Question
I'm a Catholic. Why is Mother Mary given so much of importance? she was a chosen person just like Moses and Abraham. Why do people pray to Mother Mary and other saints when the Bible clearly states that we are supposed to pray only throught Jesus? What is the difference between the Bible which Roman Catholics use and the one which Protestants use? Can you give me come idea about Gospel of Judas?

Answer
Dear Jefferson,

personally I think that the great importance of Mother Mary is due to the fact that She had a very special relationship with the Lord.
In fact the Lord became "flesh", which means that He was born and grew up as a human babe. Every baby has a very special relationship with his/her mother, and this is true also for Jesus and Mother Mary.
O the other side, also every mother has a very special love for her children. I think that no ceature loves Jesus as much as Mother Mary loves Him.

We can direct our prayers to Mother Mary or to the Saints in order to ask their intercession; this request of intercession consists essentially in the request that they pray the Lord for us.
This is exactly what we do with our brothers on earth when we ask them to pray for us.
Mother Mary and the saints are in heaven and they can hear our requests.
They will then pray the Lord for us and with us; this is the meaning of the word "intercession".
Also the prayer "Hail Mary" consists in a request of intercession, because it concludes with "pray for us sinners etc."
You must understand that we do not have to ask the intercession of saints.
We must pray God, the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ.
However, we can also ask the intercession of the saints, but this must never replace our prayers directed to God, the Father  and to our Lord Jesus Christ.
The prayers directed to the saints are a free choice for catholics, and NOT a comandment, while the prayers directed to God the Father and to our Lord Jesus Christ are a comandment.

I do not think there should be strong differences between the catholic and the protestant Bibles; of course, some differences always exist when a text is translated by different persons, but I do not think these differences shpould be relevant.
I do not know the gospel of Judas. Severa false gospels have been written during history, and the one of Judas is just one of these.

I hope this may help

your brother in Christ,

Marco

PS I think that faith cannot come only from logic, because to have faith in God means to trust and love God.
I think however that logics and science prove the existence of our soul and the existence of  God and that there are many rational arguments strongly supporting the christian faith.
The explanation of these aguments is rather long and Allexperts allows only to give short answers. You can find such arguments  in the following site

http://xoomer.alice.it/fedeescienza/englishnf.html

where  I analyse the incongruencies of the materialistic conception of the mind, on the basis of our present scientific knowledges about brain and matter.
This analysis points out how the laws of physics  prove that the   brain cannot generate consciousness, which existence implies  the presence in man of a unbiological/unmaterial element. The problem of consciousness is then strictly connected to the one of the existence of the soul and, consequently, the existence of God.
In the first article entitled “Mind and brain...” you can find a general discussion of the mind and brain problem from a scientific point of view.
In the second article entitled “Scientific contraddictions in materialism”
you  can find an explanation of the fundamental inconsistencies of  the  typical arguments used by materialists, such as the concept of emergent, macroscopic or holist property, complexity, information, etc.
In the section called “FAQ: answers to  visitors' questions” you can find the answer to many typical questions, such as "Are there any scientifically proved miracles?", "Does the existence of the universe imply the existence of God?", "Can science explain God?", "Can science establish which is the true religion?", "Can science explain consciousness in the future?", and many others.