No, I have not noticed the phenomenon you mention in my parish, nor in the many parishes I have attended in my life.
Mary’s importance to Catholics, indeed all Christians, is that her “fiat” in saying yes to Christ was the first example of perfect obedience TO Christ. It was the reversal of Eve’s first example of DISobedience.
Mary’s role is surely important–mother of the Savior, spouse of the Spirit, daughter of the Father–but WHY is it important?
SOLELY because of the ONE she bore.
Respect, honor, and love for Mary as the MOTHER of CHRIST can ONLY lead to respect, honor, and love for God. Jesus, like the rest of us, obeys the commandments, one of which I believe is, “Honor thy father and mother”. According to Catholic teaching, since Jesus is our brother, that makes Mary OUR mother, too. I certainly honor my mother Mary, who bore my brother and Savior; my mother, whose example of obedience and humility and whose life was perfectly devoted to God is SURELY an example that I as a woman should strive to emulate, and whose maternal love for us ALL is solely focused on bringing US to JESUS.
I notice, godsent, that you say “appears” to have, and that you extrapolate “your parish” into “the entire Catholic Church”.
Do you ASK these people about their feelings? Do THEY say that they think Mary is more important? Do they honestly call Mary their Savior and think that SHE died on the cross? Have you ever in listening to the rosary and meditating thought about how it is not Mary centered but CHRIST centered?
And, my friend, please show me where in Catholic teaching, as opposed to individual practice, PARISH practice, even diocesean or country-wide practice , it says that “Mary is more important than Jesus.”
Seriously.
Not to be uncharitable, I hope, but there’s a little verse about “removing the plank from your eye before attending to the speck in your brother’s eye”.
I have a strong suspicion that your “plank” is your OWN confusion about Mary which leads you to “project” your confusions onto OTHERS and then question their “confusing practices”, ESPECIALLY since the posts I’ve seen from you on many subjects appear to deal mainly with how things LOOK TO OTHERS, rather than on the INWARD INTENT of a given person or group, and especially they seem to focus less on what the Catholic faith TEACHES but upon individual Catholics and how they “appear” to YOU.
God bless.
