The Perpetual Virginity of Mary
There was a time, before I understood anything about Mariology, when I considered that the teaching of the Church with regards to Mary's virginity was irrelevant and probably misogynistic. What difference could it possibly make in any case? I did not understand the interconnectedness of Catholic dogma that means that Mary is the nexus mysteriorum inter se . In many ways Mary is the lens through which we look to properly understand how the mysteries of faith relate directly to us and to our lives. Of course the doctrine of Mary's virginity is not about sex being dirty, or virgins being better than women who have had sex, those are relatively modern ideas we have imbued the story with retrospectively. In fact the whole idea runs somewhat contrary to expectations of the time, which saw virginity in a negative way. Probably the key insight is that Mary's virginity has Christological significance since it emphasises the central mystery of Christian faith; that Christ has o...