I read the letter by John Guillaumier (‘Devil’s advocate’, December 12). I felt he is right and it looks very much like that. Not only I, but even the Fathers attending Vatican II felt it is very much like that and that it should not. But they did not throw away the baby with the water. They even endowed Mary with yet another title: ‘Model of the Church.’

So, really, Mary can be an idol that replaces God or an image that represents Him. Mary goes on singing her Magnificat, thanking God for all He did to her and, therefore, to us, her children for whatever a mother has is for her children.

The heart and centre of all churches dedicated to Mary and the saints is the sacramental presence of Jesus in a tabernacle.

God and Christ are so incomparably greater than any creature that it would be damning with faint praise to try to honour them in the way we honour the saints. Silent loving adoration in spirit and in truth is what Jesus prefers (John 4:24) rather than the more flashy and noisy practices that annoy me and the correspondent. Others prefer more show, as I do when I am in a more celebrative mood.

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