It was so dreadful that I could hardly believe my ears! Never before had I heard someone deny the Perpetual Virginity of Our Blessed Mother.  Stunned, I raised my hand and asked the seminary professor to repeat his remark.  "Are you shocked?” he asked. “Mary had normal relations with Joseph and she indeed gave birth to the brothers and sisters of Jesus."    
    Sad to say, this is not an isolated case.  Although denying the Perpetual Virginity of Our Lady invariably provokes Catholic ire, this egregious heresy emerges with frightful frequency.  
    Saint Basil says: "The friends of Christ do not tolerate hearing that the Mother of God ever ceased to be a virgin."  Therefore, let it be clear to all!  The Blessed Virgin Mary was virgin before the birth of Christ, virgin during the birth of Christ, and virgin after the birth of Christ.  She is the Ever Virgin and Immaculate Mother of God.  No Catholic is free to deny this solemnly defined dogma of our Holy Faith and remain a Catholic in good standing.  Mary's Perpetual Virginity has been the constant teaching of Popes, Councils, Father and Doctors of the Church from the beginning.
    The Lateran Council under Pope Martin I taught in the year 649: "The Blessed, Ever-Virginal and Immaculate Mary conceived of the Holy Ghost without human seed.  She gave birth without injury to her virginity and remained in perpetual virginity after the birth."  In 1555, Pope Paul IV taught that the Virgin Mary retained her virginal integrity before, during, and after the birth of Christ.  
    Pope John Paul II, in an address to a Marian Study Conference on June 10, 1992, affirmed that: "The Church, in confessing her faith in the Mother of God's virginity, proclaims as factually true that Mary: a) truly conceived Jesus by the Holy Spirit without human intervention; b) truly and virginally gave birth to her Son; c) remained a virgin after His birth in everything that concerns the integrity of the flesh.  She lived in total and perpetual virginity after Jesus' birth.  Together with Saint Joseph, who was also called to play a primary role in the initial events of our salvation, she devoted herself to serving the Person and work of her Son."  
    What could be clearer to the Catholic mind?  Yet, dissident theologians upset and confuse Christ’s faithful by denying or obscuring this key dogma of Catholicism.  Saint Augustine tells us that pagan culture so identifies love with sexual activity that it cannot imagine how one can remain a virgin or live a celibate life.  
    That which was true in Augustine’s day is equally true today.  Obsessed with lust, modern society refuses to comprehend the beauty of chastity and the profound dignity of motherhood.  Mary, the Mother of God, is both Virgin and Mother.      
    The Council of Ephesus in 431, with Saint Cyril, proclaimed that Mary is the Mother of God!  What a breathtakingly tremendous title for a creature of God!  Yet, Mother of God she is!  The Second Person of the Blessed Trinity took His human body and human nature from the young Virgin of Nazareth.  Jesus Christ is flesh of her flesh and bone of her bone.
    Mary is also Mother of the Church and the Mother of individual Christians.  When Jesus said to John: "Behold your Mother," He was speaking to you and to me, individually.  My dear friends, how wonderful!  You and I can call upon Mary and say to her: "Dear Mother Mary!  You are my Blessed Mother in heaven!”     
    The Angel of the Lord declared unto Mary and she conceived of the Holy Spirit! And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us!  Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death!  Amen.  
            
                Father Richard Rego, S.T.L.