Part 2

In its Gospel content, Mary's virginity was a sign of the life-giving power of God.    Over the centuries, the church made it as a sign of a superior and unattainable asexual purity that is most closely approximated by a life of consecrated virginity.  However, this ideal casts a shadow over women such that all other women live under a cloud that darkens all sexuality, even within committed marriage.  If Mary is, as one hymn to her states, the "virgin mother undefiled," how are all other mothers to be understood?

One of the most unfortunate aspects of this attitude has been the second-class spiritual status long felt by married women and mothers in the Church.  It has too often put married women/mothers and women religious into a competition rather than a rich source of mutual inspiration and support.  This experience has generated an antibody attitude that separated Christians from God's good creation as well as from a full realization of the wonder of the Incarnation.