I think the most important concept that must be explained about the Catholic (and Orthodox) practice of Marian devotion, and what is most commonly misunderstood by those of our separated brethren who believe it to be idolatry, is that Marian devotion is entirely Christocentric. This is perhaps best demonstrated by the first Marian dogma ever defined by the Church, which is that Mary is properly called Theotokos, God-bearer, or more commonly, the Mother of God. This definitive proclamation was made at the First Council of Ephesus in A.D. 431. The purpose of this Marian dogma was specifically to defeat the Nestorian heresy, which taught that the two natures of Christ, the nature of God and the nature of man, were joined in conjunction, rather than hypostatic union, and that Mary only gave birth to His human nature. This had the effect of presenting Jesus as some sort of half-man, half-God hybrid, like Hercules. By proclaiming Mary as the Mother of God, it was made clear that there was but one person, Jesus Christ, who was fully God and fully man. Thus the definition of this Marian dogma was of a specifically Christological nature.

From the blog of Sister Helen Prejean

I want to share a letter I received from Kurt Rosenberg, the dedicated director ofWitness To Innocence. Witness to Innocence is spearheaded by former death row prisoners who have been exonerated and released from death rows across the United States and who are now actively engaged in the struggle to end the death penalty. These courageous people bring a human face to the death penalty that no one else can.

Here's what Kurt had to say after the recent exoneration of another two men from death row:

It's become more clear than ever that as wrongfully convicted men continue to be released from death row, the issue of innocence is alive and well in the struggle to end the death penalty. Two more death-row exonerations last week – in the states that lead the nation in having sent innocent men to death row – have brought the nationwide total to 135 since 1973. Just over halfway through the year, there have been five exonerations in 2009, the most in the United States in a single year since 2004.

On Thursday, the Florida Supreme Court unanimously ordered that Herman Lindsey be set free because there wasn't enough evidence to convict him of murdering a Fort Lauderdale pawnshop worker. Lindsey's exoneration was the 23^rd in Florida since the reinstatement of the death penalty.

Three days earlier, Ronald Kitchen was exonerated in Illinois when the state's Attorney General dropped all charges against him. Kitchen and a co-defendant had been convicted of a 1988 murder. He had confessed to the crime after being subject to interrogation by a police unit that used torturous tactics against suspects.

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