Mary Magdalene: Q&A and a poem

Question: According to legend and to some contemporary scholarly authors, Mary Magdalene (and her child by Jesus) was hidden away, or may have even fled to France, for fear of the Romans. Are there any parallels between that and the continuing suppression of her true role by the Roman Catholic Church and the "Holy" Inquisition?

This is a difficult question to respond to, because it is based on un-proven theory... but then, so is much else un-proven, and it never stopped anyone!

So - according to Margaret Starbird and others, Mary Magdalene fled from the Holy Land because of fear of the Roman authorities, under whom Jesus had been executed. She suggests that if they or the Jewish authorities had known that Jesus was married, and especially if they had known, as some claim, that his wife was pregnant by him, then they would have sought to do away with that wife and child: they wanted to keep the power that they already had, and anything that might have altered that would be seen as a threat. It is suggested that this is why, at least in the canonical gospel accounts, nothing is written about Mary Magdalene after the first Easter morning.

Through the centuries, political power and ecclesiastical power have been very closely inter-twined, in some cases indistinguishably so. Any threat to one was a threat to the other; and neither wanted their own power and authority to be questioned, let alone altered, or, perish the thought, lost. Because of this fear (fear always being the root of violence and oppression - and, actually, of all other ills) the Roman church suppressed any suggestion that their heritage from Peter the apostle could be superseded by another claimant - and certainly not by a woman! The purpose of the horrific Inquisition, for example, and the Crusade against the Cathars, was to root out any hint or suggestion that the doctrines, theologies, rites and rituals of the Roman Catholic church was anything less than perfect: it had to be all or nothing. 

But in the end fear cannot win. The church no longer exercises a literal strangle-hold throughout what once was called 'Christendom', and people with any intelligence no longer accept dogma unthinkingly or unquestioningly.  Spiritual quests unrelated to formal religions are continuing to proliferate, as people seek to break through the narrow confines of traditional authority, and to go beyond the gender-obsessions of recent decades, seeking instead for Knowledge and Truth about both the Human and the Divine, and to place love at the heart of life.

Magrat's Poem of the Magdalene

Who are you, Dark Lady of the gospels,

you and the other women, providing for the Lord

as he roams throughout the Galilee...

Why are you, Dark Priestess with a jar of nard,

kneeling to anoint the Bridegroom's feet, preparing Him

for death, for rising, as you follow to Jerusalem...

When are you, Dark Sorrow, watching as Love dies,

then and now you bring your spice of solace,

sitting shiva with the other Mary at our tomb...

Where are you, Dark Mystery who disappears;

running to tell the others, you leave us in a garden

with angels at our side...

What are you, Dark Secret of church history:

recovering demoniac, repentant lady of the night,

for ages wholly side-lined - or the Holy Grail...

How are we to find you, beautiful black Magdalene,

Wisdom for our folly, Sister, Mother, Child,

shining through our Darkness...