PORT ST. LUCIE | “The evil one is trying to convince us not to look towards Mary because he knows the power of her intercession, that she has a direct connection to Christ our Lord,” said Father Frank D’Amato, parochial vicar at Holy Family Parish in Port St. Lucie.
He is one of the featured interviewees in the 30-minute EWTN documentary, “Crushed by the Woman.” The film also includes Bishop Athanasius Schneider of Kazakhstan, Father Dwight Longenecker, a convert from Anglicanism and pastor in South Carolina, and Marian theologians Dr. Mark Miravalle, a professor at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio, and Ave Maria University near Naples, and Ann-Marie Altomare, director of the Our Lady of Guadalupe Family Life Center in Ave Maria.
The documentary is the brainchild of filmmaker and producer Frank X. Panico of Xs in the Sky Films, along with his assisting editor, Ishmael Befera. The film is a tool for Catholics to help dispel a myriad of common misconceptions that non-Catholics and even Catholics may have about the important role the Virgin Mary has in the church, especially as mediator and intercessor before God.
In a phone interview, the Florida Catholic asked Panico, “Why did you make this film?” He replied that there are “many misconceptions about the way Catholics relate to Mary,” and “Protestants often state that we worship Mary, and I correct them and say, ‘No, we only worship God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.’” He explained that Catholics “hold Mary in very high regard and venerate her and ask her to pray for us.”
Before EWTN aired “Crushed by the Woman” May 1, 2023, the film was shown at St. Jude Parish in Tequesta, where Father D’Amato previously served as parochial vicar and Panico was a parishioner. The producer explained, “Father Frank was the first one on board to help me with the project.”
When Father D’Amato was asked if it was his mission to clear up misconceptions about Mary, he said, “Yes, it is part of my vocation.” He added that, “of all the ways that God could have chosen to come to us, he chose to come to us through marriage and the family, through a woman named Mary. … we need Mary to bring us to Jesus, who brings us to the Father.”
Italian Cardinal Carlo Caffarra “wrote to Sister Lucia (Fatima seer, declared Venerable) to ask for her prayers for the newly founded JPII Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family, placed under the patronage of Our Lady of Fatima by Pope John Paul II in the ‘80s,” Father D’Amato said.
Sister Lucia wrote back to the cardinal, who is now deceased, telling him “‘a time will come when the decisive battle between the kingdom of Christ and Satan will be over marriage and the family, but do not be afraid because Our Lady has already crushed his head,’ crushed by the woman,” he said.
The documentary gives clearcut answers to some misconceptions non-Catholics have about Mary. One of those questions is “Where is Mary mentioned in the Bible?” In response, Altomare says in the film that “when the angel said, ‘Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you,’ Jesus is with Mary, and so she brings us to God.”
Miravalle refers to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 1: ‘All generations will call me blessed.’ That means, as a Bible-believing Christian, we fulfill this prophecy when we call Mary blessed.”
Father Longenecker asks a question for non-believers to ponder: “Sometimes I’ll say to my Protestant friends, why do you want to have Jesus without Mary when you never would have had Jesus without Mary?”
To view the documentary, “Crushed by the Woman,” visit https://ondemand.ewtn.com/Home/Play/en/381-383431.
