DEFINITION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
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| Immaculate Mary |
The Immaculate Conception is,
according to the teaching of the Catholic
Church, the unique privilege by which, when the Blessed
Virgin Mary was conceived in her mother's womb, she was kept free of original
sin through the anticipated
merits of Jesus
Christ. The teaching about her immaculate conception is a dogma of the Church.
The immunity from original sin was given
to Mary by a singular exemption from a
universal law through the same merits of Christ, by which
other men are cleansed from sin by baptism. Mary needed the redeeming Saviour to obtain this
exemption, and to be delivered from the universal necessity and debt (debitum)
of being subject to original sin. The person of Mary, in consequence of her origin
from Adam, should have been subject to sin, but, being the new Eve who was to be the mother of the
new Adam, she was, by the eternal counsel
of God and by the merits of Christ, withdrawn from the
general law of original sin. Her redemption was the very
masterpiece of Christ's redeeming
wisdom. He is a greater redeemer who pays the debt that it may not be incurred than
he who pays after it has fallen on the debtor.
Such is the meaning of the term "Immaculate Conception."
DOGMATIC DECLARATION OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
On
December 8, 1854, Pope Pius IX defined ex cathedra, in the glorious
Basilica of Saint Peter's before one hundred and seventy bishops and
innumerable pilgrims come literally from the ends of the earth, the divine
dogma of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception.
The voice of the Sovereign Pontiff broke and tears filled his eyes as he paused
before uttering the infallible words:
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| Pope Pius IX |
"We declare, pronounce, and define that
the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first
instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by
Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Saviour of the human
race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed
by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the
faithful." (In the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus,)
