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Nov 19, 2012 · The natural question to ask, once we have heard the story of how the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception developed, is, “If the controversy settled down in the fifteenth century, why did the...
4 days ago · The effect of this movement was to reorientate religious education to a return to the kerygma and catechesis of the New Testament church. Immaculate Conception, Roman Catholic dogma asserting that Mary, mother of Jesus, was preserved from original sin from the instant of her conception.
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Sep 1, 2023 · 4 min read. The Church’s teaching on the Blessed Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception was defined only after centuries of tense theological debate. It was proclaimed to be dogma — doctrine pertaining to divinely revealed truth, which Catholics are obliged to believe — in 1854.
- Protestants’ Objections
- What Is The Assumption?
- No Remains
- Complement to The Immaculate Conception
- Mary’s Cooperation
- The Bible only?
Protestants’ chief reason for objecting to the Immaculate Conception and Mary’s consequent sinlessness is that we are told that “all have sinned” (Rom. 3:23). Besides, they say, Mary said her “spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:47), and only a sinner needs a Savior. Let’s take the second citation first. Mary, too, required a Savior. Like all...
The Assumption is the doctrine that says that at the end of her life on earth Mary was assumed, body and soul, into heaven, just as Enoch, Elijah, and perhaps others had been before her. Some people think Catholics believe Mary “ascended” into heaven. That’s not correct. Christ, by his own power, ascended into heaven. Mary was assumed or taken up i...
There is also what might be called the negative historical proof for Mary’s Assumption. It is easy to document that, from the first, Christians gave homage to saints, including many about whom we now know little or nothing. Cities vied for the title of the last resting place of the most famous saints. Rome, for example, houses the tombs of Peter an...
Over the centuries, the Fathers and the Doctors of the Church spoke often about the fittingness of the privilege of Mary’s Assumption. The grounds considered include Mary’s freedom from sin, her motherhood of God, her perpetual virginity, and—the key—her union with the salvific work of Christ. The dogma is especially fitting when one examines the h...
Mary freely and actively cooperated in a unique way with God’s plan of salvation (Luke 1:38; Gal. 4:4). Like any mother, she was never separated from the suffering of her son (Luke 2:35), and Scripture promises that those who share in the sufferings of Christ will share in his glory (Rom. 8:17). Since she suffered a unique interior martyrdom, it is...
Since the Immaculate Conception and Assumption are not explicit in Scripture, Protestant critics conclude that the doctrines are false. Here, of course, we get into an entirely separate matter, the question of sola scriptura, or the Protestant “Bible only” theory. There is no room in this tract to consider that idea. Let it just be said that there ...
Why do we celebrate the Immaculate Conception? We celebrate the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, a Holy Day of Obligation, on December 8. In 1854, Pope Pius IX declared the dogma of the Immaculate Conception:
That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin. 135
That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular...
