THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AS DEFINED BY PIUS IX -written by Bl. Pope John Paul II 1. Down the centuries, the conviction that Mary was preserved from every stain of sin from her conception, so that she is to be called all holy, gradually gained ground in the liturgy and theology. At the start of the 19th century, this development led to a petition drive for a dogmatic definition of the privilege of the Immaculate Conception. Around the middle of the century with the intention of accepting this request, Pope Pius IX after consulting the theologians, questioned the Bishops about the opportuneness and the possibility of such a definition, convoking as it were a council in writing. The result was significant: the vast majority of the 604 Bishops gave a positive response to the question. After such an extensive consultation which emphasized my venerable Predecessors concern to express the Churchs faith in the definition of the dogma, he set about preparing the document with equal care. Blessed Virgin is free from every stain of sin The special commission of theologians set up by Pius IX to determine the revealed doctrine assigned the essential role to ecclesial practice. And this criterion influenced the formulation of the dogma, which preferred expressions taken from the Churchs lived experience, from the faith and worship of the Christian people, to scholastic definitions. Finally in 1854, with the Bull Ineffabilis, Pius IX solemnly proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception: .. We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine which asserts that the Blessed Virgin Mary, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Saviour of the human race, was preserved free from every stain of original sin is a doctrine revealed by God and, for this reason, must be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful (DS 2803). 2. The proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception expresses the essential datum of faith. Pope Alexander VII, in the Bull Sollicitudo of 1661, spoke of the preservation of Marys soul in its creation and infusion into the body (DS 2017). Pius IXs definition, however, prescinds from all explanations about how the soul is infused into the body and attributes to the person of Mary, at the first moment of her conception, the fact of her being preserved from every stain of original sin. The freedom from every stain of original sin entails as a positive consequence the total freedom from all sin as well as the proclamation of Marys perfect holiness, a doctrine to which the dogmatic definition makes a fundamental contribution. In fact, the negative formulation of the Marian privilege, which resulted from the earlier controversies about original sin that arose in the West, must always be complemented by the positive expression of Marys holiness more explicitly stressed in the Eastern tradition. Pius IXs definition refers only to the freedom from original sin and does not explicitly include the freedom from concupiscence. Nevertheless, Marys complete preservation from every stain of sin also has as a consequence her freedom from concupiscence, a disordered tendency which, according to the Council of Trent, comes from sin and inclines to sin (DS 1515). 3. Granted by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God, this preservation from original sin is an absolutely gratuitous divine favour, which Mary received at the first moment of her existence.
Posted on: Sat, 24 May 2014 02:19:07 +0000
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