The dogma of the Immaculate Conception seems to me to clash with the truth by which we have all been redeemed

Dear Father Angelo,

Thank you very much for your previous answers which were very helpful to me. Now I would like to ask you a question about the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, proclaimed in 1854 by Pius IX. It doesn’t seem to find much confirmation in the Bible (although maybe I’m the one who’s wrong…).

Why does Romans 5:12 say that all men (except Jesus) inherited original sin? (Ecclesiastes 7:20-29; Romans 3:23; 1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5!,too). And why, if Mary did not inherit original sin, does she go to the temple in Jerusalem to make an offering for purification, 40 days after the birth of Jesus? (Luke 2:22-24; Leviticus 12:1-2). And why did Mary say “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God, MY SAVIOR”, “savior” from what if she did not have original sin, why do we talk about salvation?

Camilla

Priest’s response

Dear Camilla,

1. the question you present to me has also been raised in the past.

Some said that the Madonna was conceived without original sin and therefore would not have been redeemed by Christ.

But this is clearly contrary to what St. Paul states in the passage you indicated: “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and so it spread to all men”, for all have sinned…” (Rom 5:12).

2. The theological solution came from the Franciscan Duns Scotus.

He said in simple words: if someone helps a person who has had an accident on the road because they collided with a boulder we call him their savior.

And if someone sees a carriage coming and goes to remove the boulder from the road so that it doesn’t fall to pieces by hitting it, we still call him a savior.

Here the Lord behaved in the second way with the Madonna.

The Lord, by virtue of the merits of his passion, pre-redeemed her, or even redeemed her in a singular and exceptional way because she had to become the mother of Him who is thrice Holy.

3. If we read the declaration of Pius IX with which the Madonna is proclaimed immaculate from the first moment of her existence we find all these concepts expressed: “We declare, pronounce and define that the doctrine, which holds that the most blessed Virgin Mary in the first moment of her conception, by singular grace and privilege of almighty God and in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, savior of the human race, has been preserved immune from every stain of original guilt, is revealed by God and therefore to be firmly and constantly believed by all the faithful” (bull Ineffabilis Deus, 8.12.1854, DS 2803).

4. “In view of the merits of Jesus Christ”: Mary too would have come into existence with original guilt if the merits of Christ the redeemer had not preserved her.

This preservation from the original stain is what the Bull calls the “eminent mode of Redemption.”

“If in fact we consider the matter thoroughly and diligently, it is easy to see how Christ the Lord has in truth redeemed his divine Mother in a more perfect way, having been preserved by God free from any hereditary stain of sin, in anticipation of his merits.

Therefore the infinite dignity of Jesus Christ and the universality of his Redemption is not attenuated or diminished by this point of doctrine, but rather increased to the highest degree” (Pius XII, Fulgens corona).

5. The Second Vatican Council also expresses itself in this line: “Redeemed in a sublime way in view of the merits of her Son” (LG 53);  “The Holy Church… in Mary admires and exalts the most sublime fruit of the Redemption” (SC 103).

6. Paul VI, in the Creed of the People of God, declares: “We believe that Mary is the Mother, always virgin, of the Incarnate Word, our God and Savior Jesus Christ, and that, because of this singular election, she, in consideration of the merits of her Son, was redeemed in a more eminent way, preserved from every stain of original sin and filled with the gift of grace more than all other creatures”.

As you can see, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception does not clash at all with the truth by which we have all been redeemed.

I greet you, I remember you to the Lord and I bless you.

Father Angelo

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