The Gospel According to Rome ~ Part 3:1

Please first read the Introduction as to why these blog posts are necessary. Back to Part 3 Index.

MARY: Error versus Truth

The Catholic Church Teaches (ERROR)

1. Mary was preserved from all stain of original sin from the first instant of her conception (The Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception)[RC Catechism 490-492].

The Immaculate Conception

490 To become the mother of the Saviour, Mary "was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role."132 The angel Gabriel at the moment of the annunciation salutes her as "full of grace".133 In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace.

491 Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, "full of grace" through God,134 was redeemed from the moment of her 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, Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.135

492 The "splendour of an entirely unique holiness" by which Mary is "enriched from the first instant of her conception" comes wholly from Christ: she is "redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son".136 The Father blessed Mary more than any other created person "in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places" and chose her "in Christ before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless before him in love".137

132 LG 56.
133 Lk 1:28.
134 Lk 1:28.
135 Pius IX, Ineffabilis Deus (1854): DS 2803.
136 LG 53, 56.
137 Cf. Eph 1:3-4.

The Bible Teaches (TRUTH)

Mary, a descendant of Adam, was born in sin (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12).

5  Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me. ~ Psalm 51:5

12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: ~ Romans 5:12