The Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Principal Patron of the Diocese

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception is the doctrine that the Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin, that twist in our nature that makes our will tend not to follow what it knows to be right. It was this grace that enabled Mary to give a true and considered “Yes” to the request, conveyed by the Angel Gabriel, that she should consent to be the mother of the incarnate God.

  Because it is so old, this is one of the Marian doctrines that Islam shares with the Catholic Church, though of course the theological details are very different. ‘in a famous Hadithattributed to the Prophet, it is affirmed that: “Every child is touched by the devil as soon as he is born and this contact makes him cry. Excepted are Mary and her Son”. From this Hadithand from verses 35-37 of Sura III, Moslem commentators have deduced and affirmed the principle of Mary’s original purity.’ (Giancarlo Finazzo. L’Osservatore Romano, 13 April 1978).

  The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was almost universally believed over the centuries but was only formally defined as a doctrine of the Church by Pope Pius IX in 1854.