BACKGROUND TO THE "INEFFABILIS DEUS"
One hundred and fifty years ago (December 8, 1854), the grace of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception was given to us. We crusade for this dogma, with renewed hope and true Catholic vigor, knowing that, as Pope Pius IX said, "God has committed to Mary the treasury of all good things, in order that everyone may know that through her are obtained every hope, every grace, and all salvation. For this is His will, that we obtain everything through Mary." O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee!
The whole history of the elaboration of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the time the Gospel was first preached to the date of its proclamation by Pius IX in 1854 is impossible to trace in a limited amount of time or space. In the esteemed Dictionary of Catholic Theology, the article summarizing that history runs to 350 long columns set in very small type, so it is impossible to even pretend to provide a fraction of that very rich history in this brief overview. And while an anthology of the opinions and comments on this subject by St. Augustine, St. Bernard, St. Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, the Council of Trent, and all the interventions of the Magisterium throughout the centuries would open up rich perspectives on the Redemption of the human race by Jesus Christ, on grace and sin, and on the role of the Blessed Virgin Mary, etc., to limit the scope of this survey we shall simply focus on the respective roles of the Franciscans and Dominicans in the theological elaboration of the dogma, and the events immediately preceding its promulgation.
"Proclaim the Good Dogma"
It is well known that the Franciscans, under the lead of Duns Scotus (d. 1308), always militated for the privilege of the Immaculate Conception. It is also generally known that the Dominicans, in fidelity to St. Thomas Aquinas, raised a certain number of objections against this privilege. In promulgating the dogma, Pope Pius IX took care to express a sign of his thanks to the General Superior of the Franciscans rather than to the Master General of the Dominicans as a testimony of gratitude for their contribution to the proclamation of this dogma.
To understand the Sovereign Pontiff's gesture, it is helpful to remember the paradox expressed by Fr. Norbert del Prado, who affirmed: "The Scotists (Franciscans) have enabled the dogma to be promulgated; the Thomists (Dominicans) have enabled the right dogma to be promulgated."
Indeed, entirely devoted to Mary, the Scotists wanted to proclaim her immaculate conception, which seemed to them entirely befitting the dignity of the Mother of God. The Thomists were not against this Marian devotion, nor even the principle of her immaculate conception: during part of his life, St. Thomas recognized it. But they underscored the major point which had caused St. Thomas to pause in his thinking on this pious belief: namely, that the Redemption of the human race by Christ, in the very terms of Revelation, is absolutely universal, and thus includes Mary herself. But, they objected to the Scotists, if Mary had never been touched by sin, how could she be redeemed from sin by Christ?
It was to take long centuries of theological studies by both Thomists and Scotists for the admirable solution invented by Wisdom to be understood: Mary was redeemed, but in advance and by a very admirable means, that of preservation from taint of sin. It was thus that, in the middle of the 19th century, all theological difficulties having been resolved, the pious belief of the Church acclaimed this privilege.
Pius IX's Will
After the death of Pope Gregory XVI, over and above theological works and liturgical monuments attesting to the dogma, belief in the Immaculate Conception had considerable increased thanks to the very numerous petitions for its definition arriving at Rome from episcopal sees. Cardinal Mastai-Ferretti, elected on June 16, 1846, and who chose the name of Pius IX, was personally very devoted to this belief.
By June 1, 1848, he instituted a theological commission charged with examining the "definability" of the Immaculate Conception. This commission pronounced itself in majority for the definition. In parallel to the commission, he instituted a consistory of cardinals which he tasked with examining the question of how it would be best to proceed. The consistory recommended soliciting the bishops their opinion on the opportuneness of proceeding to such a definition. Pius IX accepted this suggestion, and on February 2, 1849, from Gaeta where he was still in exile, he dispatched the encyclical letter Ubi Primum. In it he wrote to the bishops:
We eagerly desire, furthermore, that, as soon as possible, you apprise Us concerning the devotion which animates your clergy and your people regarding the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin and how ardently glows the desire that this doctrine be denned by the Apostolic See. And especially, Venerable Brethren, We wish to know what you yourselves, in your wise judgment, think and desire on this matter.
What were the results of this "correspondence council"? Of 600 bishops who responded, fewer than 10 percent did not declare themselves in favor of a dogmatic definition, and this for various reasons. The immense majority, more than 90 percent declared themselves in favor of both the definability of this truth and the opportuneness of a definition. Very many attached to their replies more detailed briefs, discussions and theological studies outlining their arguments.
The favorable replies of the bishops could not but encourage Pius IX in his will to arrive at a definition. From the month of March, 1851, he began to have a bull on this subject drafted. An initial draft, composed by the Jesuit theologian Giovanni Perrone, was not taken up. A second proposal was prepared by Fr. Passaglia. It was notable in that the definition of the dogma was accompanied by an explicit condemnation of modern errors. Though this second essay was not adopted as such, it was to resurface ten years later in the famous text of the Syllabus of Errors.
In 1852, Pius IX instituted a commission of 20 theologians under the presidency of Cardinal Fornari, who set the task of systematically studying the question of the definability of the dogma. After multiple and very interesting works, this commission proposed a schema the substance of which was retained in the final document. Still, this text was reviewed and revised six more times by successive commissions, which shows the Apostolic See's carefulness to publish a perfectly exact declaration, setting forth the entire dogma without settling the points freely discussed by the divers theological schools.
The "Proofs" of the Dogma
Among these labors to revise the declaration, the question of "proofs" of the dogma must first be noted. The final bull chose to link the proofs from Sacred Scripture (essentially, the text of Genesis 3 and the Gospel of the Annunciation) and the interpretation that the Fathers of the Church make of these texts "according to the analogy of faith." Moreover, the bull's drafters distinguished between direct proofs (which positively affirm the conception without sin) and indirect proofs (which do not affirm it directly, but which presuppose it).
They also discussed the place to attribute to the authority of the Roman Church, the Popes having repeatedly and insistently upheld belief in the Immaculate Conception. Pius IX himself intervened personally to perfect this argument. As was said, the Apostolic See took care not to decide simple theological quarrels. Thus the bull does not take up the question of whether the dogma was revealed explicitly or implicitly. It avoids pronouncing on the question of whether there was explicit belief in this dogma before the Council of Nicaea, etc.
The conclusion of the preparatory work took place on December 1, 1854, during a secret consistory. Pius IX asked the cardinals present if it were fitting for him to proclaim the dogma. On their affirmative reply, he fixed the 8th of December, the day of the feast, for the solemn promulgation. That day the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus was read. After a long preamble, the Sovereign Pontiff, in all the solemnity of his teaching authority, pronounced the formula of the declaration, which is guaranteed by the privilege of infallibility and which demands an act of divine and Catholic faith.
...[B]y the authority of Jesus Christ our Lord, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own, We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful.
What the Dogma Means
According to this formula, it is easy to determine the object and the mode of the privilege. The definition concerns Mary's exemption from the stain of original sin, which every son of Adam contracts by the very act of his conception. The Church has never exactly defined what the stain is, but she has determined its essential effects: loss of original justice, death of the soul, and enmity with God. Moreover, she has determined the manner in which these effects cease, namely, by an interior renewal by virtue of which the descendants of the first Adam pass from the state of injustice in which they are born to the state of grace and filial adoption in Jesus Christ, the new Adam.
To say that Mary was exempt from the stain of original sin means that from the first moment of her existence all the effects of original sin were kept away from her; and it means that at that very instant she enjoyed interior justice, friendship with God, and filial adoption in Jesus Christ.
The immunity attributed to the Mother of God is thus an immunity by way of preservation, granted in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race. In Mary, the application of these merits was not only anticipated (as was the case for all those who lived before Christ's coming), but exceptional. For to all the other descendants of Adam, God applies the merits of Christ to deliver them from the inherited evil which has blighted them. But to Mary, God applies these merits in order to deliver her from ever being grazed by it. The Virgin is redeemed in a manner more sublime than others are, the bull states, but redeemed she was nonetheless, and had to be. Men are redeemed by the common way of purification from sin; Mary, by the unique privilege of preservation from sin.
The definition of the dogma caused in the Church a joy comparable to that which inspired the faithful in Ephesus in 431 when the Council Fathers proclaimed Mary's divine motherhood against the blasphemies of Nestorius. Throughout the Catholic world, the pastoral letters of bishops concurred with the writings of theologians and popular liturgical feasts in celebration of the happy event. Opposition within the Church was sporadic and of little weight. Among non-Catholics, there was a livelier opposition to what was called "a new dogma." Some criticisms of the bull appeared in Schismatic, Protestant, and Anglican reviews, but the proclamation did not spark intense controversy.
In 1863, Pius IX published a new office for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception in which the expressions used are as explicit as possible, and, in 1879, Leo XIII elevated it to the rank of a solemn feast of the first class.
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