www.byzcath.org Forums Faith & Christian Life The Christian East & West The Roman Catholic Doctrine of Mary's Impeccability

"Impeccability is predicated also of Mary on account of her superhuman dignity as the Mother of God, on account of her exemption from original sin and, consequently, from the foment of concupiscence, and on account of the fullness of grace with which her soul was adorned. But Mary’s impeccability was not intrinsic like Jesus’, but extrinsic rather, i.e., due to a special assistance of God."

Pietro Cardinal Parente, Antonio Piolanti, and Salvatore Gaiofalo
Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology
(Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Company, 1951)
Page 135


Pietro Cardinal Parente, was the Archbishop of Perugia, and the Secretary of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith under Pope Paul VI.

Dear brother Todd.

Thank you for giving all those quotes. But I think the title of the thread is a misnomer (though it should attract some interest due to its sensationalism). The quotes you provide indicate a plethora of views on the matter in the Latin Church. Some indicate that "impeccability" is used by some in the Latin Church as nothing more than a synonym for "sinlessness" (nothing objectionable there - just a matter of terminology, as with many other things); while others go to the extreme of making Mary's "sinlessness" an intrinsic quality of Mary, instead of extrinsic. For example, I don't see anything particularly foreign to patristic Tradition in the last example you give (from the Dictionary of Dogmatic Theology). Another view explicitly states that Mary's "impeccability" (i.e., sinlessness) was not a one-time Grace, but an ongoing process actuated by her constant personal response to that Grace.

There is dogma (what MUST be believed), doctrine (HOW the belief is TAUGHT officially), and theologoumena (may be believed, but not taught, at least not taught officially). The varied views above indicate that the "impeccability of Mary" is only on the level of theologoumena in the Latin Church, not a doctrine. Advertising it as a doctrine can make a mountain out of a molehill.

Blessings,
Marduk

It is not a misnomer at all. Mary is impeccable by grace and not by nature. She cannot sin according to Roman Catholic doctrine because her will is perfectly aligned to God's own will, and cannot deviate from His will, and this state of being exists because of her divine maternity and her "immaculate conception." Thus, to deny her impeccability is ultimately to deny - according to Roman Catholic doctrine - her title as Theotokos, and also to deny her "immaculate conception."

"SINLESSNESS. Freedom from moral offenses against God. Absolute sinlessness, including impeccability or the inability to sin, was possessed only by Christ because as a divine person He could not contradict His own divine nature. Mary was also sinless, and could not sin, but only as a unique grace because she was the Mother of God. The rest of humanity is subject to the common weakness of fallen human nature. Except for an extraordinary privilege, accorded to few saints, no one is able to avoid for his whole life at least semideliberate venial sins.

SINLESSNESS OF MARY. Freedom from original and all actual sin of the Blessed Virgin. By a special privilege of grace Mary was preserved from all venial sin and, in fact, she was also impeccable. She could not sin, because of the extraordinary grace she received as the Mother of God. Moreover, she was freed from all unruly passions, concupiscence, which are the effects of sin."

Fr. John Hardon, SJ
Modern Catholic Dictionary
(New York: Inter Mirifica, 1999)

The quote you give from Fr. Eamon Carroll indicates it is not a doctrine in the Latin Catholic Church, but rather indicates that the orthodox understanding is more prevalent nowadays.

It is according to the theologians quoted, including Fr. Carroll, a common doctrine, and based upon the hierarchy of truths its denial involves a denial of the divine maternity and the "immaculate conception." This teaching has been the common teaching going back to the Scholastics, and carried through by the Manualists, and it is even taught by the more recent theologians I have quoted. If Mary is "immaculately conceived," it follows necessarily that she is not only sinless and able not to sin, but also not able to sin, because otherwise sin would have dominion over her. Do not confuse the fact that different aspects of the doctrine of Mary's impeccability are open to debate (e.g., was Mary perfectly impeccable from her first sanctification or her second) with the idea that the doctrine itself is in question.

"Actual sin is not excluded by the simple fact of Mary's having been conceived free from original sin; Adam, for example, fell from an originally 'immaculate' state. It was the grace of impeccability that kept Mary from falling into actual sin. However, Mary's impeccability did not come from a grace supplementary to that which preserved her from original sin; rather, the grace conferred at the instant of her creation was preservative from all sin, actual as well as original."

Fr. Edward Dennis O'Connor
The Dogma of the Immaculate Conception: History and Significance
(University of Notre Dame Press, 1958)
Page 417

I'm sure Fr. Hardon is very popular among lay Catholics. But his Dictionary is obviously colored by his own views. I recall reading an excerpt from him where he stated that "Purgatory" is a "second chance." This really rankled a recent convert friend (converted from low-Church Protestantism to the Latin Catholic Church) because he knew from his studies of the Catholic Faith that this is not what the Catholic Church actually teaches about "Purgatory."

So I hope you don't mind that I don't accept Fr. Hardon as a solid representative of the Latin Catholic Faith as officially taught (though he certainly does represent a very popular form of Latin Catholicism).

BLessings,
Marduk

You make it sound like Fr. Hardon is the only person to have talked about this doctrine. Get real. Fr. Hardon - in all his various books - is merely restating the common Roman Catholic teaching.

"THESIS: Mary was impeccable from the first moment of her conception.

We must carefully distinguish between actual sinlessness and impeccability. Sinlessness refers to freedom from sin; impeccability refers to the inability to sin. Impeccability can be consequent or antecedent. Consequent impeccability is the impossibility of sinning based on the infallible prevision that a man or angel will never sin; antecedent impeccability is based on some title or principle of the moral act which bespeaks an opposition to sin. Impeccability is extrinsic or intrinsic. It is extrinsic when the inability to sin results from some external assistance which preserves from sin. Intrinsic impeccability originates from some internal element which rectifies the faculties so that they cannot sin.

It is not necessary to note that God is essentially and absolutely impeccable, because God is subsistent holiness and the supreme principle of all holiness. It is also certain that Christ as man is antecedently and intrinsically impeccable as a result of the hypostatic union, for He is absolutely and infinitely holy.

Neither is there any doubt that the blessed are intrinsically impeccable by reason of the beatific vision, according to the common teaching of theologians. St. Thomas says: 'For the rational creature is confirmed in righteousness through the beatitude given by the clear vision of God; and when once it has seen God, it cannot but cleave to Him Who is the essence of goodness, wherefrom no one can turn away, since nothing is desired or loved but under the aspect of the good. I say this according to the general law.' Suarez (De ult. fine hominis) teaches the same thing and mentions St. Augustine's treatise on Psalm 35, pointing out that all is loved under this aspect of the divine good.

Finally, we suppose that many of the just, while they lived on earth, had consequent and extrinsic impeccability through an abundance of graces and the assistance of God, as in the case of St. Joseph, who never committed actual sin, the apostles, who after Pentecost Sunday did not commit any deliberate mortal or venial sins, and the eminent saints such as St. Thomas Aquinas after his victory in the matter of chastity, and St. John the Baptist regarding sins of the tongue. That the Blessed Virgin was impeccable is affirmed by St. Peter Damian (Horn. In Nativ. BM. Virginis) and St. Anselm (de Concept. Virginis, c. 18). This poses the question as to the intrinsic or extrinsic title by which Mary was impeccable. Undoubtedly, the Blessed Virgin is not impeccable by any intrinsic principle, for the intrinsic principle of indefectibility in good is threefold: the divine nature, the divine Person united to human nature, or the light of glory, which is the principle of the beatific vision. Mary was not impeccable in any of these three ways. Her impeccability is not a divine attribute, nor is it based on a personal union of divinity with humanity, nor can it be the result of the beatific vision. We may add to this that the divine maternity is not a physical form which affects Mary's soul intrinsically, for her maternity is only a relation, and as such it refers to her Son simply as a terminus, although in the moral estimation this dignity redounds from the Son to the Mother. Yet the title which makes Mary extrinsically impeccable is the divine maternity, for the dignity of the Mother of God is opposed to sin, an opposition which is not physical, but moral, and results from the moral indignity that would ensue from uniting the exalted dignity of the Mother of God with the ugliness of sin.

All these considerations show that the divine maternity is the fundamental reason for Mary's impeccability. It cannot be said that Mary was impeccable because she was immune from the fomes of sin, for our first parents were also immune but they actually sinned. Neither was her impeccability due to the removal of external incentives to sin, because the evil angels had no such incentives and yet they sinned. Moreover, Mary's impeccability was further guaranteed by the special assistance of divine providence, the constant care of the angels, her continuous contemplation of God and divine things, her ardent love of God, her plenitude of grace and virtue, so that she could not depart from God. From the testimony given, it follows that Mary's impeccability is not unlike that of the blessed in heaven, for they see God clearly and therefore they cannot love a mutable good. St. Thomas says: 'For the rational creature is confirmed in righteousness through the beatitude given by the clear vision of God. . . . I say this according to the general law; for it may be otherwise in the case of a special privilege, such as we believe was granted to the Virgin Mother of God.'

Richard of St. Victor, St. Thomas, St. Bonaventure, Alexander of Hales, etc., as a consequence of their doctrine of the extinction of the fomes in Mary after the conception of her Son, maintain that she received the privilege of impeccability in the incarnation of the Word; though de facto she had not sinned before that time. Thus, Richard of St. Victor says that from her birth she never committed either mortal or venial sin. Before the conception of the Son of God, she was protected from all sin by grace; after His conception she was confirmed, supported and strengthened by the power of the Most High so that she could not possibly commit sin (In Cant. c. 26).

St. Thomas says: 'In her sanctification she was delivered from original sin. Afterward, in the conception of the Son of God, she was entirely cleansed from the fomes; lastly, in her glorification she was delivered from all affliction whatever. . . . In her sanctification she received grace inclining her to good; in the conception of the Son of God she received consummate grace confirming her in good; and in her glorification her grace was further consummated so as to perfect her in the enjoyment of all good.' St. Bonaventure holds a similar position (In III, dist. 3, q. 3). Later theologians place Mary's impeccability before Christ's conception. A few, like Durandus and Medina, say that she was impeccable from her first sanctification in her mother's womb; others place it at the first moment of her conception, on the basis of her divine maternity. Mary was no more impeccable after the second sanctification, or conception of Christ, through which she became the Mother of God, than after the first, when in the first instant of her conception she was enriched with a plenitude of grace, because although she was not as yet the Mother of God, she had already been chosen as the Mother of God by eternal and infallible pre-ordination, and therefore she was considered the Mother of God morally. Hence, from the first moment of her conception she possessed a plenitude of grace, supernatural gifts, and other helps and divine privileges which made her impeccable. It can be said, nevertheless, that after the incarnation of the Word there was a new reason to strengthen the truth of the impeccability of Mary.

Corollary. It follows from what has been said that Mary possessed the greatest purity after God. Since purity, as St. Thomas says, is constituted by the recession of its contrary, it is possible to find some creature purer than all the rest, if it is not contaminated by any taint of sin, and such was the purity of Mary, who was immune from original and actual sin and from all moral imperfections. St. Ephrem praises her as undefiled, wholly pure, and Queen of all (Or. de laud. Deip.). Therefore the words of the Canticle (6:3), 'Thou art all beautiful, O my love, sweet and comely as Jerusalem,' are applied to her."

Fr. Gregorio Alastruey Sánchez
The Blessed Virgin Mary (Volume 1)
(St. Louis: B. Herder Book Company, 1963)
Pages 158-161

The IC and divine maternity are dogmas (the IC, being particularly expressed in Latin doctrinal expressions). The speculations about what flows naturally from those two dogmas are theologoumena.

It is your opinion that it is merely a "theologoumena" but that opinion is not shared by the Scholastics or the later Roman Catholic divines. I will go with those reputable sources. I must admit that you lack nuance in your reading of texts. You see the word "opinion" used in a text and the assume the whole essay is a matter of opinion. That just shows that you cannot grasp the context in which the term is used. It is one thing to hold that aspects of a doctrine are open to debate, and quite another to cast doubt upon the doctrine as a whole just because you have problems with it, or you think it makes the Roman Church look bad. The Roman Church has nothing to fear from the truth of its doctrine being posted for all the world to see. If I were still a member of the Roman Church I would be pleased to see the doctrine of Mary's impeccability promoted.

I just stated that he represents a very popular form of Latin Catholicism. How could you possibly derive ANY notion that Fr. Hardon is "the only person to have talked about this doctrine(sic)" from what I stated?

Blessings,
Marduk

Fr. John Hardon was a trained theologian in the Roman Church and a member of the Jesuit order, what are your credentials, and where were you trained? Why should I take your word over his? He is a respected theologian who died in the peace of the Church. He was never condemned for teaching error, and his books have been approved by the competent Church authorities. Who has approved your writings?

"THIRD DAY: THE DOWRY OF MARY IMMACULATE.

I. - Mary received on the day of her Immaculate Conception a magnificent endowment, proportioned to the sublime duties and incomparable dignity of Mother of God. She received then that treasure of graces which was to make of her the co-redemptrix of the human race, which was to associate her to the work of our salvation.

I doubt not that the grace of her Immaculate Conception transcends all her other graces, even that of her divine maternity. Though less in dignity, it is more important before God and for Mary; it is, moreover, the foundation and the source of all the dignities, of all the privileges afterward accorded her as its consequence.

It would have been of small account to be the Mother of God and, at the same time, a sinner. What constitutes greatness before God, is not the dignity that He confers, but the sanctity and purity with which it is borne. Throw a royal mantle around a mendicant, and he still remains a beggar. The Immaculate Conception having made the purity and sanctity of Mary, becomes the greatest of her graces. From the first instant of her creation, Mary was more pleasing to God than all other creatures. One act of love from that frail creature still hidden in the maternal womb, was more meritorious, gave more glory to God, than the united love of all the saints and angels. Interest is in proportion to capital. Mary possessed an incommensurable fund of grace, which produced a hundred-fold.

II. - The Immaculate Conception is the starting point of all Mary's virtues. It is her supreme virtue in this sense, that she always labored to render fruitful the fund of graces that she then received. We suppose on principal that she was never unfaithful to the slightest inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and that to the fullest extent she turned to profit all the graces granted her. No saint ever arrives at that degree. The saints always remain below their graces. The angel saluted Mary: 'Full of grace.' - 'The Lord is with thee.' - With thee always and in all things. There is in thee no void that grace has not filled. Ah! Mary was faithful to all her obligations, faithful to all the desires of the Lord! Never did she omit the least good to be done. She received all the rays of God's sanctity. She absorbed them, allowing not one to be lost.

This fidelity to her graces, made Mary constantly advance in all virtues. She watched over them, as if she feared to lose them. What a lesson for us! Whatever our graces, let us guard them carefully. Mary, the impeccable one, not by nature, but in consequence of her union with God - Mary whom temptation never approached, watched over herself and labored incessantly at the work of her sanctification. She was always advancing in holiness. She retired to the Temple at the age of three, in order to shun the scandals of the world. She trembled before an angel, a pure spirit that spoke only of God. Mary never thought that she had done enough. Her later life was a true martyrdom without consolation. She embroidered the robe of her Immaculate Conception, she enriched and ornamented it with the most beautiful flowers of virtue. But it was always that first grace, that of her Immaculate Conception, which she developed and embellished by her virtues and sacrifices.

III. - The Immaculate Conception is, also, the measure of her power and glory. We can gain nothing from God but by purity, by holiness. God does great things only by pure souls. He listens only to the prayer of the innocent or the contrite. Mary's purity was never tarnished by the least stain. What, then, must be her influence! They say that a mother is all-powerful over the heart of her Son. But if she herself is dishonored, what becomes of her influence? But to a pure mother, what can be refused? - Solomon thus addressed his mother after she had done penance: 'I can refuse you nothing.' - What, then, can Mary's Son refuse her? All graces pass through her hands. She is their channel. Jesus has clothed her with His almighty power in the order of salvation.

And what of Mary's glory? Her purity won for her the privilege of becoming the Mother of the King, and today she is seated on a throne at the right of her Son. Apart from adoration, she receives all honor and all homage. She is so beautiful, so glorious that she alone of herself might constitute a paradise!

IV. - Thus all Mary's graces and virtues, all her power and glory, sprang from her Immaculate Conception. They are, as it were, its magnificent consequence. Baptism purifies us, renders us stainless, immaculate. As soon as the infant receives it, it becomes the temple of God, a paradise. With what vigilance ought we to guard baptismal purity! If we have lost it, we can regain it by penance. We must be pure. I do not speak merely of the purity of the senses. We must observe great purity in our will, in our intentions, in all our actions. To possess purity of life - in this all consists. Without purity we can never please the Eucharistic God, for He is all purity. Only pure hearts see Him, only pure hearts pierce the veils that hide Him. He manifests Himself only to the pure heart, for purity is love, the delicacy of friendship which fears to displease. The aim of our God in coming into our soul is, to purify us more and more. In purifying us, He sanctifies us, He unites us more intimately to Himself, and when we are sufficiently pure, He will take us to Himself in Heaven and crown us.

Practice. - To ask through Mary in all our Communions the purity of a perfect life.

Aspiration. - We sing thy praises, Mary, thou glorious City of the Eucharistic God!"

St. Peter Julian Eymard
Month of Our Lady of the Blessed Sacrament
(New York: The Sentinel Press, 1901)
Pages 41-45