What is the Immaculate Conception?

A lot of people confuse the Immaculate Conception with the Virgin Birth. The Virgin Birth refers to the birth of Jesus Christ. The Immaculate Conception refers to the conception of Mary, not Jesus. It is the dogma defined by the Catholic Church in 1854 that:

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, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin.

The Church not only teaches that Mary never sinned in thought, word, or deed, she teaches that Mary never even suffered from ‘‘original sin,’’ that hole in our souls where the life of God was originally intended to be. Original sin is the source of concupiscence, the haywiredness in our makeup that weakens our will, darkens our intellects, and disorders our desires so that we labor under the continual tendency to selfishly and sinfully put ourselves before everybody else, including God. It comes of being born of a race descended from our fallen first parents, Adam and Eve, who lost the life of grace when they rebelled against God (Gen. 3) and so had nothing to pass on to us. According to the Church, every son and daughter of Adam and Eve who ever lived is born with original sin—except for Jesus and Mary.

Probably no Marian doctrine has provoked more controversy than this one...

Read entire article from The National Catholic Register