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On Monday the White House issued the President’s message on The Feast Of The Immaculate Conception – a Catholic feast commemorating the doctrine that God saved the Mother Mary from the taint of original sin. The Virgin Mary then bore Jesus Christ, the son of God. The immaculate conception was declared a dogma of the Catholic Church relatively recently, by Pope Pius IX on December 8, 1854.
“Today, I recognize every American celebrating December 8 as a Holy Day honoring the faith, humility, and love of Mary, mother of Jesus and one of the greatest figures in the Bible,” the White House statement said. “On the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Catholics celebrate what they believe to be Mary’s freedom from original sin as the mother of God.”
Note that original sin, as detailed in the Book of Genesis, stems from Adam’s disobedience to God by eating of the fruit of the knowledge of evil. This gaining of the knowledge of evil is the falling of man, the original sin, which is also the reason humans are not immortal and thus die. It is also why man must toil in work and why women must suffer in childbirth.
The White House detailed some of the significance of the Mother Mary in American history.
“For nearly 250 years, Mary has played a distinct role in our great American story. In 1792, less than a decade after the end of the Revolutionary War, Bishop John Carroll—the first Catholic bishop in the United States and cousin of signer of the Declaration of Independence Charles Carroll—consecrated our young Nation to the mother of Christ. Less than a quarter-century later, Catholics attributed General Andrew Jackson’s stunning victory over the British in the climactic Battle of New Orleans to Mary. Every year, Catholics celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving in New Orleans on January 8 in memory of Mary’s assistance in saving the city,” the statement said.
In Orthodoxy there is no doctrine of immaculate conception, as in Orthodoxy it is understood that the Virgin Mary was born with original sin as everyone but Jesus was, but that Mary was without personal sin – the type of sin created by sinful choices in one’s life, as Mary resisted all temptation to sin.
The statement ends by saying:
In her honor, and on a day so special to our Catholic citizens, we remember the sacred words that have brought aid, comfort, and support to generations of American believers in times of need:
Hail, Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, Mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen.
