In the Allocution given the very day after he dogmatized the Immaculate Conception, Pius IX invoked Mary thusly:
May at length the Blessed Virgin, who has vanquished
and destroyed all heresies, also efface and entirely overthrow this pernicious
error of rationalism, which, in our unfortunate epoch, disturbs not only civil
society, but which also afflicts the Church.
. . .
May the Most Holy Virgin, Immaculate in her Conception,
assist you; may she aid you with faithful counsel in your doubts, sustain you
in your anguish, and succor you in your adversities (Allocution “Of our Most
Holy Father, Pope Pius IX., pronounced in the Sacred Consistory, 9th
December, 1854,” in Official Documents Connected with the Definition of the
Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary [Baltimore:
John Murphy & Co., 1855], 144, 145)
This again
is why Mariology matters and why Latter-day Saints should engage Catholics on
their ahistorical dogmas concerning the mother of Jesus, such as the Immaculate
Conception. As I have said before (and I am not alone in this), Rome’s dogmas
concerning Mary are the greatest disproof of her claim to be the Church
Christ established (alongside icon veneration).
