Tuesday, August 15, 2023

Pius IX's Allocution on December 9, 1854: Why Mariology Matters

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).