The Virgin Mary's Holiness

We present here a luminous doctrine very close to the life of each and every one of us. It is also a doctrine that requires precision in our thinking process.

Mary's holiness comes from the Holy Spirit, and places her in the communion of saints (the Church). The Virgin Mary is the model of the Lord's poor who see everything they receive, including holiness, as a grace of God.

The Blessed Virgin's holiness is the fruit of salvation history: Mary is the daughter of Zion, the holy remnant of Israel. She is also the New Eve at the side of Christ who is the New Adam (cf. Rom 5; Gen 3:15).

That is why the Angel Gabriel said "Rejoice" (as to the daughter of Zion) and "full of grace" (since Mary is unique as the mother of Jesus and there is something exceptional about her).

Drawing from pointers in the Scriptures, the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception developed in a gradual process since the Patristic era until Duns Scotus, who was able to call Our Lady "the perfection of Redemption."

Amidst general enthusiasm from the Catholic world, Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the bull Ineffabilis Deus, in 1854. Since the Immaculate Conception is a recent Catholic dogma, it is important for the unity of all Christians to try to insert it again in ecumenical dialogue. Vatican II and the popes who came after, saints and theologians, and all Catholics, continue to reflect, contemplate, and live this truth.