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Show THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. j The celebration of the Golden Jubilee of the definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Con- j ception on Thursday was conducted with pomp and eclat throughout the entire Catholic world. In Salt Lake a Triduum was held as a preparation for tho solemnity of the Feast, which lasted three days and was concluded Ivv a solemn pontifical 'high Mass by Bishop Scanlan, assisted by the priests of the parish. After the pronouncement of this article of faith fifty years ago by Pius IX., many were adverse to the dogma, supposing, as they wrongfully wrong-fully did. its meaning to be that the Blessed Virgin was conceived as she conceived her Divine Son, by the operation of tlie Holy Ghost. As a creature, or child of Adam. Mary was the daughter of Anne the same as any child is the offspring of its parents. par-ents. Begotten as all children arc, there was no miraculous intervention in her conception, neither j does the dogma of the Immaculate Conception con template any such. Realizing this, it is somewhat strange that after fifty years' explanation there should be some who yet misunderstand the meaning mean-ing and import of the dogma then defined by the Catholic hierarchy and proclaimed by the Supreme Pontiff. And stranger still is the fact that parties, denying entirely original sin as the inheritance of Adam's posterity, should take offense at Catholic teaching, namely, that Mary was the only exception excep-tion to the general rule which applies to Adam's posterity. Catholic teaching in reference to this is thai as Adam was the parent of the human race, lie contained con-tained mankind in its universality in himself. Hence human nature, of which he was the unit, therefore contained in him, was infected by his sin. In the natural law like beget like. So our first parents, who were sinners, could only beget sinners, sin-ners, or, as the Scripture expresses it: "Adam lived, and begot sons in his own image and likeness."- This has been the "belief of the human race since- time began, viz.: that the first transgression of God's "command has been transmitted from parent to child. So true is this that-.Froudhan, the great infidel, wrote: 'The. doctrine of the fall is' not -merely the expression of a particular-, and transitory state of human reason, and hum an. morality, but it is moreover the spontaneous though symbolic. confession con-fession of the fact (which ; is as astonishing' as it is undeniable) of man's culpability, ah ovo, and of its natural inclination to evil. Woe is me, for I have sinned, cries the human conscience, from all tongues and from all quarters. Woe to us, because we have sinned." This same doctrine to which the synagogue held fast was forcibly expressed by King David: '-'Behold, I was conceived in iniquity, and "in sins did my mother conceive me." To this general 'law there was one exception, i. e., one child of Adam's, who was conceived and born free from sin, and that was Mary, who was the j mother of Jesus. This immunity from original sin is what is known as the Immaculate Conception. Jesus, being miraculously conceived, was not a child of Adam, as all, other born of woman are. Therefore, he was conceived immaculately. Another mistaken notion of this dogma is that it is novel, or, as it is sometimes expressed, "a legend." Instead of being a new doctrine, it is "the oldest of all Christian leaching, dating from Paradise Para-dise and contained in the words of God the Father addressed to the serpent: "I will put enmities between thee and the woman." This eternal enmity meant that the woman, i. e.. Mary, should never be subject to Satan through sin. From the earliest ages of Christianity all the great doctors of the church, including Saints Augustine, Basil, Chrysos-tum, Chrysos-tum, Cyril and many others, taught what the Supreme Su-preme Pontiff declared to be an article of faith fifty years ago. Xeedless to add that those who lake exception to this article of faith cither misunderstand mis-understand or misinterpret its real meaning. Why it should be so, or why intelligence and honesty should allow itself 'to be deceived, is one of the great mysteries of life. |