Together on the Journey: A Weekly Word from Archbishop Hebda
Today, we celebrate the Immaculate Conception. It’s a Solemnity that is theologically important for us as Catholics and yet often misunderstood.
Ask any Pittsburgher about the Immaculate Conception and they are bound to speak instead about Franco Harris’ amazing game-winning 1972 catch that led to a Steelers victory over the Oakland Raiders in the final seconds of the game and that was quickly dubbed the “immaculate reception.” If you have ever been to the Pittsburgh airport, you have surely seen the statue that recalls that “miracle.”
The actual Immaculate Conception, however, is even more miraculous. What the Church celebrates today is that Mary was, from the very first moment of her life, “preserved immune from all stain of original sin” (see the Catechism of the Catholic Church, 431). So that she would be a fitting mother for the Savior, she was “enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” It’s a “singular grace and privilege” afforded to Mary: The redemption that would be won for us on Calvary by her son, Jesus, was already given to Mary from the moment of her conception. That’s why the Angel Gabriel could rightly refer to her as “full of grace” and why our Byzantine brothers and sisters continue to call Mary the “All Holy.”
The Immaculate Conception is one of two Marian dogmas that have been definitively taught by papal authority in a way that requires our faithful adherence (the other is the Assumption of Mary). In 1854, Pope Pius IX infallibly declared that “from the very beginning, and before time began, the eternal Father chose and prepared for his only-begotten Son a Mother in whom the Son of God would become incarnate and from whom, in the blessed fullness of time, he would be born into this world” (Ineffabilis Deus, 1).
While this wasn’t infallibly defined by papal authority until 1854, the concept that Mary had been set apart in a special way had not been lost on the early Church. The Fathers of the Church would often point to the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting to the Blessed Mother at the Annunciation, “full of grace” – as proof of her unique holiness. It was a reality, moreover, that resonated in the hearts of the faithful throughout the centuries. In fact, the bishops of the United States had already in 1846, eight years before Pope Pius IX’s solemn declaration, named Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, as the patroness of the United States.
Some of you may recall that I have spoken in the past of having had the privilege of working in Lourdes when I was a seminarian. It was in that small backwater village that the Blessed Mother appeared to St. Bernadette, an uneducated fourteen-year-old girl in France, over the course of eighteen visits in 1858. When the young Bernadette asked the beautiful woman who had appeared to her for her name, the woman responded: “I am the Immaculate Conception.” Out of all the ways that the Blessed Mother could have identified herself, she chose to tell Bernadette that she was the Immaculate Conception. The many well-documented miracles that have since then occurred in Lourdes suggest to me that Mary wants the whole world to know her as the Immaculate Conception.
Not surprisingly, the title that Mary shared with Bernadette is a humble one. It doesn’t speak of Mary’s greatness but rather to the extraordinary power and love of our God. In spite of her extraordinary holiness, Mary realized that she, like the rest of us, needed the redemption that her son, Jesus, would win. You will remember that she tells her kinswoman, Elizabeth, even before Jesus’ birth, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Lk 1:47). The “All Holy” is also the “All Humble.”
What a message of hope! A lowly Jewish girl from Nazareth is saved by God’s grace from original sin; she is the first person to experience the fruits of the redemption that would be won by her son. In many ways, that makes her the first Christian.
Not surprisingly, we still have four parishes in our Archdiocese that are dedicated to Mary: the Immaculate Conception (Columbia Heights, Lonsdale, Marysburg and Watertown). I felt particularly privileged to be able to celebrate with the parish in Watertown this weekend as they inaugurated their newly refurbished sanctuary, including two amazing paintings of Mary.
I will also be blessed this evening to celebrate Mass for the Sons of the Immaculate Conception, a religious community that has long ministered in our Archdiocese and that continues to serve our parishes and hospitals. They renew their vows each year on the Solemnity. Please join me in praying for them and for all who seek the patronage of Mary Immaculate.
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Updated June 30, 2025
