The environment of the nineteenth century and the dogma of the Immaculate Conception

Scientism, Spiritualism, Romanticism. The Church under attack.

The nineteenth century wasn't afraid of contradictions.

It saw itself as positivist but got lost in metaphysical mirages or yielded to the hallucinatory power of ancient mysteries.

The Bible was used for everything, even to justify Spiritualism, which it strongly condemns (cf. Dt 18, 10-13)[1].

The influence of Romanticism wiped away the consciousness of sin (Satan was forgiven, everybody was innocent) and also erased the need for Christ the Redeemer, and thus the reason for the very being of the Church.

The Church was indeed confronted with a ruthless struggle which targeted its priests, its dogmas, its founding documents, its territories, its role in history and society and even the physical integrity of its Pastor. [2]

From the apparition of the rue du Bac to the proclamation of the dogma

While a large part of society didn’t care anymore about redemption, Mary appeared in Paris, at the rue du Bac, her feet on the infernal snake. This happened on the afternoon of November 27, 1830, at the beginning of a new liturgical year, that is to say at the threshold of a cycle covering the whole of the mystery of redemption.

That same day saw the revelation of the medal which was quickly called miraculous. The faithful adopted the invocation of the Miraculous Medal (apparition of the rue du Bac – 1830), “O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to you,” even though the Immaculate Conception of Mary was still being debated within the Church.

After the events of the rue du Bac, this issue, which appeared very early in the history of Christianity, experienced renewed interest which will result in the enactment, by Pius IX on December 8, 1854, of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the bull “Ineffabilis Deus.”

The dogma contradicts the notion of equality conveyed by the French revolution and disagrees with all the ideas of general innocence spread by the “new religion” wanted as well by the romanticists as by many philosophers. Victor Hugo poured out his fury against this dogma in his book “The Art of Being a Grandfather.”

The apparitions in Lourdes

The apparitions in Lourdes confirmed the dogma by the famous sentence expressed in local idiom: Que soy era Immaculada Coucepciou, which means : “I am the Immaculate Conception.” The date of that message, on march 25, 1858, day of the celebration of the Annunciation, demonstrates the scope of that dogma: Mary was conceived immaculate so she could be granted the dignity and the task of becoming the Mother of God.

[1] Patrick SANDRIN, A ciel ouvert, EDB, Nouan 2013, p. 61

[2] Ibid., p. 72

[3] Ibid., p. 51