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The One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church, as led by the Bishop of Rome, successor to Peter, the first Pope, has always venerated the Blessed Virgin Mary including her sinlessness; for The Church follows Scripture - especially the New Testament which She, Herself, compiled - as perfectly as She follows Her Tradition -
For behold, henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed. Luke 1:48.
To Mary, The Woman of Scripture and Mother .. of the men who keep God's commandments and hold fast to the truth concerning Jesus. Rev. 12:17., The Church applies the beautiful words of Wisdom 7:26:-
she, the glow that radiates from eternal light;
she, the untarnished mirror of God's majesty;
she, the faithful image of His goodness.
Because Mary is full of grace (kecharitomene) Luke 1:28., The Church, through Pope Pius IX in his Ineffabilis Deus, an Apostolic Constitution issued on December 8, 1854, confirmed the tradition that held Mary as being conceived immaculate.
Mary has become known as The Immaculate Conception as a result of her apparitions at Lourdes in 1858, which is taken as a heavenly confirmation of Pius IX's Apostolic Constitution.
It was at Lourdes that Mary named herself The
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