As Catholics, there is no single individual to whom we give more honor than the Blessed Virgin Mary. Since the early Church, the clear teaching in our doctrine is that, from the moment of her conception in the womb of Saint Ann, her mother, Mary was freed from the stain of Original Sin, so that she could be the spotless, sinless vessel to carry the Son of God made flesh, Our Lord Jesus Christ. Mary herself is the Immaculate Conception. 

Some people, unfortunately, get the concept of the Immaculate Conception confused with the concept of the Virgin Birth. No, the Virgin Birth of Our Lord Jesus is the logical consequence of the fact that Mary is the Immaculate Conception. 

Our Blessed Lady, Mary, never suffered from Original Sin, the state that the rest of us inherited from the fall of our primordial parents, Adam and Eve. 

The Catechism of the Catholic Church clearly defines the Immaculate Conception as the following: 

To become the mother of the Savior, Mary “was enriched by God with gifts appropriate to such a role.” The angel Gabriel at the moment of the Annunciation salutes her as “full of grace.” In fact, in order for Mary to be able to give the free assent of her faith to the announcement of her vocation, it was necessary that she be wholly borne by God’s grace. 

Through the centuries the Church has become ever more aware that Mary, “full of grace” through God, was redeemed from the moment of her conception. That is what the dogma of the Immaculate Conception confesses, as Pope Pius IX proclaimed in 1854: ”The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and by virtue of the merits of Jesus Christ, Savior of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of Original Sin.” 

The “splendor of an entirely unique holiness” by which Mary is “enriched from the first instant of her conception” comes wholly from Christ: she is “redeemed, in a more exalted fashion, by reason of the merits of her Son.” 

Therefore, when we hear that the conception of Our Lord, Jesus Christ was in the womb of Blessed Mary, we recall that, from Catholic sacred tradition and dogma, Mary, the Mother of Jesus, the Mother of God, is perpetually virgin, before, during, and after childbirth. 

For us as Americans, we should hold the Immaculate Conception as very dear. Our Lady, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, was declared the Patroness of the United States of America. 

The Diocese of Brooklyn, separated in 1853 (and, at that time, consisting of Kings [Brooklyn], Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk Counties) from the newly created Archdiocese of New York, was dedicated to the perpetual protection and patronage of Our Lady, the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Immaculate Conception. 

And in our own Diocese of Brooklyn, how blessed are we to have the two parishes of Immaculate Conception in Queens County. 

One is run by the Passionist Fathers in Jamaica Estates under the pastoral leadership of Father James Price, and the other, in Astoria, is under the pastoral leadership of Msgr. Fernando Ferrarese. 

We in the Diocese of Brooklyn love Our Lady under the title of the Immaculate Conception. And we know that, despite our failings, she loves us.