Sometimes people have funny ideas about the Catholic Church--wait, take out the "sometimes." From the Middle Ages on, the Catholic Church has this persona of a stingy headmaster, sternly rebuking its children and using its power capriciously.
I'm not denying abuses of power... but I'm not getting into that particular subject on this post. If critics are going to blast us when we're in the wrong, in all fairness, they should give us kudos for what we do right. (bwahahahahahahaha!!! Kidding. Can you imagine that? Neither can I. Really, it would be nice) I'd like to highlight a great positive: the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus promulgated by Pope Pius IX in 1854. The Constitution defined the dogma of Our Lady's Immaculate Conception. You can read it yourself at New Advent, home of the Catholic Encyclopedia.
To start the Constitution, the pope covers three main ideas: Mary has a place in the economy of salvation, the idea that Mary was immaculately conceived wasn't something new in the history of the Church or the sensus fidelium, and it's something worthy to be celebrated in the liturgical & devotional life of the Church. The Holy Father then proceeds to examine Catholic Tradition, councils, and the extensive treatment of Our Lady by the Fathers of the Church. They read the Old Testament typologically and saw Mary everywhere.
Next, Pius IX noted that the Holy See had been petitioned before on the matter of defining the Immaculate Conception. Most recently, Pope Gregory XVI (Pius IX's immediate predecessor) had been petitioned about the matter. Pius IX's first step? He established a commission to study the matter. Then, he wrote all the bishops in the world asking for their opinion.
Hmm. That's odd, it doesn't sound too autocratic to me. The Constitution proceeds to define the doctrine:
"We declare, pronounce, and define that the doctrine which holds that the most Blessed Virgin Mary, in the first instance of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege granted by Almighty God, in view of the merits of Jesus Christ, the Savior of the human race, was preserved free from all stain of original sin, is a doctrine revealed by God and therefore to be believed firmly and constantly by all the faithful."
After that, the pope warns any Catholic who dissented from the teaching.
Here again... The Church would issue anathemas, right? And punish all dissenters? And banish them to hell? Right? That's what the Church does! Sorry to disappoint those who hold a Catholic stereotype. Pius IX presented dissent for what it really is: an action by a believer where he/she creates his/her own consequences. In the action of dissent, that person would separate him/herself from the Church and do harm to their own faith. Yes, the Church is presenting a doctrine for belief--but she provides pages and pages why the belief is in line with the deposit of faith. If the Catholic Church was the severe, rigid autocrat as it is believed to be, why didn't Pius IX just write a letter, commanding belief or else?
From the ending paragraph of Ineffabilis Deus:
"Let them [the children of the Church] fly with utter confidence to this most sweet Mother of mercy and grace in all dangers, difficulties, needs, doubts and fears. Under her guidance, under her patronage, under her kindness and protection, nothing is to be feared, nothing is hopeless. Because, while bearing toward us a truly motherly affection and having in her care the work of our salvation, she is solicitous about the whole human race."
O Holy and Immaculate Virgin, pray for us!
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