THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION AND RECENT
ECCLESIOLOGY:
III. Mary, the Church, and Sinlessness
WILLIAM H. MARSHNER
Christendom College
Front Royal, Virginia
1984
How does the grace of the Immaculate Conception illuminate the problems of ecclesiology? How does it clarify the new being to which we are called in the Church of God?
The purpose of this paper is to answer these questions with respect to a specific and crucial issue: the sinlessness of the Catholic Church, which is, as St. Ambrose put it, ex maculis immaculata. In order to address this issue, I must begin again with the original questions and summarize for the reader the pre-requisite clarifications which I have tried to bring to them in previous papers. Continue reading “The Immaculate Conception And Recent Ecclesiology”