Mandatory priestly celibacy is not a doctrine, or dogma, of the Church ( examples of Catholic doctrine would be the principle of the absolute respect for life or the belief in the Assumption and Immaculate Conception ) but a church rule or discipline, like the use of the vernacular ( local ) language in Mass or the ancient rule of Lenten fasting and abstinence.

* Day of the Mary Immaculate Conception.

* 1854 – In his Apostolic constitution Ineffabilis Deus, Pope Pius IX proclaims the dogmatic definition of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was born free of original sin.

* Feast of the Immaculate Conception ( public holidays in several countries, a Holy Day of Obligation in the United States and the Philippines ), and its related observances:

The doctrine of papal infallibility was not new and had been used by Pope Pius in defining as dogma, in 1854, the Immaculate Conception of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

For other uses, see Immaculate Conception ( disambiguation ).

The Immaculate Conception should not be confused with the perpetual virginity of Mary or the virgin birth of Jesus ; it refers to the conception of Mary by her mother, Saint Anne.

The Feast of the Immaculate Conception is observed on December 8 in many Catholic countries as a Holy Day of Obligation and in some places as a national or public holiday.

The defined dogma of the Immaculate Conception regards original sin only, saying that Mary was preserved from any stain ( in Latin, macula or labes, the second of these two synonymous words being the one used in the formal definition ).

The Church celebrates the Feast of the Immaculate Conception ( when Mary was conceived free from original sin ) on 8 December, exactly nine months before celebrating the Nativity of Mary.

Other theologians defended the expression " Immaculate Conception ", pointing out that sanctification could be conferred at the first moment of conception in view of the foreseen merits of Christ, a view held especially by Franciscans.

Writers such as Mark Miravalle and Sarah Jane Boss interpret the existence of the feast as a strong indication of the Church's traditional belief in the Immaculate Conception.

With his bull Cum praeexcelsa of 28 February 1477, in which he referred to the feast as that of the Conception of Mary, without using the word " Immaculate ", he granted indulgences to those who would participate in the specially composed Mass or Office on the feast itself or during its octave, and he used the word " immaculate " of Mary, but applied instead the adjective " miraculous " to her conception.

On 4 September 1483, referring to the feast as that of " the Conception of Immaculate Mary ever Virgin ", he condemned both those who called it mortally sinful and heretical to hold that the " glorious and immaculate mother of God was conceived without the stain of original sin " and those who called it mortally sinful and heretical to hold that " the glorious Virgin Mary was conceived with original sin ", since, he said, " up to this time there has been no decision made by the Roman Church and the Apostolic See.

Under Pope Pius V, the Pope who in 1570 established the Tridentine Mass, included the feast ( but without the adjective " Immaculate ") in the Tridentine Calendar, but suppressed the existing special Mass for the feast, directing that the Mass for the Nativity of Mary ( with the word " Nativity " replaced by " Conception ") be used instead.

It was not until 1854 that Pope Pius IX, with the support of the overwhelming majority of Roman Catholic bishops, whom he had consulted between 1851 – 1853, promulgated the papal bull Ineffabilis Deus ( Latin for " Ineffable God "), which defined ex cathedra the dogma of the Immaculate Conception:

For the Roman Catholic Church the dogma of the Immaculate Conception gained additional significance from the reputed apparitions of Our Lady of Lourdes in 1858.

At Lourdes a 14-year-old girl, Bernadette Soubirous, claimed that a beautiful woman appeared to her and said, " I am the Immaculate Conception ".

In this sense the dogma of the Immaculate Conception defined by Pope Pius IX is also viewed as a key example of the use of sensus fidelium shared by believers and the Magisterium rather than pure reliance on Scripture and Tradition.

The Roman Catholic tradition has a well-established philosophy for the study of the Immaculate Conception and the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the field of Mariology, with Pontifical schools such as the Marianum specifically devoted to this.

It seems to have been St Bernard of Clairvaux who, in the 12th century, explicitly raised the question of the Immaculate Conception.

Saint Thomas Aquinas, the greatest of the medieval scholastics, refused to admit the Immaculate Conception, on the ground that, unless the Blessed Virgin had at one time or other been one of the sinful, she could not justly be said to have been redeemed by Christ.

A number of locations consider themselves patronages of the Immaculate Conception.

The report " Mary: Faith and Hope in Christ ", by the Anglican-Roman Catholic International Commission, concluded that the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of the Assumption and the Immaculate Conception can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions.

Such is the Name of the Immaculate Lord.

Mary is often called the Immaculata ( the Immaculate One ), particularly in artistic and cultural contexts.

The Immaculate Conception is also portrayed by artists in the Orthodox Church, for example Holy Mary in Perlez, Vojvodina, Serbia.

Kansas City's Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is the cathedral seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City and St. Joseph ; The Cathedral of St. Peter in nearby Kansas City, Kansas is the seat of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

The third important work of this period is the Virgin of the Rocks which was commissioned in Milan for the Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception.

** Earliest day on which Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary can fall, while July 3 is the latest ; celebrated 20 days after Pentecost.

Alexander VII's Apostolic Constitution Sollicitudo Omnium Ecclesiarum laid out the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary in terms almost identical to those utilized by Pope Pius IX when he issued his infallible definition Ineffabilis Deus and the former work is cited in footnote 11 of the latter.

Though some claim that he campaigned against the Immaculate Conception, this is far from clear.

It is possible for God to create a soul that simultaneously takes on a fallen nature, much like He can create a soul that simultaneously is prevented from taking on a fallen nature, see The Immaculate Conception.

The reason for this ," she explained, " is that the Scapular is our sign of consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary ".

The Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Memphis, and St. Mary's Episcopal Cathedral is the seat of the Episcopal Diocese of West Tennessee.

The Memphis area is home to many private, college-prep schools: Briarcrest Christian School ( co-ed ), Christian Brothers High School ( boys ), Evangelical Christian School ( co-ed ), First Assembly Christian School ( co-ed ), Hutchison School ( girls ), Lausanne Collegiate School ( co-ed ), Memphis University School ( boys ), Saint Benedict at Auburndale ( co-ed ), St. George's Independent School ( co-ed ), St. Agnes Academy ( girls ), Bishop Byrne Middle and High School ( co-ed ), Immaculate Conception Cathedral School ( girls ), St. Mary's Episcopal School ( girls ), and Elliston Baptist Academy ( co-ed ).

Mission La Purisima Concepción, or La Purisima Mission ( originally La Misión de La Purísima Concepción de la Santísima Virgen María, or The Mission of the Immaculate Conception of the Most Blessed Virgin Mary ) is a Spanish mission in Lompoc, California.

The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, is on the corner of Colfax and Logan Street and is one of the buildings that would be involved in this designation.

Officially known as the Dowd Memorial Chapel of the Immaculate Conception, the church is styled after a 15th century Gothic church.

This was revised in September 12, 1942, when Guadalupe became the secondary " Patroness of the Philippines " when Pope Pius XII installed the Immaculate Conception as the Principal Patroness of the Filipino people through the Papal Bull Impositi Nobis, though her feast day is still widely celebrated in the archipelago.

* December 8 – Pope Pius IX in the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus defines ex Cathedra the dogma of Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Blessed Virgin Mary was conceived without original sin.

Consequently, Melanchton opposed the feast of the Immaculate Conception, which in his days, although not dogma, was celebrated in several cities and had been approved at the Council of Basel in 1439.

The Pope defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, meaning that Mary was conceived without original sin.

In 1854, he promulgated the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, articulating a long-held Catholic belief that Mary, the Mother of God, was conceived without original sin.

According to the testimony of Bernadette Soubirous, the Virgin Mary spoke to her ( Lourdes, 25 March 1858 ) in Gascon saying: Que sòi era Immaculada Concepciou (" I am the Immaculate Conception ", the phrase is reproduced under this statue in the Lourdes grotto with a non-standard spelling ), confirming the proclamation of this Catholic dogma four years earlier.

For example, according to Roman Catholic dogma, Pope Pius IX's teaching regarding the Immaculate Conception was infallible ; it is grammatically incorrect to say or to write " the Immaculate Conception is infallible ".

He may also have been unfavourably impressed with the promulgation by Pope Pius IX in 1854 of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

The Immaculate Conception is a Roman Catholic dogma that asserts that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was preserved by God from the stain of original sin at the time of her own conception.

: By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory

Queen conceived without original sin refers to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, a long held belief which became dogma in 1854.

In 1854, Neumann traveled to Rome and was present at St. Peter's Basilica on December 8, along with 53 cardinals, 139 other bishops, and thousands of priests and laity, when Pope Pius IX solemnly defined, ex cathedra, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

The most interesting sight is however the Golden Grotto, a Renaissance room where Pope Pius IX meditated before issuing the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception had not yet been officially promulgated, but the medal with its " conceived without sin " slogan was influential in popular approval of the idea.

The play's name is a pun derived from the Immaculate Conception, a dogma in the Roman Catholic Church.

A front-page illustration on the December 3, 1904 issue celebrated the 50th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of Immaculate Conception.

This Papal Infallibility was invoked in Pope Pius IX's 1854 definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, and Pope Pius XII's 1950 definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary.