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 is a dogma of the Catholic Church maintaining that from the moment when she was conceived the Blessed Virgin Mary was kept free of original sin and was filled with the sanctifying grace normally conferred during baptism.

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.

This Meditation should also be done in an Act of Reparation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

When Tubao lost its priest once more in 1911, the pious Christians sent a petition to the Bishop requesting his Excellency to send a missionary of the Congregation of the Immaculate Heart of Mary ( Congregatio Immaculati Cordis Mariae ) in case no Filipino priest should be available.

In the list of more important bulls issued by him the famous bull " In Coena Domini " ( 1568 ) takes a leading place ; but amongst others throwing light on Pope Pius V's character and policy there may be mentioned his prohibition of quaestuary ( February 1567 and January 1570 ); the condemnation of Michael Baius, the heretical Professor of Leuven ( 1567 ); the reform of the breviary ( July 1568 ); the denunciation of the " dirum nefas " ( August 1568 ); the banishment of the Jews from the ecclesiastical dominions except Rome and Ancona ( 1569 ); the injunction of the use of the reformed missal ( July 1570 ); the confirmation of the privileges of the Society of Crusaders for the protection of the Inquisition ( October 1570 ); the dogmatic certainty of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary ( November 1570 ); the suppression of the Fratres Humiliati for profligacy ( February 1571 ); the approbation of the new office of the Blessed Virgin ( March 1571 ); the enforcement of the daily recitation of the Canonical Hours ( September 1571 ); and the purchase of assistance against the Turks by offers of plenary pardon ( March 1572 ).

On 8 November 1760, Clement XIII issued a Papal bull Quantum ornamenti, which approved the request of King Charles III of Spain to invoke the Immaculate Conception as the Patroness of the Spanish Kingdom, along with its eastern and western territories, while also maintaining Saint James the Greater be given a distinguished honor as co-patron.

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.

Chargers fans have referred to the play as the Immaculate Deception ever since, and after the 1978 season, the NFL instituted the current rule that a forward fumble in the last two minutes of play ( or on fourth down ) can only be recovered and / or advanced by the player who originally fumbled.

In a private printing of 1899 Provost Shadwell lists thirteen Gaudies observed by the College during the 18th century ; by the end of the 19th century all but two, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the Purification of the Virgin, had ceased to be celebrated.

The general Christian doctrine of the virgin birth of Jesus ( i. e., Mary's virginal conception of Jesus ) is not to be confused with the Roman Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of Mary.

The Camarin of the Immaculate in the church of San Diego is considered by historians to be the last Baroque building in the world ; it links the Baroque and Neoclassical styles ; it is the largest of the fewer than ten of these type of structures built in the whole continent.

The lady later identified herself as " the Immaculate Conception " and the faithful believe her to be the Blessed Virgin Mary.

It was announced that the tiara would be sold and the money obtained would be given to charity ; the tiara was in fact bought by Catholics in the United States and is now kept in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in the City of Washington.

His death accepted as during or after 1126 at page 291 of " Early Scottish Charters, Prior to 1153 ", Sir Archibald Campbell Lawrie ( editor ), Glasgow, 1910, Published by James Maclehose and Sons, Glasgow, 1905, it is stated that Eadmer died on 13 January 1123 .. Eadmer must also be credited with being one of the first serious proponents of the Catholic doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary when he defended popular traditions in his De Conceptione sanctae Mariae.

: 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

The 1992 film Immaculate Conception by Jamil Dehlavi is based upon the culture-clash between a western Jewish couple seeking fertility at a Karachi shrine known to be blessed by a sufi-fakir called Gulab Shah and the group of Pakistani eunuchs who guard it.

Note 2: In Hawaii, in 1992, the Bishop of Honolulu, pursuant to an indult from the Holy See, established the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and Christmas as the only Holy Days of Obligation to be observed in the state.

Section 59 of Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church from Vatican II, stated: " Finally, the Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all guilt of original sin, on the completion of her earthly sojourn, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory, and exalted by the Lord as Queen of the universe, that she might be the more fully confimed to her Son, the Lord of lords and the conqueror of sin and death.

In June 2012, a grand mosaic of Saint Maroun and the Crucifixion was copied from the 6th-century Rabboula Maronite manuscript and was donated, installed and was solemnly attended by Cardinal Donald Wuerl at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington D. C, and is scheduled to be formally dedicated on September 23rd.

Beginning with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception ( December 8 ), one gives the tió a little bit to " eat " every night and usually covers him with a little blanket so that he will not be cold at night.

Other locations would be the city's churches, such as Mary the Queen Parish near Xavier School and the Immaculate Conception Academy, the Sto.