From left to right: Juan Luis Bastero, professor of the School of Theology; Juan Chapa, Dean of the School of Theology; and José Ángel García Cuadrado, Dean of the School Ecclesiastic of Philosophy. PHOTO: Manuel Castells

The School of Theology and the Ecclesiastical School of Philosophy of the University of Navarra celebrated the feast of St. Thomas Aquinas with a lecture to position by Professor Juan Luis Bastero, on 'The Immaculate Conception. development Historical'. The event, which was attended by numerous professors and students of the center, took place at the classroom Magna of the School of Ecclesiastical Studies.

In the first part of the intervention, the theologian of campus of Pamplona reviewed how the understanding of this dogma has been deepened throughout history, while in the second part he focused on showing the richness of the recent pontifical magisterium.

As he explained, the doctrine on the Immaculate Conception of Holy Mary, that is, "the affirmation of her total preservation from every stain of sin from the first instant of her conception" is the result "of a long process in which over the centuries the Christian people first and theologians later have become more and more clearly aware of the implications to be found in the affirmation of the fullness of grace and the total holiness of the Mother of the Lord."

Professor Bastero pointed out that the first Christian authors did not speak explicitly about the Immaculate Conception in their texts, but they did point out the relationship between Saint Mary and the work of redemption, as reflected in the parallelism Eve (origin of sin) - Mary (origin of salvation), which was later deepened by the Fathers of the Church. According to him, the first reference letter is found in the panegyric of Theoteknos by Livias, between the years 550-650; and later in the High Ages average, Eastern and Western writers abound "who reaffirm the full sanctity of Mary from her conception".

The contribution of St. Thomas Aquinas

The theologian of the University of Navarra pointed out that in the twelfth century began the theological controversy on the immaculate conception of Mary, which divided theologians into two tendencies: the negative, which denies the spotless conception of Mary, and which was supported by St. Anselm, St. Bernard, St. Albert, Alexander of Hales...; and the positive, which was defended by Eadmero, William of Ware, Duns Scotus, Francis Maironis, and theologians of the Society of Jesus, the Franciscans, the Servites, the Augustinians, and the Carmelites...

One of the representatives of the negative current was, precisely, St. Thomas Aquinas. However, although Aquinas denied the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Professor Bastero wanted to emphasize that "his doctrine served to outline and deepen the immaculist doctrine. In fact, many scholars maintain that St. Thomas was the first to make the distinction between sin in terms of the act (or staff) and sin in terms of the debit (or debt of nature)". And, although St. Thomas did not apply it to the Virgin Mary "because devotion to the Immaculate had not yet taken root sufficiently and the Roman Church itself did not yet celebrate her", the distinction he established, according to the theologian of the University of Navarre, "contributed more to the correct evolution of this dogma than some who affirmed it without bothering to overcome the supreme difficulties: the universality of sin and the universality of the Redemption through Jesus Christ".

Already in the 17th century, as Juan Luis Bastero indicated, "there was a true conceptionist fervor, so much so that more than 150 universities defended the privilege and some 50 demanded the oath in the collation of Degrees. In the theological classrooms of the most famous universities, the defense of the Immaculate Conception as a truth of faith was first of all rigorously proposed, and later its possible definition as dogma was studied".

Dogma in the Magisteriums of Paul VI and John Paul II

He then recalled that in the 19th century, both Pius VII and Leo XII defended the celebration of the Mass proper to the Immaculate Conception, and that Blessed Pius IX defined the dogma by means of the Bull Ineffabilis Deus in 1854. Then, in the first half of the 20th century, there was a great boom in Mariological science and devotion.

Finally, Professor Bastero analyzed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the magisteriums of Paul VI and John Paul II: "Both followed literally the formulation of the Bull Ineffabilis Deus of Pius IX and affirmed that this dogma consists in the 'preservation, through the merits of Christ, of the hereditary stain, proper to human generation'. This dogmatic formulation refers stricto sensu "to immunity from original sin", and it is not possible, therefore, to dispense with this datum, taking, in this case, the fullness of grace as primordial and essential".