Monday, December 08, 2008

Franciscan Blessed Comes in Defense of the Immaculate Conception

Blessed John Duns Scotus, besides being known as the 'Subtle Doctor', is also referred to as the 'Marian Doctor'. It was he who presented a systematic theology of the Marian privilege of the Immaculate Conception, which the Catholic Church officially proclaimed as a Dogma of Faith in the Apostolic Constitution Ineffabilis Deus of Pope Pius IX on the 8th of December 1854.

Read more from Noel Muscat, a Franciscan Friar Minor from Malta who since 2004 he has been offering his service to the Franciscan Custody of the Holy Land as Secretary for Formation and Studies. Muscat concludes his great article JOHN DUNS SCOTUS AND HIS DEFENCE OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION this way:
John Duns Scotus can be described as a Franciscan theologian who provided the Church with the Christological basis for the doctrine on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, in such a way that it could truly be seen as the result of divine revelation. His Christ-centred vision of creation and redemption proves that the primacy of God's love in the mystery of the Incarnation is still at work in the Church and in the world. The mysterium iniquitatis, or mystery of evil, has been won over by Christ and his Immaculate Mother, whom Saint Francis salutes as the Virgo Ecclesia facta, the "Virgin made Church".

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