power of the Holy Spirit. In no way can it be claimed that in conceiving,
bearing and delivering Christ, the Virgin Mary was made “unclean.” In
fact, the opposite would have occurred, that is, she would have received an
augmentation of grace. Also, by presenting herself and her Son in the
Temple, the Virgin Mary was avoiding any future opportunity for Christ’s
enemies to calumniate Him after the beginning of His public mission.
Fifth objection: “Even St. Thomas Aquinas, who Catholics claim as
their greatest theologian, did not believe in the Immaculate
Conception!”
The opinion of St. Thomas against the Immaculate Conception is contained
in his Summa Theologica (III, q. 27, a. 2, ad 3). There, he specifically says
that “the time of her sanctification is unknown.” No theologian, no matter
how great, is the Church. If St. Thomas were alive in 1854 he would have
been the first to submit his views to the infallible definition of Pope Bl.
Pius IX, so humble and faithful was he to the Church.
During the time of St. Thomas it was not yet established exactly when the
human soul was infused into the body. Different views abounded. One of
the most common was that the soul was infused some time after
conception. Holding this opinion, it followed for St. Thomas that it was
impossible for a person to be sanctified at conception when he had not yet
received a soul. If a soul were to be sanctified it had to occur when or after
it was infused, and therefore after conception.
Nevertheless, St. Thomas in the same Summa Theologica certainly did
express his belief in the personal sinlessness of the Virgin Mary based on
her being sanctified before her birth:
“We must therefore confess simply that the Blessed Virgin
committed no actual sin, neither mortal or venial; so that what is
written (Cant. 4:7) is fulfilled: ‘Thou art all fair, O my love, and
there is not a spot in thee’.”³
Finally, writing near the end of his life, St. Thomas expressed himself thus:
3
Summa Theologica III, q. 27, a. 4.
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