Catholic priest calls Immaculate Conception dogma ‘key to everything,’ discusses new film

CNA Staff, Dec 9, 2024 / 04:00 am (CNA).

The dogma of the Immaculate Conception is “key to everything,” according to Father Chris Alar, MIC, provincial superior of the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of Mercy Province of the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception.

Alar appears in the new Marian docudrama “I Am the Immaculate Conception.” The film, produced and directed by Michal Kondrat in association with the Marian Fathers of the Immaculate Conception, will be released by Fathom Events in theaters on Dec. 12, 14, and 17. 

In the film, a variety of experts, in addition to Alar, analyze Greek texts of the Scriptures as well as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception to interpret and reveal Mary’s extraordinary role in God’s divine plan of salvation for the world.

“The Immaculate Conception is the key to everything. Everything. And it’s the least understood of almost all Catholic teaching,” Alar said in an interview with CNA.

The solemnity of the Immaculate Conception was established by Pope Pius IX in 1854 with the papal encyclical Ineffabilis Deus. In this encyclical, Pope Pius IX solidified the long-held belief by the Catholic Church that Mary was conceived free from original sin. She was granted this extraordinary privilege because of her unique role in history as the mother of God. 

“For centuries nobody questioned the Immaculate Conception. It was always a part of the Church from the earliest centuries,” Alar explained. 

He pointed out that even the fathers of the Protestant Reformation, including Martin Luther and John Calvin, all accepted the Immaculate Conception of Mary. 

“The only reason that sometimes we have defined dogmas is because of heresy, or if the culture starts rejecting a given truth that wasn’t defined as dogma but was always accepted. And the Immaculate Conception was always accepted and all of a sudden they started to sway away from that …,” Alar explained. “That’s why she [the Catholic Church] formally defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception — to say this is the truth, no more swaying from it, no more rejecting it.”

Alar shared that the teaching on the Immaculate Conception is so important because “Mary’s living proof that we can be holy and immaculate.”

“The Bible states that we all must become holy and immaculate,” he added. “The Bible states nobody will enter into heaven that is not holy and immaculate. So, at some point, you and I and every other living human has got to become holy and immaculate or we do not have eternal salvation.”

The priest explained that God makes us holy and immaculate in one of three ways: After we die in purgatory or while alive, as is the case with canonized saints. The third way, Alar said, was done one time and it was done before the person was born — this was the case with Mary.

“If God can do it after we die and he can do it in this life, which nobody argues, why in the world do we not think he has the power to do it before somebody’s born?”

“And the reason he had to do that with Mary is because Mary could have no stain ever on her soul to be the vessel by which God came to this world,” he said.

While there are several passages in Scripture that defend this dogma, Alar highlighted one in particular — Genesis 3:15.

“Genesis 3:15 says between the woman and the serpent there will be complete enmity. That means complete and radical opposition to each other,” he explained. “If Mary had even the slightest stain of sin, even the tiniest little sin, that would mean she was at least partially under the sway of Satan. Whenever I sin or you sin or anybody sins, we are partially under the sway of Satan no matter how small … If Mary had any sin, even original sin, that would mean she was at least partially under the sway of Satan. And if that’s the case, there would be a lie in Genesis 3:15.”

“It says complete and radical opposition. Complete meaning full. That’s what enmity means. So, if she had even the slightest stain of sin, there could not be complete enmity between her and the serpent … So, it is scriptural.”

Alar said he hopes this docudrama will help spread the message about the dogma on the Immaculate Conception and that Catholics will fall “in love with their faith” again.

“Catholics need to see this movie because if they don’t fully understand the importance of the Immaculate Conception, or they don’t fully love the Church with all their minds, souls, hearts, and strength, then they need to understand better why the Church teaches what she does and once they do understand it better, they’ll love their faith more.”

Source: https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/260889/catholic-priest-calls-immaculate-conception-dogma-key-to-everything-discusses-new-film