In the Catholic liturgical calendar, the birthday of the historical Jesus falls on December 25 because, exactly nine months earlier, on March 25, the day of the Annunciation, Jesus was conceived by ...

This year is the 170th anniversary of the promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX in his encyclical Ineffabilis Deus (1854), which declared that the Virgin Mary, “from ...

Mary, under her title of the Immaculate Conception, has been patroness of the United States since the mid-19th century. But her protection of the nation dates back to its earliest history. One of the ...

On Dec. 8, 1854, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary was solemnly defined and proclaimed by Pope Pius IX as follows: The most Blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, ...

Pope Francis highlighted “the beauty of Mary’s heart” in his Angelus address on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception. The pope said on Dec. 8 that the Blessed Virgin Mary’s encounter with the ...

A Reflection for the Wednesday of the Second Week of Advent: Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary “The angel Gabriel was sent from God to a town of Galilee called Nazareth ...

An abandoned baby is discovered at the rear gate of a rainy Irish churchyard in the wonderful new novel of Niall Williams, Time of the Child (2024). Jude Quinlan, a 12-year-old boy, discovers the ...

In a program known as Catholics Returning Home, the people of St. Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church in Wooster have swung open the church doors to individuals who for whatever reason have ...