From CHARLES GRAY
In his article on disasters Mick Hamer refers to the Santiago El Mercurio’s
statement ‘the newly invented mystery of the Immaculate Conception of Mary’
as derisive (‘Lessons from a diastrous past’, 22/29 December). Ths may not
have been the case, as the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, which
holds that Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception
in the womb of her mother, was only accepted officially in 1854 under pope
Pius IX (although it had been argued since the 12th century), just nine
years before the newspaper article was written.
Charles Gray London
