Expert: Sal - 1/15/2004

Question
Hi Sal,

Does the Catholic church believe Mary's mother Anne was also born without sin?  Anne didn't have to be without sin for Mary to be without sin, did she?  Could you please explain to me the difference between 'resurrection' and 'ascension'?
Finally, do you think Vatican II was good or bad?

Thank you,

Les

Answer
Hi Les!

Nice to here from you again.

St. Anne was not born without original sin. She had the stain of original sin as we all do (it is removed by Baptism). Mary was preserved from original sin by a special grace granted her by God. This fulfilled the prophecy of Genesis 3:15.

“I will put enmity between you (Satan) and the woman, and between your offspring and hers, he will strike at your head, while you strike at his heel.”

The “woman” in order to be at enmity, or total opposition, to Satan had to be born without original sin. If she had original sin she would have been under Satan's power and not in total opposition to him.

Resurrection means for a dead person to be brought back to life. Ascension means for a living person to go up to heaven by his own power, such as happened in the case of our Lord (see Luke 24:51; Acts 1:9). There is a similar thing which happened to Mary as well as to Enoch (see Genesis 5:24; Sirach 44:16; Hebrews 11:5) and Elijah (see II Kings 2:11). They were all taken to heaven by God's power, not their own, this is called assumption.

Vatican II, like most things, had both good and bad affects. Overall I would say that it was good for the Church. Unfortunately, liberals misused Vatican II to introduce novelty and herectical things under the guise of being “in the spirit of Vatican II”, In this way they could do whatever they wished and claim that it was acceptable “in the spirit of Vatican II”.

Thanks for the question.

Have a great day!

Sal