EDITORIAL: A White House message marking the Immaculate Conception repeated a common misunderstanding about when the Incarnation began — a truth central to the Church’s pro-life witness.
The White House marked the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception — the first of two major Marian feasts this week with a direct connection to the sanctity of unborn human life — with a presidential message celebrating the occasion.
For the most part, President Trump’s message was extremely welcome. It’s reflective of the priority this administration has assigned to recognizing America’s Christian foundation, and the contributions made to American public life by individual Catholics and the Catholic faith in general.
But the Dec. 8 message also included an unfortunate error with respect to the moment the Son of God took on our humanity and commenced his earthly life as Jesus Christ.
According to the presidential message celebrating the Virgin Mary’s own conception without any stain of original sin, “God became man when Mary gave birth to a son, Jesus, who would go on to offer his life on the Cross for the redemption of sins and the salvation of the world” [emphasis added].
That’s not correct. The Son of God joined his divine nature with his human nature at the Incarnation — the moment of Jesus’ own conception in Mary’s womb at the Annunciation — just as every human life commences at conception. So God had already been man for nine full months when Mary gave birth to Jesus in a Bethlehem manger on Christmas Day.
The reality of Jesus’ fully divine and fully human life in the womb is specifically confirmed by the Gospel account of Mary’s visit to her cousin Elizabeth while both women were pregnant. Elizabeth’s baby, John the Baptist, leaped for joy in her womb because he was supernaturally aware he was in the company of Jesus, the savior who was coming into the world for the salvation of souls.
The presidential message’s error about who Jesus already was in the womb might have political as well as theological implications. It could be part of the reason why the administration was willing recently to authorize federal funding for IVF procedures, even though these procedures result in the collateral destruction of large numbers of unborn human lives.
If a political leader understands the indisputable scientific fact that human life always begins at conception — not at birth — it becomes clear that support for IVF can’t be marketed as a pro-life political stance.
At the same time, faithful Catholics and other pro-lifers are right to applaud this administration’s overall pro-life accomplishments. President Trump has authorized numerous pro-life moves undertaken at the federal level since he returned to the Oval Office in January, including the defunding of Planned Parenthood, the cancellation of funding for military personnel who travel for abortions, and the reinstatement of protections for the conscience rights of medical providers.
The liturgical calendar will soon provide Catholics with another splendid opportunity to bear fruitful witness regarding the sanctity of life in the womb. On Friday, Dec. 12, the Church in the United States and around the world will celebrate the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe. Like the Immaculate Conception, this Marian event has a powerfully pro-life dimension, because the Blessed Mother appeared as a pregnant woman when she came to St. Juan Diego nearly 500 years ago in Mexico.
That’s why Our Lady of Guadalupe is recognized as patroness of the unborn, as well as patroness of all the Americas.
On Friday, Catholic Americans can join in petitioning the Mother of Jesus to pray for the protection of all unborn American lives, and for the conversion of the hearts and minds of all our political leaders to the pro-life cause.
And maybe we can even look forward to welcoming an additional presidential message marking an important Catholic occasion — one that doesn’t repeat the previous one’s unfortunate error about the timing of when God became man, for the sake of all humanity.
