Cardinal George to again dedicate archdiocese to Mary as patroness

By Michelle Martin
Staff writer

For Catholics in the Archdiocese of Chicago, this year’s celebration of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception will have a double significance.

A series of novenas beginning Nov. 30 will acknowledge the 150th anniversary of Pope Pius IX’s declaration in 1854 that the Immaculate Conception was a dogma of the Catholic Church, and Cardinal George will formally rededicate the archdiocese to the patronage of Mary Immaculate.

Novena services will begin at sites in each of the six vicariates to prepare for the Feast of the Immaculate Conception Dec. 8. At the conclusion of that Mass, Cardinal George will celebrate the rededication.

“That dedication is connecting ourselves with her, as individuals and with others, with the whole archdiocese,” said Father Louis Cameli, a mariologist who serves as the archdiocese’s director of ongoing formation for priests. “When she said, ‘Let it be done to me according to your will,’ Mary’s great fiat, it demonstrated that she as always ready to do God’s will. This consecration puts us in communion with her, under her patronage, to do the will of God.”

The novena and rededication mark the 150th anniversary of Pope Pius IX’s declaration that, formally promulgated in 1854.

But Cardinal George noted that the feast was celebrated long before that, and Bishop William Quarter, Chicago’s first bishop, dedicated the diocese to the Immaculate Conception in 1843. And in 1993 Cardinal Joseph Bernardin repeated that dedication during the archdiocese’s sesquicentennial celebration.

“Mary Immaculate is our patroness,” Cardinal George wrote in one of the bulletin inserts sent to parishes. “She speaks to us of God’s initiative in her life and ours; she witnesses to the primacy of grace in her life and ours. She tells us, proud of our initiatives, to do it God’s way.”

Father James Presta, rector of St. Joseph College Seminary, said Mary provides an example for all Catholics.

“She listened to the word of God and she acted on it,” Presta said. “She is the model to remind us of what we hope to be.”

Mary, under the title of the Immaculate Conception, also serves as the patroness of the United States—a declaration made by the bishops of the United States in 1847. It was the U.S. bishops who formally asked Pius IX to make the teaching official.

“A consecration or dedication isn’t like a baptism,” said Todd Williamson, director of the archdiocese’s Office for Divine Worship. “A dedication or consecration can always be done anew. It serves as a reminder to us, a spiritual reminder, a strengthening of that.”

“Mary hasn’t forgotten,” Cameli said. “But maybe we have. Just like prayers … God always knows how dependent we are on him, but we forget.”

The novena, special bulletin inserts that have made available to parishes and other materials also provide an opportunity to teach about what the Immaculate Conception is and is not.

The feast celebrates the teaching that Mary herself was conceived without original sin, living a life that from its very beginning was suffused with grace, a total gift from God, before she agreed to be the mother of Jesus.

“Some people think it refers to Jesus,” Williamson said. “It doesn’t.”

“It shows that Mary was saved by God, like us, but in a different way,” Cameli said. “Mary was preserved from sin, and we are freed from sin through Christ’s death and resurrection.”

The archdiocesan novena liturgies will be done in the context of exposition of the Blessed Sacrament and Benediction, each including the singing of Psalms, readings from Scripture and a homily, followed by the Magificat, petitions, the Lord’s Prayer and Benediction.

In addition, parishes have been asked to hold simple novena services after their daily Masses leading up to the feast. The suggested service would include three Hail Marys, the Magnificat or other Marian hymn, and a short prayer.

The cardinal will make the formal rededication at the end of the feast day Mass at Holy Name Cathedral Dec. 8.

The timing—just before the Mass is ended and worshipers are sent forth—is important, Cameli said.

“That’s the missioning of the congregation,” Cameli said. “The consecration has to do with our life and work in the world.”

 

 

 

Information to help understand and celebrate the Feast of the Immaculate Conception are available on the archdiocesan web site, www.archchicago.org. Documents include:

“Seeing the Sacredness of All Human Life,” “Understanding the Solemnity and the Dogma,” “The Call to Practice Social Justice by Respecting Human Dignity,” “Celebrating the Solemnity,” “God’s Extended Call to Us” and “Patroness of the United States.”