Dogma of the Immaculate Conception

Question from Wayne on 2/28/2008:  
Dear Father Levis, Do you know why it took so long for the Church to define Mary's Immaculate Conception? From reason alone it seems to me that God could not have been conceived in anything but the purest vessel.

Thank you Father.
Answer by Fr. Robert J. Levis on 2/28/2008: 
Wayne, Neither the Greek nor the Latin Fathers explicitly taught the Immaculate Conception, but they all did profess it implicitly in two fundamental ways. Mary they said was most perfect in purity of morals and holiness of life. St. Ephrem (4th cen.) taught that Mary was the antithesis of Eve. While always implicitly held by the Fathers of the Church, it had to be theologically defended and the main credit for this is the explanation offered by Fr. John Duns Scotus (13th. cen) who taught the idea of pre-redemption in order to reconcile Mary's freedom from Original Sin from the very beginning of Mary. Fr. Bob Levis