Homily by his eminence Cardinal Jan P. Cardinal  Schotte, C.I.C.M. at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. on  December 8 2004 for the celebration of the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception.

AFTER 150 YEARS
Homily by Cardinal Jan P. Schotte, C.I.C.M.
at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception
Washington, D.C.
8 December 2004

Your Eminences,
Your Excellencies,
My brothers in the priesthood,
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It is certainly an honor and a privilege to stand here before you as the Special Envoy of His Holiness Pope John Paul II and to preside in His name at this concluding celebration of the Marian Year proclaimed by the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Today we are united here to give glory to God for the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Mother of God, the Virgin Mary.
I wish to reiterate here before you the gratitude of our Holy Father to the Cardinal Archbishop of Washington, his Eminence Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, to the Rector of the Shrine, Reverend Monsignor Michael Bransfield, and to all the Members of the Board of Directors of the National Shrine for having taken the initiative to honor this special anniversary in a very particular way.
As the Holy Father recalled, the Church in the United States, in 1846, elected Mary as the Patron of the Nation under the title of the Immaculate Conception, and crowned this choice with the building of this splendid Basilica, with the help of the generous gifts of all the faithful and in a special way of the order of the Knights of Columbus. In doing so, they not only erected a sterling testimonial of their devotion to the Blessed Mother, but they also committed the Catholic Church in the United State of America to cherish and to practice an unwavering devotion to Mary for all times to come.
Today, it is a special joy for me to find myself here in front of this beautiful audience of Catholic faithful gathered in this House of God to manifest your faith in the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.
You are present here to give thanks to God and to the Church for the proclamation of this dogma. But your presence is also a testimony to your willingness to accept the obligation of an enduring Marian devotion which the Hierarchy in 1846 assumed in your name. Some will ask: could they do it? Yes, they could and they did. In doing so they expressed their total trust in the fidelity to their catholic identity of the future generations of Catholics in the United States. They had no doubt that the baptized Catholics would honor their baptism in their lives, that they would accept the basic truths of the Catholic faith as proposed in the dogmas, the teachings of the Holy Father and the Magisterium. They did not entertain the thought that Catholics could become: "pick and choose" believers who would call themselves faithful Roman Catholics but who personally would reject some of the basic truths of our faith. You, Catholics of today, continue to be the bearers of this obligation in the present time.
May I also recall that the Community gathered here extends to many thousands more who are able to participate in our celebration thanks to the television and radio broadcast from this Basilica. Our thoughts go to the many sick people, the shut-ins, the elderly and the suffering who in their homes are united with us in the manifestation of our Marian devotion. To them I say that the Holy Father, in his present condition of suffering and physical impairment, is more than ever profoundly united with all of them. He is a tower of strength and an example for all of us but especially for those who suffer.
It is fitting that we recall here the many manifestations of the Holy Father's convinced and radiant Marian devotion. This same morning, he presided in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome a concelebration with the Cardinals on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in union with similar celebration in many other parts of the world.
Our Blessed Mother, as we know, takes a special place in the faith and spirituality of our Holy Father. At his election, now more than 25 years ago, against the advice of the specialists in heraldry, he insisted in placing in his coat of arms the letter M for Mary, and choose as his motto "Totus tuus", to give a clear indication of his trust in our heavenly mother. In the first years of his pontificate, he gave us the encyclical "The Mother of the Redeemer" in which he emphasized that the ultimate sense of Marian devotion is to bring us closer to our Lord Jesus Christ.
I want to share with you a special personal memory that I find very revealing. It was in 1980, in Nairobi, during the first apostolic visit to Africa. At the end of the day, when we arrived at the residence for dinner, we were three hours late on the program and the bishops of Kenya were waiting for their audience with the Holy Father. The Staff were waging the Holy Father to shorten his address to the bishops. Instead the Holy Father decided on another course. He told the bishops: "since we have not much time left, let us first go to the Chapel and recite the Rosary together"; and so they did: the rosary, the Holy Father's address in full, and a few minutes with each bishop separately for a photo opportunity. We sat at table at 11.00 p.m. for supper. Nobody complained for all understood how strongly the Holy Father believes in the power of the rosary.
In today's gospel reading, we are reminded of the true foundation of the Church's devotion for Mary: she accepted, on faith, to become the mother of the Redeemer. This, her special vocation, demanded that she was made worthy of such exceptional honor. By the grace of God, she was conceived without sin: Mary, even virgin, accepted to become the mother of God.
Such has been the constant faith of the Church throughout the centuries. It was fitting therefore that this belief, so deeply grounded in the faith of Christians, be solemnly proclaimed by the Church. The dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary thus became the coronation of every Catholic's Marian devotion and so it remains today, for every one of us.
Dear brothers and sisters, today we should revive and strengthen our resolve to be faithful and to express unabashedly, our acceptance of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. It belongs to our catholic faith; it is an essential part of our Catholic identity. We cannot call ourselves true sons and daughters of the Catholic Church if we do not commit ourselves to a true devotion to the Blessed Mother. This is true for each one of us personally, but also for our families, our parishes and dioceses. Maybe, in recent decades, through a wrong interpretation of the teaching recalled in the documents of Vatican II, Marian devotion has not always been assigned the place it deserves. The time has come to revert this course. Each Catholic, each parish and each diocese must ask what can be done, through practical initiatives, to make the Marian devotion flourish again in our Catholic Church. Our pastors have a special responsibility in guiding and encouraging, with timely initiatives, the devotion to Mary of all the faithful. Our Catholic identity demands nothing less.
In the course of the celebration of the Marian Year in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, so many wonderful events have taken place and we cannot but be profoundly grateful for what has been achieved. This closing ceremony should not be the end. We must turn it into a new beginning for an enhanced role for our Marian devotion and for giving this National Shrine an enhanced role in the life of the Church in the United States. The National Shrine should become a focal point for the expression of the devotion to our Blessed Mother.
I feel bold enough, as Special Envoy of the Holy Father, to address a solemn invitation to all Catholics: come to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception as pilgrims, come numerous, come frequently, come with your families and with your parishes.
In so many countries, pilgrimages visit with regularity and in large numbers, the major shrines dedicated to our Blessed Mother. The National Shrine in Washington, D.C. must become a similar place that attracts the Catholic pilgrims of this Nation. Come to the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. Our Mother Mary will bless you, your families, your parishes.
So be it.