The EWTN News portal reports on the solemnity of the Annunciation, presenting eight points of reflection by apologist Jimmy Akin. The article explains the feast’s timing, parallels with John the Baptist’s birth, Mary’s response, her perpetual virginity, Gabriel’s reply, Elizabeth’s relationship to Mary, and the importance of Mary’s fiat. It cites Pope Benedict XVI’s work and the *Protoevangelium of James*, concluding with a quote from Benedict on the momentous “yes” of Mary.
This presentation, while containing elements of traditional devotion, fundamentally represents the naturalistic and modernist deformation of Catholic truth. It replaces the supernatural centrality of the Incarnation with a series of historical, linguistic, and biographical curiosities, thereby reducing the greatest mystery of the faith to a matter of academic speculation. The article’s omissions are as damning as its content: it is silent on the Annunciation as the foundational act of the *Kingdom of Christ* upon earth, the direct refutation of modern secularism, and the moment when *time itself was consecrated to God*. This silence is the signature of the conciliar apostasy, which has systematically evacuated Catholic doctrine of its supernatural efficacy and social reign.
Naturalistic Exegesis and the Rejection of Supernatural Protection
The article’s method is rooted in the historical-critical approach condemned by St. Pius X. Akin meticulously analyzes Greek terms (“sungenis”), compares parallel narratives, and evaluates the plausibility of Mary’s question, treating the sacred text as a purely human document subject to the uncertainties of philology. This directly contradicts the teaching of the Church on the supernatural origin and truthfulness of Scripture.
The Holy Office, under St. Pius X, explicitly condemned the proposition: “The inspiration of the books of the Old Testament consists in the fact that Jewish authors conveyed religious truths in a certain particular aspect… Divine inspiration does not extend to the whole of Holy Scripture to such an extent that all and individual parts of it are protected from every error” (Lamentabili sane exitu, propositions 10 & 11). By treating the Gospel account as a text whose “literal” meaning can be debated and whose translation is “not a good translation,” the article implicitly accepts the Modernist premise that Sacred Scripture is a human composition open to perpetual revision. The true Catholic approach, defined by the Council of Trent, is that the Vulgate is authentic and that the sense of Holy Scripture is to be believed as the Church proposes it, not as human reason conjectures it. The article’s entire enterprise of “knowing and sharing” based on textual minutiae is a manifestation of the “pursuit of novelty” that leads to “the most grievous errors” (Lamentabili, intro).
The Omission of the Social Kingship of Christ
The most grave omission is the complete absence of the Annunciation’s role in establishing the *Reign of Christ* over all nations and societies. The Incarnation is not presented as the pivotal event that makes possible the subordination of all human law and governance to the Divine Law. This is a direct rejection of the constant teaching of the Magisterium.
Pius XI, in *Quas Primas*, declared: “The Kingdom of our Redeemer encompasses all men… His reign extends not only to Catholic nations… but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” The Annunciation is the moment the Word took flesh, thereby claiming absolute dominion over every aspect of human life—private, familial, and public. The article’s focus remains narrowly on Mary’s personal “yes” and the biological mechanics of the Incarnation, completely divorcing the mystery from its cosmic and social consequences. This is the naturalistic reductionism of the post-conciliar era, where faith is privatized and the public worship of Christ the King is abandoned. The Syllabus of Errors of Pius IX condemned the notion that “the State… is endowed with a certain right not circumscribed by any limits” (Error 39) and that “the civil authority may interfere in matters relating to religion, morality and spiritual government” (Error 44). The Annunciation, understood integrally, is the divine refutation of these errors, as it establishes a King whose authority precedes and supersedes all earthly power. By failing to proclaim this, the article collaborates with the secularist “plague” Pius XI lamented.
The Profanation of Mary’s Role and the Denial of Her Unique Dignity
The article treats Mary’s perpetual virginity as a matter of historical probability derived from apocryphal texts like the *Protoevangelium of James*. This is a catastrophic error. The perpetual virginity of Mary is a defined dogma of the faith, solemnly defined by the Council of Constantinople (381) and the Lateran Council (649), and held as a truth of faith by the universal Church. It is not a hypothesis based on the “earliest sources” but a revealed fact protected by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.
St. Pius X, in his condemnation of Modernism, noted that one of its tactics is to treat dogmas as “stages in the evolution of Christian consciousness” (Lamentabili, proposition 54). By presenting the belief in Mary’s virginity as something that “has been understood in different ways” and relying on second-century apocrypha, the article subjects a defined dogma to the historical evolution condemned by the Holy Office. The true Catholic sense, expressed by the Fathers and Doctors, is that Mary was a consecrated virgin before, during, and after the birth of Christ, a sign of her total dedication to God and the supernatural mode of the Incarnation. The article’s hedging (“often taken as a sign,” “hypothetically”) is the language of doubt, not faith. It implies that the Church’s definition is not certain, which is a formal denial of the infallibility of the Magisterium in defining dogma—a core error of Modernism (Syllabus, Error 23: “Roman pontiffs… have erred in defining matters of faith and morals”).
The “Fiat” as Private Piety, Not the Foundation of the New Creation
The article quotes Pope Benedict XVI on Mary’s “free, humble yet magnanimous obedience,” framing it as a personal decision of “human freedom” that God “needed.” This is a subtle but deadly form of Pelagianism and anthropocentrism. It makes Mary’s role a mere instance of human cooperation, rather than the necessary, divinely ordained instrument by which the Second Person of the Trinity assumed human nature.
The Incarnation is not dependent on human freedom in the sense of a mere “yes” that God “needs.” It is a hypostatic union willed by the Father from eternity, accomplished by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin precisely to preserve her integrity and the dignity of the Son. Mary’s fiat is the free acceptance of a role already determined by God’s plan; it is not a condition that God was “waiting for.” The article’s language, echoing the “drama” of Bernard of Clairvaux, presents a God who is “in a certain sense dependent upon man,” a notion repugnant to Catholic theology. God is not waiting for a “yes” to redeem man; He *is* the Redeemer, and Mary’s role is entirely a gift of His grace. This anthropocentric “drama” is a hallmark of post-conciliar spirituality, which reduces salvation history to a story about human response rather than God’s sovereign action. It is a silent denial of the doctrine of *Immaculate Conception*, by which Mary was preserved from original sin precisely to be a fitting instrument for the Incarnation, not because she first made a “magnanimous” choice.
The Silence on the Liturgical and Cosmic Significance
The article makes no mention of the feast’s proper place in the liturgical year as a *Solemnity*, nor does it connect the Annunciation to the feast of Christmas as the completion of a divine plan. It treats the date (March 25) as a pious calculation (“nine months before Christmas”) rather than as the traditional date of the creation of the world and the crucifixion, linking the Incarnation to the whole of salvation history. This is symptomatic of the conciliar destruction of the liturgical calendar, which was designed to immerse the faithful in the supernatural mysteries of Christ’s life, not to provide “interesting facts” for catechesis.
Pius XI, in instituting the feast of Christ the King, taught that public liturgical celebrations are essential to instruct the people and shape society according to the laws of the Divine Kingdom (Quas Primas). The Annunciation, as the beginning of that Kingdom on earth, should be celebrated as a triumph over secularism and a call for all nations to recognize Christ’s reign. The article’s reduction of the feast to a set of “things to know and share” for personal devotion is the exact opposite: it is the domestication of a cosmic mystery into a private, informational tidbit. It fosters a “private revelation” mentality where the faithful are consumers of religious trivia, not subjects of a King who commands all their loyalties.
Conclusion: The Apostasy of the Natural Man
The article by Jimmy Akin, published by EWTN News, is a perfect specimen of the post-conciliar apostasy. It uses traditional vocabulary (“Annunciation,” “fiat,” “perpetual virginity”) while emptying them of their supernatural content and replacing them with the methods and assumptions of rationalist exegesis and naturalistic piety. It is a discourse that speaks of God while acting as if He does not exist, reducing the Incarnation to a fascinating ancient event and Mary to a figure of moral example. It commits the ultimate sin of the Modernist: it is silent on the absolute, public, and juridical reign of Jesus Christ over every power and principality, which the Annunciation inaugurated. The faithful are not called to acknowledge a King, but to appreciate a story. This is not Catholicism; it is the religion of the *homo religiosus* of the conciliar sect, a synthetic amalgam of devotion and doubt designed to keep souls within the “Church of the New Advent” while stripping them of the armor of supernatural faith. The true Catholic, holding to the faith once delivered to the saints, must reject such presentations as poisonous and demand a restoration of the sacred doctrine that makes the Annunciation the hinge of human history and the foundation of the social reign of Christ the King.
Source:
8 things to know and share about the Annunciation (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 25.03.2026