Doesn’t the Council of Trent’s Decree on Original Sin require Catholics to believe that “By one man sin entered into the world, and by sin death, and so death passed upon all men, 'in whom' all have sinned” while the 'in whom' statement is now recognized as a translational error in Paul’s Romans? Thus isn’t the personal guilt (called the “stain” of original sin) no longer a Catholic teaching?

It is my understanding that the Eastern Catholic Churches in communion with Rome having used a Greek New Testament without this 'in whom' error so never accepted the stain theory of the personal guilt for Original Sin and for this reason don’t accept the teaching on the Immaculate Conception either. Is this true?

Dear Curious,

There has been no change in the Church's teaching on Original Sin. The reason why Christ came to earth was to free man from the effects of sin caused by our first parents. The doctrine of the Incarnation and Redemption depends on the Fall of Adam and Eve. The Blessed Mother would have been stained if God had not intervened in a special way to make her conception without any stain. The Easter Orthodox Churches have a tremendous devotion to the Most of God since early times. It is upon the truth that the Mary is the Mother of God that the teaching of the Immaculate Conception rests.

Dr. Geraghty

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