leaves [the question of the historicity of the virginal conception] an unresolved problem” (The Virginal Conception and Bodily Resurrection of Jesus [New York/Paramus, NJ: Paulist, 1973] 66). But Brown also acknowledges that for Roman Catholics the longstanding church tradition about Mary’s perpetual virginity supplies an answer to that part of the question. e. It is good to recall that even in the gospels, which have an infancy narrative and assert the virginal conception of Jesus, there are elements