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“Queen assumed into heaven, pray for us.”

Nearly 74 years ago, Pope Pius XII infallibly defined as a matter of faith the event we celebrate every August 15 as the feast of Mary’s Assumption.

Detail from "The Immaculate Conception" (1767-69) by by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, in the Museo del Prado, Spain. (Wikipedia)

“By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.”

With those ringing words, nearly 74 years ago, Pope Pius XII infallibly defined as a matter of faith the event we celebrate every August 15 as the feast of Mary’s Assumption.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church hails it as “a singular participation in her Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians” (CCC 966).

Pope Pius’s action on November 1, 1950, was one of the major events of the Jubilee Year that had begun the previous Christmas and was soon to close at Christmas of 1950. Coming as it did only five years after the end of World War II, the Jubilee signaled the Holy See’s emergence from the dark wartime years.

In the document accompanying the formal definition of the Assumption—an apostolic constitution called Munificentissimus Deus (the most bountiful God)—Pius XII recalled that before acting, he consulted all the bishops in the world and nearly all supported the idea of a doctrinal definition. The document itself devotes several pages to Fathers and Doctors of the Church, previous popes, and distinguished theologians who over the centuries had declared their own faith in the Assumption.

Note, by the way, that in saying the Assumption took place after Mary “completed the course of her earthly life,” the formula of the dogma carefully avoids expressing any judgment on a debated question: Did Mary die? While it’s commonly thought she did, some believe—and are free to believe—that rather than dying, she passed on by experiencing something like falling asleep (the word “dormition” is used to express that).

The argument is that death is a punishment for original sin, and the dogma of Mary’s Immaculate Conception, her freedom from original sin, defined as dogma by Pope Pius IX in 1854, points to the conclusion that she would not have experienced the punishment for original sin—death. But you’re free to believe either that she didn’t die or that she did.

In his document, Pope Pius also makes another point that’s even more timely now than it was then. Citing Mary as an example of “the value of a human life entirely devoted to carrying out the heavenly Father’s will and to bringing good to others,” he adds this:

Thus, while the illusory teachings of materialism and the corruption of morals that follows from these teachings threaten to extinguish the light of virtue and to ruin the lives of men, in this magnificent way all may see clearly to what a lofty goal our bodies and souls are destined.

And now? Now we live in a secular culture profoundly corrupted by sins of the flesh and actively engaged in promoting its evil values among children and young people.

The results are apparent in things like the breakdown of marriage and family life and the spread of deliberately chosen childlessness. According to the Centers for Disease Control, a 2021 study found 20.7% American high school students to be sexually active at that time. Unrelated (perhaps), nonmarital childbearing rose from 399,000 in 1970 to 1,464,000 in 2021.

The Litany of the Blessed Virgin asks of Mary: “Queen assumed into heaven, pray for us.” Amen to that.


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About Russell Shaw 303 Articles
Russell Shaw was secretary for public affairs of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops/United States Catholic Conference from 1969 to 1987. He is the author of 20 books, including Nothing to Hide, American Church: The Remarkable Rise, Meteoric Fall, and Uncertain Future of Catholicism in America, Eight Popes and the Crisis of Modernity, and, most recently, The Life of Jesus Christ (Our Sunday Visitor, 2021).

5 Comments

  1. As Russell Shaw well addresses the question of Mary’s Assumption, whether she died, or as some say she experienced a form of sleep, Dormition, the interval between life in this world and assumption into heaven.
    Pius IX wrote in defining the Immaculate Conception that her sinless existence from conception onward did not warrant the penalty of death for sin, inclusive of original sin from which she was preserved by God’s grace [saved as it were as editor Olson alludes to in his essay]. My opinion is in line with those who favor Dormition simply because it’s consistent with freedom from the penalty of sin. Whereas her Son actually died in his human nature to satisfy the price for our redemption. And her assumption is linked as a type of resurrection to the glory of his resurrection thus fulfilling the truth that all that comprises her Majesty among men was gifted by her Son the eternal Word made flesh.

  2. Sinless she was born,
    Sinless she lived,
    This chosen one of God,
    The Holy Tabernacle
    By which God become Man
    Entered corporeal Life
    To be One with us.
    So she never knew the pain of labor in childbirth
    Nor the corruption of flesh by death
    For she was not subject to the wages of sin.
    How is it that people cannot understand the awe-filled mystery
    Of the Divinity of Christ
    Such that God among us
    Comes from a woma by Grace of Heaven undefiled
    And Ever Virgin – Ever Pure?
    If one allows oneself to become imbued with the Majesty of Christ’s Divinity
    the Sanctity of His Blessed Mother is spontaneously apparent.

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