Where is the proof of the Assumption of Mary?

Answer 1

A:

The Assumption of the Blessed Mary was defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950, in Munificentissimus Deus : "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."

For Catholics, this is proof of the Assumption of Mary, as long as Pope Pius defined it infallibly, as is almost universally assumed by Catholics. However, Bishop Geoffrey Robinson (Confronting Power and Sex in the Catholic Church) believes that the pope's teaching on this subject was not infallible because a clause in Pastor Aeternalis, which defined papal infallibility in 1870, means that the pope can not infallibly define a new doctrine (chapter 4):

"6. For the Holy Spirit was promised to the successors of Peter not so that they might, by his revelation, make known some new doctrine, but that, by his assistance, they might religiously guard and faithfully expound the revelation or deposit of faith transmitted by the apostles."

As Pope Pius himself stated, he was pronouncing a new doctrine from divine revelation, not expounding a matter transmitted by the apostles. Bishop Robinson does not say the Assumption of Mary is necessarily untrue, merely that Pope Pius XII did not infallibly define it. There is no other proof that Mary was assumed bodily into heaven.

Catholic Answer:

Pope Pius XII made no allusions to the Assumption being a new revelation but rather a belief passed down from the apostles through Sacred Tradition from the earliest days of the Church. Pope Pius simply made official that which had been believed from the beginning of the Church. To read the entire text of MUNIFICENTISSIMUS DEUS see the link below to the Vatican website.