The Bible in Dialogue with Questions of the Day. Our Lady’s Assumption
The bodily assumption of Our Blessed Lady into heaven was defined as a dogma of faith by Pope Pius XII on 1 November 1950. The content of the doctrine it contains is thus expressed by the Catechism of the Catholic Church in a text borrowed from a document of the Second Vatican Council, itself dependent on the papal document that proclaimed the dogma. The text is question reads: “[T]he Immaculate Virgin, preserved free from all stain of original sin when the course of her earthly life was finished, was taken up body and soul into heavenly glory. And exalted by the Lord as Queen over all things, so that she might be more full conformed to her Son, the Lord of lords and conqueror of sin and death”. The Catechism text goes on to say that the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a singular participation in he Son’s Resurrection and an anticipation of the resurrection of other Christians.
