The Vatican Changes the Rules on the Supernatural Part 1
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Our Holy Catholic Church begins the New Calendar Year by honoring and celebrating Our Blessed Mother Mary with the Solemnity of Mary, the Holy Mother of God. Accordingly, I shall commence my 2026 Catholic writings with an article devoted to Our Blessed Mother, albeit a few days late. For in honoring Our Blessed Mother, we honor her most glorious and Divine Son, Our Lord and Savior.
On 1 November 1950, Pope Pius XII released the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus in which he defined the Dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven. In doing so, he confirmed and elevated to the status of Dogma a belief about Our Blessed Mother, the Mother of God, that had been supported in the Holy Church for millennia. Thus, Pope Pius XII did not invent a new Marian Dogma but rather confirmed a belief that had been widely practiced within the Church for many centuries.
The Assumption of Mary is the fourth and final Marian Dogma enacted by the Catholic Church. The other three Marian Dogmas are Mary being the Mother of God, Mary’s Perpetual Virginity and Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Each Dogma recognizes the unique role that Our Blessed Mother plays in the salvific work of her Divine Son, Our Savior.
In his Munificentissimus Deus, Pope Pius XII explains how this Apostolic Constitution came about. Following the promulgation by Blessed Pope Pius IX of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception, there was an expectation amongst many of the faithful that Mary’s Assumption into Heaven would be recognized as a Dogma as well. Indeed, there were petitions and requests for such a definition submitted by the faithful, by theologians and by Church leaders. On 1 May 1946, Pope Pius XII issued Deiparae Virginis Mariae in which he expressly stated “More especially We wish to know if you, Venerable Brethren, with your learning and prudence consider that the bodily Assumption of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith, and whether in addition to your own wishes this is desired by your clergy and people.” See https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-xii_enc_01051946_deiparae-virginis-mariae.html
So queried, the faithful responded with enthusiastic affirmation.
Thusly encouraged and guided by the Holy Spirit, Pope Pius XII enacted the Dogma of Mary’s Assumption in Heaven through the issuance of the Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus on All Saints Day 1950.
Pope Pius XII’s Munificentissimus Deus sets forth an examination of the history and theological development of the Dogma of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven. He traces the Dogma’s origin back to the Church Fathers and Church Councils in the early centuries of the Church. He writes of Mary’s Assumption being celebrated as a Feast Day of the Church as early as the 6th Century A.D. Thus established in the Eastern Church, the Feast Day was subsequently adopted in the West as well. Pope St. Sergius I, Pope St. Leo IV, and Pope St. Nicholas I were all early advocates for the celebration of the Feast Day. He further cites such illustrious saints as John Damascene, Germanus of Constantinople, Robert Bellarmine, Bonaventure, Bernardine of Siena and Antony of Padua for their support of Mary’s Assumption into Heaven.
The Dogma of the Assumption also prominently features in the Holy Rosary, namely as the subject of the Fourth Glorious Mystery. “Nor can we pass over in silence the fact that in the Rosary of Mary, the recitation of which this Apostolic See so urgently recommends, there is one mystery proposed for pious meditation which, as all know, deals with the Blessed Virgin's Assumption into heaven,” Pope Pius XII writes in paragraph 15 of Munificentissimus Deus.
I am quite surprised that the aforementioned statement is the only mention of the Holy Rosary in Munificentissimus Deus. This is surprising because the Holy Rosary plays such a vital role in the prayer life of the Church and has been so since the 13th Century when Our Blessed Mother gave the Rosary to Saint Dominic. The format of three groups of Mysteries (Joyful, Sorrowful and Glorious) was established during the papacy of Pope Saint Pius V in the 16th Century. Thus the Assumption of Our Blessed Mother in Heaven was being celebrated in the Holy Rosary for as many as seven centuries prior to Pope Pius XII’s definition of the Assumption Dogma.
Having set forth a very convincing case for defining the Assumption of the Blessed Mother as a Dogma of the Catholic Church, Pope Pius XII then declares:
“For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; 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.”
And so, Our Blessed Mother’s Assumption in Heaven is the fourth and final Marian Dogma of the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church.
You may read Munificentissimus Deus online at https://www.vatican.va/content/pius-xii/en/apost_constitutions/documents/hf_p-xii_apc_19501101_munificentissimus-deus.html
Bryan J. Dickerson is an author and historian specializing in military and naval history, and Catholicism. He earned his BA in History from Rowan University (NJ), MA in American History from Monmouth University (NJ) and a graduate Certificate in Archival Studies from Louisiana State University. His writings have appeared online and in print in such publications as Columbia (the magazine of the Knights of Columbus) and Celebrate Life (the magazine of the American Life League). He is a 4th Degree member of the Knights of Columbus and a Past Grand Knight of a council in New Jersey. His book The Liberators of Pilsen: the U.S. 16th Armored Division in World War II Czechoslovakia was published by McFarland Books in 2018 and his book Dive Bomber Down: James A. Nist Naval Aviator in the Pacific War is now available from McFarland Books. He has also self-published sixeen books, including In the Name of COVID: The Assault on Religious Freedom in 2020. A former U.S. Navy Reserve Religious Program Specialist 1st Class (Fleet Marine Force), he mobilized and deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom twice. He and his wife Lisa have four children and live in southern New Jersey.
