Catholics in Rome marked the 70th anniversary of the proclamation of the dogma of the Assumption Sunday with a solemn Mass offered by Cardinal Mauro Piacenza.
Pope Pius XII defined the Assumption of the Virgin Mary formally as a dogma of the Catholic faith on Nov. 1, 1950.
This invoked papal infallibility to proclaim in his apostolic constitution “Munificentissimus Deus” 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.”
In doing so, the pope confirmed this belief about the Virgin Mary as the perennial teaching of the Church. This recognizes the longstanding traditions by which the Church has celebrated the Assumption throughout its history.