Munificentissimus Deus
Template:Short description Template:Italictitle Template:Infobox papal document Munificentissimus Deus (Template:Langx) is an apostolic constitution published in 1950 by Pope Pius XII. It defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was the first and thus far the only ex-cathedra infallible statement since the official ruling on papal infallibility was made at the First Vatican Council (1869–1870). In 1854 Pope Pius IX had made an infallible statement with Ineffabilis Deus on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which was a basis for this dogma.[1]
Dogma of the Assumption
On 1 November 1950, invoking his dogmatic authority, Pope Pius XII defined the dogma:
Historical background
Pope Pius XII's previous encyclical Script error: No such module "Lang". (1 May 1946) to all Catholic bishops stated that for a long time past, numerous petitions had been received from cardinals, patriarchs, archbishops, bishops, priests, religious of both sexes, associations, universities and innumerable private persons, all begging that the bodily Assumption into heaven of the Blessed Virgin should be defined and proclaimed as a dogma of faith.[2] This was also fervently requested by almost two hundred fathers in the First Vatican Council (1869–1870).[2]
Following the example of Pope Pius IX, who canvassed Catholic bishops before proclaiming the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, Pius XII asked all bishops for their opinion. Template:Roman Catholic Mariology
At issue was not the belief in the Assumption, but its dogmatisation. By August 1950, 1191 bishops had responded.[3] Script error: No such module "Lang". reports popular acclaim and "nearly unanimous" approval of the contemporary bishops. The names of the bishops attending the dogma celebration in 1950 are listed at the entrance of St. Peter's Basilica.
Review of Catholic beliefs
Reflecting on the history of this belief in Catholic Christian tradition, Pope Pius XII writes that "the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church have never failed to draw enlightenment from this fact."[4] Script error: No such module "Lang". reviews the history of Catholic liturgy and the many liturgical books "which deal with the feast either of the Dormition or of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin".[5] Script error: No such module "Lang". cites also the teaching of previous popes and bishops and such writers as John of Damascus, Francis de Sales, Robert Bellarmine, Anthony of Padua, and Albert the Great, among others.
Georges Tavard wrote: "In the theology of Pope Pius XII, the Assumption of Mary's body and soul into heaven flow from her Immaculate Conception. The end balances the beginning, both having their profound reason in Mary's mission as the Theotokos."[6]
The document does not state that the assumption into heaven in body and soul was an exclusive privilege of the Virgin Mary and Jesus. Some scholars and saints believe that Saint Joseph, Saint John the Baptist, among other saints. This view was also recalled by Pope John XXIII. [7]
Relevance to the faithful
Written not long after the devastation of World War II, the encyclical conveys the hope that meditation on Mary’s assumption will lead the faithful to a greater awareness of our common dignity as the human family.[8] In the dogmatic statement, the phrase "having completed the course of her earthly life" was carefully written to leave open the question of whether or not Mary died before her Assumption, or whether, like the Assumption of the Prophet Elijah, Mary was assumed before death; both possibilities are allowed in the formulation. In articles 14, 17 and 20 of the dogmatic pronouncement, however, it is stated that Mary had indeed died: "the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, but ... she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ."
The entire decree (and the title itself) is also worded to suggest that Mary's Assumption was not in any sense a logical necessity, but rather a divine gift to Mary as Mother of God. Script error: No such module "Lang". teaches that Mary lived and completed her life as a shining example to the human race. The gift of her assumption is offered to all the faithful and signifies what to hope for at the end of time. Her assumption signifies God's intention to all the faithful.
Marian seers and the dogma of Assumption
On 1 May 1950 Gilles Bouhours (a marian seer) reported to Pius XII a presumed message that the Virgin Mary would have ordered him to communicate to the pope on the dogma of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary. It is said that Pius XII asked God, during the Holy Year of 1950, for a sign that could reassure him that the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was actually wanted by God and when Gilles communicated the message to Pius XII, the pope considered this message the hoped-for sign. Six months after the private audience granted to Gilles by the pope, Pius XII himself proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of body and soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.[9][10]
Non-Catholic opinion
Paul Tillich asked fellow Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in March 1950, about eight months before the decree was promulgated, if he expected the Pope to make the declaration about Mary's assumption Script error: No such module "Lang".. Niebuhr replied: "I don't think so; he is too clever for that; it would be a slap in the face of the whole modern world and it would be dangerous for the Roman Church to do that today".[11]
Among the Eastern Orthodox Christians and miaphysite Copts, Armenians, Ethiopians, and Eritreans, the doctrine of the Dormition of the Theotokos is different from the Assumption.Template:How
Carl Jung, in the final chapters of his 1952 book Answer to Job, called the dogma "the most important religious event since the Reformation".[12] He chastized its Protestant critics for overlooking its real psychological significance. Namely, Jung saw it as the manifestation of a culminating desire for completion in the Christian psyche; recognizing the feminine side of the divine would ease the inevitable incarnation of the Holy Ghost in humanity.[12]
See also
References
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- ↑ Encyclopedia of Catholicism by Frank K. Flinn, J. Gordon Melton 207 Template:ISBN page 267
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Pius, XII, "068 - Munificentissimus Deus" (1959). Marian Reprints. Paper 48
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang"., 14
- ↑ Script error: No such module "Lang"., 15
- ↑ Tavard, George H., The Thousand Faces of the Virgin Mary, Collegeille, Minnesota: Michael Glazier Books, 1996, p.198
- ↑ Homily on the occasion of the canonisation of St Gregory Barbarigo. Cf. AAS 52, (1960), 453-462. As quoted in Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
- ↑ Tillich, Paul. A History of Christian Thought: From its Judaic and Hellenistic Origins to Existentialism (1972), Simon and Schuster (edited from his lectures and published posthumously by C. E. Braaten), Template:ISBN. p. 224.
- ↑ a b Script error: No such module "citation/CS1".
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Further reading
Literature before the definition
- Pope Pius XII, Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus Defining the Dogma of the Assumption, Acta Apostolicae Sedis, vol. XXXXII (1950), n. 15, pp. 753–773
- C. Balic, Bibliotheca de Assumptione BVM ex Omnibus Saeculis, Rome, 1948, 2 Volumes
- Otto Faller, De Priorum Saeculorum Silentio circa Assumptionem BMV, Rome, 1946
- G. Hentrich et R.G.de Moos, Petitiones de Assumptione Corpora BVM in Caelum Definiendae ad S.Sedem Delatae, Vatican City, 1944; 2 Volumes
- G. Hentrich, Assomption de la Sainte Vierge, in Manoir, I, pp 621–658
- J.M. Bover, La Asuncion de Maria, Estudio teologico historico, Madrid, 1947
- J. Ernst, Die leibliche Himmelfahrt Mariens, Paris 1925
External links
- Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus (Complete text on the Vatican website)
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