Do you agree with R. Catholics that Mary is ascended into heaven, rather than dying a mortal death?
To answer this question I first must comment on the first part – “Do we agree with R. Catholics that Mary is ascended into heaven,” First of all R. Catholics are not taught that Mary ascended into heaven. Jesus, by His own power, ascended into heaven. Mary was assumed or taken up into heaven by God. She didn’t do it under her own power. The 2nd part of the question – “rather than dying mortal death?” We are taught as dogma that Mary, “having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.” This doctrine was dogmatically and infallibly defined by Pope Pius XII on November 1, 1950, in his Apostolic Constitution Munificentissimus Deus. Some see this statement as leaving open the question of whether Mary died before her assumption or whether she was assumed before her death. The Church has never formally defined whether she died or not, and the integrity of the doctrine of the Assumption would not be impaired if she did not in fact die, but the almo
