What Is the Doctrine of the Assumption?
This dogma (a teaching of the Church that requires belief on the part of all Catholics) states that Mary, body and soul, was taken by God into heaven as the course of her life on earth was completed. Pope Pius XII proclaimed this event to be a doctrine on November 1, 1950. Some wonder whether there is anything in the Bible about this event since they cannot recall the word Assumption being used. As a matter of fact, there is no such word Assumption in the Scriptures. And for some people, unless the exact word is in the Bible, it can t really be called God s revealed truth. However, what we have in the Church, besides the Scriptures, is the Sacred and Spirit-inspired Tradition of the Church regarding some of its most basic teachings. The doctrine of Mary s Assumption is based on what is called a theological conclusion because of other indirect references to it in the Scriptures. For example, at the Annunciation (celebrated March 25th, nine months before December 25th), the Angel Gabriel
