WMDKitty Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I live next to a Catholic church, the Church of the Assumption. I've been wondering just what in the hell this "Assumption" is that they're talking about. Can anyone explain it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
♦ ficino ♦ Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin is a doctrine that says that Mary was taken to heaven bodily, thus anticipating the bodily resurrection of all the saints at the end of the world. The feast commemorating this supposed event is August 15. It's celebrated in the Eastern Orthodox church also. Sometimes the assumption is conflated with the so-called Dormition of Mary, which means her "falling asleep." That is, she appeared to die, but did not really die - went to heaven bodily. I don't know whether anyone claimed to see her body go to heaven. There are a lot of old paintings of the dormition and churches named after it. The Assumption was generally believed in all over the world but was officially defined as a "dogma" of the RC church by Pope Pius XII in, I think, 1952. He consulted the bishops worldwide by letter and got lots of affirmative responses. Protestants did not like the fact that the pope defined a dogma. It's important for understanding how papal infallibility works, though, because Pius XII used the wording "we pronounce, declare and define..." That sort of formula is necessary in a papal pronouncement to mark it as promulgated under papal infallibility. Not even Humanae Vitae, Paul VI's encyclical affirming the ban on artificial birth-control, had that language. People think whatever the pope says officially is put out there as infallible, but actually no papal pronouncement since the Assumption has been promulgated as infallible. The Church says the pope is always to be obeyed, though. OK, I'm starting to feel Catholic again, and this is too long, so I hope it answers your question, WMDKitty! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mcdaddy Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 The assumption to me is that all of us here know beyond a doubt that OrdinaryClay is a fucktard. That's my assumption. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WMDKitty Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 Thank you, ficino. I thought it might have something to do with that, but I wasn't sure exactly what the whole deal was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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