By Robert B. Greving, Crisis Magazine, Aug. 15, 2023
Robert B. Greving teaches Latin and English grammar at a Maryland high school. Mr. Greving served five years in the U.S. Army J.A.G. Corps following his graduation from the Dickinson School of Law.
Usually, the Church proclaims a dogma in reaction to a spreading heresy. But the dogmas of the Immaculate Conception and the Assumption were preemptively declared to prepare for future heresies.
August 15 is the Solemnity of the Assumption of Mary, a dogma defined by Pope Pius XII in 1950 proclaiming that Mary, having completed the course of her life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory. It “piggybacks” on the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, proclaimed by Pope Pius IX in 1854, which proclaimed that Mary was conceived without the stain of original sin. Among other things, these dogmas consecrate the “bookends” of man’s bodily existence on earth. That should give us pause.
Usually, the Church proclaims a dogma in reaction to a spreading heresy. For example, in 431 the Church proclaimed the dogma of Mary as Mother of God (or theotokos, “God bearer”) against the rising heresy of Nestorianism, the idea that Christ was of two persons, one human and one divine. …