By John M. Grondelski, The Catholic Thing - Though it was only in 1950 that the Feast of the Assumption was defined by Pope Pius XII, Catholics have believed that “having completed the course of her earthly life, the Blessed Virgin Mary was taken body and soul to heaven”... High Mariology focused on Mary’s uniqueness. The Assumption was the special privilege of the one who was immaculately conceived (another ecumenical stumbling block). The body of the sinless woman who bore the Body of Christ could not suffer corruption.