By Mark Miravalle, Catholic Exchange - The dogma of the Assumption declares that at the conclusion of her earthly life, Mary’s body was preserved from all physical corruption and assumed, along with her soul, into heaven. The doctrine of the Assumption was made a dogma in 1950 through an ex cathedra statement by Pope Pius XII, but the teaching itself, as with all dogmas, goes back to the Bible and the traditions of the early Church.