Dogma and Mary

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I have a narrow question to ask regarding dogma. I am not questioning the Asumption of Mary, her intercession, etc. What I am asking is with respect to the dogmatic declaration by Pope Pius the XII regarding Mary where he established as Dogma her assumption.

I have not yet found the document, Munificentissimus Deus, translated into English and only read it second hand. What puzzles me is the following paragraph from Wiki.

In this dogmatic statement, the phrase “having completed the course of her earthly life” is carefully written to leave open the question of whether or not Mary died before her Assumption, or whether, like the Assumption of the Prophet Elijah, Mary was assumed before death; both possibilities are allowed in the formulation. However in articles 14, 17 and 20 of the dogmatic pronouncement it is stated that Mary had indeed died, “…the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, but that she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ…”.

Was there a narrow portion of the document which defined the dogmatic statement followed up with a longer non dogmatic explination ? While not being dogmatic do not the statements by Pius XII carry some more significant weight in settling the matter ? Or is this not necessarily a correct represtentation of the document ?

I understand the East tends to believe she died before assumption and that there are mixed views in the West. It is my understanding that in all cases it is assumed she did not see corruption.

Thanks.
 
Here is the document in English.

The defining paragraph is #44:*For which reason, after we have poured forth prayers of supplication again and again to God, and have invoked the light of the Spirit of Truth, for the glory of Almighty God who has lavished his special affection upon the Virgin Mary, for the honor of her Son, the immortal King of the Ages and the Victor over sin and death, for the increase of the glory of that same august Mother, and for the joy and exultation of the entire Church; by the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma:

that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory.*As apologist Karl Keating has noted on CAL radio, the wording is careful here to say “completion of the course of her earthly life,” not defining whether or not she died. It is important that these are the words following “we pronounce, declare, and define” because that’s the infallible statement coming up.

Be it noted, however, that it is likely she did experience temporal death, as evidenced in paragraph 17 and a couple other places:

#17 In the liturgical books which deal with the feast either of the dormition or of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin there are expressions that agree in testifying that, when the Virgin Mother of God passed from this earthly exile to heaven, what happened to her sacred body was, by the decree of divine Providence, in keeping with the dignity of the Mother of the Word Incarnate, and with the other privileges she had been accorded. Thus, to cite an illustrious example, this is set forth in that sacramentary which Adrian I, our predecessor of immortal memory, sent to the Emperor Charlemagne. These words are found in this volume: “Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death, but still could not be kept down by the bonds of death, who has begotten your Son our Lord incarnate from herself.”:o
 
luciasclay said:
I have a narrow question to ask regarding dogma. I am not questioning the Asumption of Mary, her intercession, etc. What I am asking is with respect to the dogmatic declaration by Pope Pius the XII regarding Mary where he established as Dogma her assumption.

I have not yet found the document, Munificentissimus Deus, translated into English and only read it second hand. What puzzles me is the following paragraph from Wiki.
In this dogmatic statement, the phrase “having completed the course of her earthly life” is carefully written to leave open the question of whether or not Mary died before her Assumption, or whether, like the Assumption of the Prophet Elijah, Mary was assumed before death; both possibilities are allowed in the formulation. However in articles 14, 17 and 20 of the dogmatic pronouncement it is stated that Mary had indeed died, “…the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, but that she gained a triumph out of death, her heavenly glorification after the example of her only begotten Son, Jesus Christ…”.
Was there a narrow portion of the document which defined the dogmatic statement followed up with a longer non dogmatic explination ? While not being dogmatic do not the statements by Pius XII carry some more significant weight in settling the matter ? Or is this not necessarily a correct represtentation of the document ?

I understand the East tends to believe she died before assumption and that there are mixed views in the West. It is my understanding that in all cases it is assumed she did not see corruption.

Thanks.
Click to expand...
Try this site:
papalencyclicals.net/Pius12/P12MUNIF.HTM

It does state that in paragraph 20.
 
The Magisterium can teach either infallibly or non-infallibly.

the teaching that Mary was assumed is taught infallibly.

the teaching in the same Apostolic Constitution that she first died and rose from the dead is taught non-infallibly in that same document.

most papal documents teach non-infallibly.

infallible teachings require assent with a divine and catholic faith
non-infallible teachings require the religious submission of will and intellect

Some of the faithful piously doubt that the Virgin Mary died and was resurrected before being assumed into Heaven. But the Apostolic Constitution of Pope Pius XII, Munificentissimus Deus, clearly and repeatedly refers to the death of the Virgin Mary. In no less than seven separate paragraphs this Apostolic Constitution refers, in one way or another, to the death of the Virgin Mary:
  1. “In the same way, it was not difficult for them to admit that the great Mother of God, like her only begotten Son, had actually passed from this life.” (n. 14)
  2. " ‘Venerable to us, O Lord, is the festivity of this day on which the holy Mother of God suffered temporal death….’ " (n. 17, quoting the Sacramentarium Gregorianum)
  3. " ‘As he kept you a virgin in childbirth, thus he has kept your body incorrupt in the tomb and has glorified it by his divine act of transferring it from the tomb.’ " (n. 18, quoting the Byzantine liturgy)
  4. “…this feast shows, not only that the dead body of the Blessed Virgin Mary remained incorrupt, but that she gained a triumph out of death….” (n. 20, referring to the feast of the Assumption)
  5. " ‘It was fitting that she, who had kept her virginity intact in childbirth, should keep her own body free from all corruption even after death.’ " (n. 21, quoting St. John Damascene)
  6. " ‘…she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with him who has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to himself in a way known only to him.’ " (n. 22, a quote attributed to St. Modestus of Jerusalem)
  7. “Hence the revered Mother of God…finally obtained, as the supreme culmination of her privileges, that she should be preserved free from the corruption of the tomb and that, like her own Son, having overcome death, she might be taken up body and soul to the glory of heaven….” (n. 40)

    In no less than three places, this Apostolic Constitution, Munificentissimus Deus, also clearly refers to the Resurrection of the Virgin Mary:
  8. “Thus, during the earliest period of scholastic theology, that most pious man, Amadeus, Bishop of Lausanne, held that the Virgin Mary’s flesh had remained incorrupt-for it is wrong to believe that her body has seen corruption-because it was really united again to her soul and, together with it, crowned with great glory in the heavenly courts.” (n. 28)
  9. " ‘What son would not bring his mother back to life and would not bring her into paradise after death if he could?’ " (n. 35, quoting St. Francis of Sales)
  10. " ‘…she has received an eternal incorruptibility of the body together with him who has raised her up from the tomb and has taken her up to himself in a way known only to him.’ " (n. 22, a quote attributed to St. Modestus of Jerusalem)
 
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