Munificentissimus Deus

Munificentissimus Deus (Latin for The infinitely bountiful God ) is the title of an Apostolic Constitution, with the Pope Pius XII. on November 1, 1950 announced the dogma of the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven.

Genesis

Assumption into heaven ( popularly also Assumption) is a feast of the Roman Catholic and the Orthodox Church, celebrated on August 15. The belief in the bodily assumption of Mary into heaven is attested in the church since the 6th century.

After the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX. on 8 December 1854 in the Papal Bull Ineffabilis Deus (Latin for The incomprehensible God ) was generally expected that the Assumption of Mary would be dogmatic to heaven soon. By changing the theological interests after the First Vatican Council and by the two world wars, however, the issue faded into the background. Only Pius XII. attacked the question again and straightened with the encyclical Virginis Mariae Deiparae from 1 May 1946 corresponding request to the bishops of the world. He asked for an opinion on the possibility of a dogma of Mary's Assumption into heaven. For this reached the Pope predominantly affirmative answers.

The dogma

The constitution declares the dogma with these words:

" We proclaim, declare and define it as a divinely revealed dogma that the immaculate Mother of God, the ever pure Virgin Mary, was taken up into heavenly glory after the completion of their earthly course of life, body and soul. "

In this Constitution, the corresponding definitions that emphasize the importance of Mary and her veneration follow. Bodily Assumption into heaven would mean, therefore, that the Virgin Mary was preserved free from all stain of original sin. The completion of the earthly life had followed the inclusion in the kingdom of heaven, Mary was brought to the side of God, to be thus treated her son. Pius XII. further explained that what happen to all the people in the completion, had been anticipated in Mary. Therefore, they now live in a new, glorified spiritual and physical unity in the presence of God, but man Maria should thereby be clearly distinguished from the Son of God. Pius XII. closed the Constitution in the following terms:

"If, therefore, God forbid, someone intentionally this is what we have defined, denies or casts doubt, he should know that he's completely fallen away from the divine and universal faith. "