Munificentissimus Deus
Munificentissimus Deus (Latin: The most bountiful God) is the name of an apostolic constitution written by Pope Pius XII. It defines ex cathedra the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was the first ex-cathedra infallible statement since the official ruling on papal infallibility was made at the First Vatican Council (1869–1870). In 1854 Pope Pius IX made an infallible statement with Ineffabilis Deus on the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, which was a basis for this dogma. The decree was promulgated on 1 November 1950.[1]
Munificentissimus Deus
Latin for 'The most bountiful God'
Apostolic constitution of Pope Pius XII
1 November 1950
Ex cathedra definition of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary as a dogma
Review of Catholic beliefs[edit]
Reflecting on the history of this belief in Catholic Christian tradition, Pope Pius XII writes that "the holy Fathers and Doctors of the Church have never failed to draw enlightenment from this fact."[6] Munificentissimus Deus reviews the history of Catholic liturgy and the many liturgical books "which deal with the feast either of the Dormition or of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin".[7] Munificentissimus Deus cites also the teaching of previous popes and bishops and such writers as John of Damascus, Francis de Sales, Robert Bellarmine, Anthony of Padua, and Albert the Great, among others.
George Tavard wrote: "In the theology of Pope Pius XII, the Assumption of Mary's body and soul into heaven flow from her Immaculate Conception. The end balances the beginning, both having their profound reason in Mary's mission as the Theotokos."[8]
Marian seers and the dogma of Assumption[edit]
On 1 May 1950 Gilles Bouhours (a marian seer) reported to Pius XII a presumed message that the Virgin Mary would have ordered him to communicate to the pope on the dogma of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin Mary. It is said that Pius XII asked God, during the Holy Year of 1950, for a sign that could reassure him that the dogma of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary was actually wanted by God and when Gilles communicated the message to Pius XII, the pope considered this message the hoped-for sign. Six months after the private audience granted to Gilles by the pope, Pius XII himself proclaimed the dogma of the Assumption of body and soul of the Blessed Virgin Mary into Heaven.[10][11]
Non-Catholic opinion[edit]
Paul Tillich asked fellow Protestant theologian Reinhold Niebuhr in March 1950, about eight months before the decree was promulgated, if he expected the Pope to make the declaration about Mary's assumption ex cathedra. Niebuhr replied: "I don't think so; he is too clever for that; it would be a slap in the face of the whole modern world and it would be dangerous for the Roman Church to do that today".[12]
Among the Eastern Orthodox and miaphysite Copts, Armenians, Ethiopians, Eritreans, the doctrine of the Dormition of the Theotokos is different from the Assumption.
Carl Jung, in the final chapters of his 1952 book Answer to Job, called the dogma "the most important religious event since the Reformation".[13] He chastized its Protestant critics for overlooking its real psychological significance. Namely, Jung saw it as the manifestation of a culminating desire for completion in the Christian psyche; recognizing the feminine side of the divine would ease the inevitable incarnation of the Holy Ghost in humanity.[13]
Literature before the definition