Roman Catholic Answeri. The taking into Heaven of the soul and body of the Blessed Virgin Mary on the completion of her earthly life, by an anticipation of the general judgement. After taking counsel with the whole Church through her bishops, Pope Pius XII in 1950 defined that the Assumption is divinely revealed; it is therefore now a dogma and article of faith. This of course does not mean that it is a "new dogma"'; the Church teaches that this doctrine was implicit in the deposit of the faith from the beginning, and it has been held explicitly from early times; but until 1950 it was only a generally held belief, but one which it would have been impious and blasphemous to deny. It is generally held that our Lady died in the ordinary way of nature, and that the reunion of her body with her