SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION
Rome, November 1,1950
Pope Pius XII, seated on a red throne in the center of Saint Peter's Square, looked with satisfaction upon the document before him. It represented the culmination of a process that had begun almost 100 years earlier and the fulfillment of a personal promise that he had made to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Over 700,000 Catholics had come to the Vatican to witness the signing of the document.
Born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Pacelli, Pius Xll's election as Pope in 1939 surprised no one. The Pacelli family had served the Vatican for decades. His grandfather had been the Vatican's Under Secretary of the Interior. His father and brother were distinguished Vatican lawyers. Eugenio himself was an expert in canon law and an experienced diplomat. The previous Pope, Pius XI, had chosen him to serve as Vatican Secretary of State. It was soon apparent that the Pope was grooming Eugenio to be his successor. When Pius XI died, the cardinals elected Eugenio as the new Pope in the shortest conclave in modem history. In honor of his mentor, Eugenio took the name of Pius XII.
One of the first goals of the new Pope was to promote devotion to Mary, but the outbreak of World War II delayed his plans. Once the war was over, however, Pius sent an encyclical, Deiparae Virginis Mariae, to the bishops of the world in 1946. In it he reviewed how for almost 100 years Catholics had been petitioning the Vatican to formally declare that God had taken Mary bodily into heaven. Pope Pius then asked the bishops for their position on the matter:
... We wish lo know if you, Venerable Brethren, with your learning and prudence consider that the bodily Assumption of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith, and whether in addition to your own wishes this is desired by your clergy and people,
-Deiparae Virginis Mariae-no. 4
The response to the letter was beyond the Pope's expectations. Petitions encouraging Pius to move ahead flooded the Vatican.
Nevertheless, Pius' legal training made him hesitant to act. It was a well-established principle of the Roman Catholic Church that doctrine must be contained in the deposit of faith-that is, in Scripture and Tradition. The Bible said nothing about Mary's death, burial, or Assumption. Witnesses to Tradition from the first centuries were also silent. In such a case, it was not clear whether the Pope had the prerogative to define a doctrine. Pius carefully studied the matter and decided that it was too soon to act on the petitions before him. First he would need to clarify the scope of the Church's teaching authority.
On August 12, 1950, Pope Pius XII issued another encyclical to the bishops, Humani Generis. It appeared to be a routine pastoral warning of the dangers of modern theological trends. Some Catholic scholars, however, noticed something different:
It soon became evident that behind the encylical was a deeper substratum of papal thought. In one passage of the document an apparent leap ahead in doctrinal development was acknowledged.
-The Papacy Today-p.69
The passage in Pope Pius' letter that caught the attention of theologians was short but significant:
... God has given to His Church a living Teaching Authority to elucidate and explain what is contained in the deposit of faith only obscurely and implicitly. This deposit of faith
our Divine Redeemer has given for authentic interpretation not to each of the faithful, not even to theologians, but only lo the Teaching Authority of the Church.
-Humani Generis-no. 21
Clearly, Pius was preparing to dogmatically define the Assumption of Mary. That is, he was going "to elucidate and explain" that the Assumption of Mary was "contained in the deposit of faith," even though admittedly "only obscurely and implicitly." He would do so despite a lack of clear support either from Scripture or from early witnesses to
Tradition.
Three months later, on November 1,1950, Pope Pius took his seat before an overflow crowd in Saint Peter's Square. In front of him lay the final draft of a document titled Munificentissimus Deus, that is, Most Bountiful God. It traced the history of widespread Catholic belief in the Assumption of Mary. The document concluded with a declaration staying:
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 lo 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.
-Munificentissimus Deus-no.44
Pope Pius XII, with characteristic precision, signed the document, "I, Pius, Bishop of the Catholic Church, have signed, so defining." The bells of Rome's 400 churches thundered their approval as the crowd cheered and applauded.
On that day Pope Pius not only achieved his goal to honor Mary but in so doing also established a new precedent for the development of doctrine within Roman Catholicism.
rufus
[ February 22, 2003, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: rufus ]
Rome, November 1,1950
Pope Pius XII, seated on a red throne in the center of Saint Peter's Square, looked with satisfaction upon the document before him. It represented the culmination of a process that had begun almost 100 years earlier and the fulfillment of a personal promise that he had made to the Blessed Virgin Mary. Over 700,000 Catholics had come to the Vatican to witness the signing of the document.
Born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Pacelli, Pius Xll's election as Pope in 1939 surprised no one. The Pacelli family had served the Vatican for decades. His grandfather had been the Vatican's Under Secretary of the Interior. His father and brother were distinguished Vatican lawyers. Eugenio himself was an expert in canon law and an experienced diplomat. The previous Pope, Pius XI, had chosen him to serve as Vatican Secretary of State. It was soon apparent that the Pope was grooming Eugenio to be his successor. When Pius XI died, the cardinals elected Eugenio as the new Pope in the shortest conclave in modem history. In honor of his mentor, Eugenio took the name of Pius XII.
One of the first goals of the new Pope was to promote devotion to Mary, but the outbreak of World War II delayed his plans. Once the war was over, however, Pius sent an encyclical, Deiparae Virginis Mariae, to the bishops of the world in 1946. In it he reviewed how for almost 100 years Catholics had been petitioning the Vatican to formally declare that God had taken Mary bodily into heaven. Pope Pius then asked the bishops for their position on the matter:
... We wish lo know if you, Venerable Brethren, with your learning and prudence consider that the bodily Assumption of the Immaculate Blessed Virgin can be proposed and defined as a dogma of faith, and whether in addition to your own wishes this is desired by your clergy and people,
-Deiparae Virginis Mariae-no. 4
The response to the letter was beyond the Pope's expectations. Petitions encouraging Pius to move ahead flooded the Vatican.
Nevertheless, Pius' legal training made him hesitant to act. It was a well-established principle of the Roman Catholic Church that doctrine must be contained in the deposit of faith-that is, in Scripture and Tradition. The Bible said nothing about Mary's death, burial, or Assumption. Witnesses to Tradition from the first centuries were also silent. In such a case, it was not clear whether the Pope had the prerogative to define a doctrine. Pius carefully studied the matter and decided that it was too soon to act on the petitions before him. First he would need to clarify the scope of the Church's teaching authority.
On August 12, 1950, Pope Pius XII issued another encyclical to the bishops, Humani Generis. It appeared to be a routine pastoral warning of the dangers of modern theological trends. Some Catholic scholars, however, noticed something different:
It soon became evident that behind the encylical was a deeper substratum of papal thought. In one passage of the document an apparent leap ahead in doctrinal development was acknowledged.
-The Papacy Today-p.69
The passage in Pope Pius' letter that caught the attention of theologians was short but significant:
... God has given to His Church a living Teaching Authority to elucidate and explain what is contained in the deposit of faith only obscurely and implicitly. This deposit of faith
our Divine Redeemer has given for authentic interpretation not to each of the faithful, not even to theologians, but only lo the Teaching Authority of the Church.
-Humani Generis-no. 21
Clearly, Pius was preparing to dogmatically define the Assumption of Mary. That is, he was going "to elucidate and explain" that the Assumption of Mary was "contained in the deposit of faith," even though admittedly "only obscurely and implicitly." He would do so despite a lack of clear support either from Scripture or from early witnesses to
Tradition.
Three months later, on November 1,1950, Pope Pius took his seat before an overflow crowd in Saint Peter's Square. In front of him lay the final draft of a document titled Munificentissimus Deus, that is, Most Bountiful God. It traced the history of widespread Catholic belief in the Assumption of Mary. The document concluded with a declaration staying:
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 lo 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.
-Munificentissimus Deus-no.44
Pope Pius XII, with characteristic precision, signed the document, "I, Pius, Bishop of the Catholic Church, have signed, so defining." The bells of Rome's 400 churches thundered their approval as the crowd cheered and applauded.
On that day Pope Pius not only achieved his goal to honor Mary but in so doing also established a new precedent for the development of doctrine within Roman Catholicism.
rufus
[ February 22, 2003, 08:10 AM: Message edited by: rufus ]
