Seventy-five years ago, Pope Pius XII declared the dogma of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary to be part of the infallible teaching of the Church, giving the world a female symbol of transcendence.

In the end, there are only two things that matter about human life. The first is that we die, and that our flesh will rot in earth or fire – earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; and the second is that God offers us each the possibility of eternal life, body and soul, at the end of time. These are the truths that should be borne in upon us on All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, and they are the truths that give meaning to the dogma that “the Blessed Virgin Mary, at the end of her earthly life, was assumed, body and soul, into heavenly glory”.

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