The Dogma of the Assumption

In 1946, Pius XII sent a letter to all the bishops of the world to ask if he should proceed toward defining the Dogma of the Assumption. Since the answer was almost unanimously positive, the pope announced that he was of the mind to confirm "the unanimous teaching of the ordinary Magisterium of the Church and the unanimous belief of the Christian people." On May 1, 1950, a 6 year-old boy who had been receiving visions of Our Lady in Seilhan, France, since 1947, was granted a private audience by Pope Pius XII. The child gave the Holy Father a message Our Lady had confided to him: "The Holy Virgin went up to Heaven with her body, and your virginal body will be found to be incorrupt after your death." Then on October 30 and 31, and November 1st and 8, 1950, the pope, walking outside in the gardens of the Vatican, saw the sun "dance" in the sky, just as it had happened in Fatima in 1917. The Pope was further encouraged by the mighty ray of the sun which surrounded him when he proclaimed the Dogma.