In the middle of this month we will celebrate the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The belief that Our Lady’s body was not permitted to suffer the corruption of death but instead was raised up to heaven was not formally defined until 1950, though it had been believed by the vast majority of Catholics for centuries before that.
But, it might be objected, there is nothing in the Scriptures about it, and therefore we should not be obliged to believe it. There are two things wrong with this claim: firstly, the presupposition that a truth of the faith is only a truth of the faith if it is explicitly stated in the Bible. It is, I suggest, open to discussion whether the doctrine of the Trinity is stated in plain, unambiguous terms – though I would claim that it is the only plausible interpretation of certain passages. We Catholics have no problem with the idea that the Holy Spirit guides the Church to a fuller understanding of the faith of the Apostles than what can be read uncontroversially out of Scripture. We are not a sola scriptura religion like Islam.
