The declaration of Mary's Assumption brought about no change in the belief of Catholics, therefore one could ask what was the point of the declaration, it certainly wasn't being seriously attacked by anyone. One could be cynical and suggest that it was merely Pius XII being triumphalistic, that may or may not be the case. If it was that, then it seems to have wondrously providential, it was the declaration of the Assumption that formed the background of the rest of the 20th century. So many of the names of the bishops whose names are inscribed on the bronze plaques in the portico of St Peter's as being present at the declaration are on similar plaques which note their presence at the Vatican Council.
With the torrent of the Rhine flowing into the Tiber a decade and a half later the Assumption highlighted so many doctrines that are particularly Catholic, it emphasised distinctiveness and divisiveness.
- First of all the Blessed Virgin's central, in salvation history. All turns on her Fiat, her absolute freewill, prepared for by her Immaculate Conception. It is also about our own freewill and about Grace too.
- It underscores that Catholicism is based on Tradition as well as Scripture.
- It marks the peculiarity of Catholic eschatology: our belief in Particular Judgement after death, heaven for saints, purgatory for those in need of purification and hell for sinners and in General Judgement, unlike the other Saints, She alone is taken up body and soul into heaven, other saints have to wait until the last day when bodies are united to souls.
- It is about "flesh", the resurrection of the body, when so many are hazy not only about our own physical resurrection but even the Lords.
- It is also about the nature of the Church, triumphant in heaven, militant on earth and suffering in purgatory.
Thank God for Pius XII's willingness to mark the distinctiveness, divisiveness, of the Assumption.