26/08/2026
Today is the solemnity of the of Mary, which marks the Church’s doctrine that Mary was taken to heaven, body and soul, at the end of her life. It’s a belief from the early Christian community, though it was only formally proclaimed a feast day by Pope Pius XII in 1950.
Though the day has often traditionally been used to highlight Mary's "perpetual virginity" and "purity," feminist theologians have challenged and nuanced those ideas to reclaim an empowering understanding of the Assumption for women.
Dr. Julia Feder, associate professor of systematic theology at Notre Dame, writes:
“.... [Korean feminist theologian] Chung [Hyun Kyung] argues that teachings concerning Mary’s virginity are best understood as statements about Mary’s independence, her refusal to derive her value exclusively from her relationships to men, and an inner integrity rooted in 'her true connectedness to her own self and to God.'"
And from "Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Poor," by Ivone Gebara and Maria Bingemer:
"Mary's assumption brings a new and promising future for women... [it] restores and reintegrates woman's bodiliness into the very mystery of God. Starting with Mary, the dignity of women's condition is recognised and safeguarded by the creator of that very bodiliness. In Jesus Christ and Mary the feminine is respectively resurrected and assumed into heaven—definitively sharing in the glory of the Trinitarian mystery from which all proceeds and to which all returns."
Finally, Dr. Dorothy Ann Lee at University of Divinity in Australia sees the authority of Mary as a basis for the ordination of women as priests today: "If the world received the body of Christ from this woman, Mary, then women today should not be excluded from giving the body of Christ, as priests, to the faithful at Mass."
