Understand The Times, International

Pius XII today is often associated with the debate surrounding his assistance to Jews during World War II. But as his first encyclical turned 70 this month, a conference was held to reflect on one of the truly momentous contributions of this Pope to history: his Marian devotion and doctrine.

Special veneration of the Mother of Jesus made its greatest impact in the first half of the 20th century, to the point that Blessed John XXIII would refer to it as the age of Mary. The Pontiff's devotion was also expressed through a series of official events (Roschini lists 400 documents) whose objective was to promote Mary's presence in the life and thought of the Church.

The noteworthy events of Pius XII's Marian magisterium are numerous. There is the famous encyclical "Mystici Corporis Christi" (of June 29, 1943), in which the Pope specifies the Virgin's place in the Mystical Body of Christ, presenting her as "alma socia Christi," that is, Mother associated to the Son in all his redemptive work.

He was the Pope to consecrate the world to the Immaculate Heart of Mary (on Oct. 31, 1942), thus heeding the request of the Portuguese episcopate on the 25th anniversary of the apparitions of the Virgin in Fatima. At the height of the War, the Pope invoked Mary as "refuge of the human race" and entrusted the whole world to her maternal protection. Pius XII reiterated this act of confidence in Jesus' Mother consecrating Russia to her in 1952 and Spain in 1954. As a continuation of these gestures, Pius XII established the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in the universal Church on March 4, 1944.

This Marian Year was solemnly opened Dec. 8, 1953, in St. Mary Major, and closed in St. Peter's on Nov. 1, 1954, with the crowning of the Salus populi romani [salvation of the Roman people] icon of Mary and with the institution of the feast of Mary Queen of Heaven.

Father De Fiores explained to ZENIT that "Pius XII will remain in the history of the Catholic faith above all for the dogmatic definition of Mary's assumption in body and soul to heaven."

The Nov. 1, 1950, proclamation was a memorable event in the history of the Church, which Pius XII himself interpreted with these words: "As though shaken by the beat of your hearts and by the commotion of your lips, the very stones of this patriarchal basilica vibrate and together with them it seems the innumerable and ancient churches cry out with mysterious trembling, raised everywhere in honor of the Assumption."