Expert: Tom Schott - 1/2/2009

Question
QUESTION: My understanding is that dogmas are considered true and   grounded on authority of the Catholic Church.  Are any of the following dogma?
1. The Assumption, 2. The Immaculate Conception, 3. Ever Virgin (Mary)

ANSWER: Don,

Dogma, according to the Catechism, are truths defined by the Church that require "irrovocable adherence of faith." The three that you name, the perpetual virginity of Mary is the only one not officially proclaimed by the Church, but it has been believed from the earliest days of Church history. Cf. Catechism of the Catholic Church, #499-500.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Thank you very much for the assistance.  I have read that two of the three were declared dogma by popes and that perpetual virginity was known truth since at least as early as the 7th Century, and formally made dogma through Pope Paul IV at the Council of Trent in 1555.

Answer
Don,

The discussion in Richard McBrien's =Catholicism= is instructive about this. A few points we can assert with a fair degree of confidence:

--We do not know the exact origin of the belief in Mary's perpetual virginity. The belief isn't widely discussed, and some doctors of the Church, such as Tertullian, actively opposed the idea.

--But from the third century on, belief in Mary's perpetual virginity came to be universally accepted.

--The 2nd Council of Constantinople in 553 proclaimed ". . . the Word of God came down from the heavens and was made flesh of holy and glorious Mary, Mother of God and Ever-Virgin, and was born from her." (Wikipedia) I would understand this to be the first dogmatic proclamation of her perpetual virginity.

--The Lateran Council in 649 taught the tripartite virginity of Mary: a virgin before, during, and after the birth of Jesus. (Harper Encyclopedia of Catholicism)

Bottom line: dogmatic proclamation of Mary's perpetual virginity came long before Trent.