Since it falls on a Saturday this year, the feast of the Assumption – Aug. 15 – is not a holy day of obligation.
Father Joseph Previte, pastor of Holy Rosary Parish in Cleveland, which traditionally hosts a large public Mass, procession and street festival in conjunction with the feast, said the events are canceled this year because of the coronavirus pandemic. However, he invited the faithful to watch a livestreamed Mass at 10 a.m. on the parish website. The Mass, which will be celebrated privately, also can be viewed on the diocesan website.
Holy Rosary and Cleveland officials announced in a joint statement on June 19 that the annual four-day Feast of the Assumption street festival, which has taken place for the past 121 years in Cleveland’s Little Italy neighborhood, is canceled. Father Previte said as the feast draws closer, he has received inquiries from people asking whether the statue of Mary will be available on the street or if any public prayers are planned.
“We are not having anything that could attract a crowd,” Father Previte said, which is in keeping with the guidelines set by local, county, state and federal health officials. Canceling the celebration was a “difficult but necessary decision,” but he said the health and safety of the volunteers, vendors and attendees is the highest priority. Festivities take place in a confined area so it would be very difficult to follow guidelines for social distancing. He and city officials said they are looking forward to resuming the celebration in 2021.
Father Previte also said he recorded a rosary with the glorious mysteries that can be viewed after the Mass. There will be a link to the rosary on the parish website.
The Catholic Church teaches that when Mary ended her earthly life, God assumed her – body and soul – into heaven. Mary was said to have died in the presence of the apostles, but when her tomb was opened at the request of St. Thomas, it was empty.
Around the 8thcentury, the Church began to change its terminology and renamed the feast day of the Memorial of Mary to the Assumption of Mary. In 1950, Pope Pius XII made an infallible, ex-cathedra statement in the Apostolic Constitution “Munificentissimus deus” officially defining the dogma of the Assumption.
“By the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ, of the Blessed Apostles Peter and Paul, and by our own authority, we pronounce, declare, and define it to be a divinely revealed dogma: that the Immaculate Mother of God, the ever Virgin Mary, having completed the course of her earthly life, was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory,” the pope wrote.
That decree was seen as the formalization of long-held Christian teaching.
Also, the dogma uses passive tense, emphasizing that Mary did not ascend into heaven on her own power -- as Christ did -- but was raised into heaven by God’s grace.
Today, the Feast of the Assumption is marked as a major feast day and a public holiday in many countries. In most countries, including the United States, it is a holy day of obligation, and Catholics are required to attend Mass.