A reflection contributed by Peter Culloty In celebrating the Feast of the Assumption, the Church recalls how Mary’s life on earth ended.  However the gospel story that is put before us is that of the visitation – the wonderful encounter between two women pregnant with salvation.  Both women conceived in unusual circumstances, both are humble people who are willing instruments of God’s great plan for the world.  Mary greets Elizabeth and, as soon as Elizabeth hears Mary’s greeting her child leapt in her womb and Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit and makes the prophetic announcement to Mary that we remember every time we pray the Hail Mary “Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.” (Lk 1:42) The Feast of the Assumption is the Patronal Feast of the Church in New Zealand.  It is a time when we recall the origins of the Catholic Church here in our country, when Bishop Pompallier, as he celebrated the first Mass on New Zealand soil, dedicated this mission to the Assumption of Mary. This doctrine for those with faith, those who do not restrict their notion of the real to that which is perceptible to the senses or exists in space and time developed into the dogma of the Assumption which was proclaimed in November 1950. The question of making this doctrine into part of the deposit of faith was initiated in May 1946 when the then Pope Pius XII addressed a letter
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