Got it.
You wrote:
“So, hundreds of years after she walked the earth, somebody said she never died. And Pius, the Nazis’ favorite Pope, had the final word.”
Who EXACTLY said she never died? Also, how could Pope Pius XII be a fovorite of the Nazis if Hitler at one time ordered him kidnapped or assassinated? Is that what you would do with your favorite people? Well, maybe YOU would.
Your being harsh.
From Catholic Encyclopaedia:
“Regarding the day, year, and manner of Our Lady’s death, nothing certain is known. The earliest known literary reference to the Assumption is found in the Greek work De Obitu S. Dominae. Catholic faith, however, has always derived our knowledge of the mystery from Apostolic Tradition. Epiphanius (d. 403) acknowledged that he knew nothing definite about it (Haer., lxxix, 11). The dates assigned for it vary between three and fifteen years after Christ’s Ascension. Two cities claim to be the place of her departure: Jerusalem and Ephesus. Common consent favours Jerusalem, where her tomb is shown; but some argue in favour of Ephesus. The first six centuries did not know of the tomb of Mary at Jerusalem.
The belief in the corporeal assumption of Mary is founded on the apocryphal treatise De Obitu S. Dominae, bearing the name of St. John, which belongs however to the fourth or fifth century. It is also found in the book De Transitu Virginis, falsely ascribed to St. Melito of Sardis, and in a spurious letter attributed to St. Denis the Areopagite. If we consult genuine writings in the East, it is mentioned in the sermons of St. Andrew of Crete, St. John Damascene, St. Modestus of Jerusalem and others. In the West, St. Gregory of Tours (De gloria mart., I, iv) mentions it first. The sermons of St. Jerome and St. Augustine for this feast, however, are spurious. St. John of Damascus (P.G., I, 96) thus formulates the tradition of the Church of Jerusalem:
St. Juvenal, Bishop of Jerusalem, at the Council of Chalcedon (451), made known to the Emperor Marcian and Pulcheria, who wished to possess the body of the Mother of God, that Mary died in the presence of all the Apostles, but that her tomb, when opened, upon the request of St. Thomas, was found empty; wherefrom the Apostles concluded that the body was taken up to heaven.”
For Pope Pius XII:
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02006b.htm
“Pope Pius XII headed a vast underground of priests, religious, and laity throughout Italy to serve as a pipeline to save Jews and Gentiles alike from the Nazi government. It is believed that Pope Pius XII aided more than 1,500,000 refugees, including Jews, throughout the war.
“It is an abominable slander” he said, “to spread blame that belongs to Hitler and the Nazis to a pope who was a friend of the Jews.-—”
“Rabbi David G. Dalin, a professor of History, says that not only did Pope Pius protect and defend the Jews during World War II, but that there has been a tradition of papal support for Jewish people since at least the fourth century—a claim that flies in the face of much modern speculation.”
Spells out the misconceptions!
Pius XII saved 860,000 Jews from the Holocaust.