Before 1950, the assumption of Mary was open to Theological debate, but once the Pope defined it as doctrine it is considered a closed topic in the Roman Catholic Church.
Outside the RCC, it's still open to debate. Personallly, I think all of the focus on Mary is a bit silly, although I will light a pink candle for her soon.
"Before 1950, the assumption of Mary was open to Theological debate, but once the Pope defined it as doctrine it is considered a closed topic in the Roman Catholic Church."
Yet that pope was not there to witness what happened, and no pope claims to be a prophet or get revelations. He just had power to turn his personal opinion into church dogma because of the office that other men voted him into.
" That belief (the Assumption of Mary) was ancient, dating back to the apostles themselves. What was clear from the beginning was that there were no relics of Mary to be venerated, and that an empty tomb stood on the edge of Jerusalem near the site of her death. That location also soon became a place of pilgrimage. (Today, the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition of Mary stands on the spot.)
At the Council of Chalcedon in 451, when bishops from throughout the Mediterranean world gathered in Constantinople, Emperor Marcian asked the Patriarch of Jerusalem to bring the relics of Mary to Constantinople to be enshrined in the capitol. The patriarch explained to the emperor that there were no relics of Mary in Jerusalem, that "Mary had died in the presence of the apostles; but her tomb, when opened later . . . was found empty and so the apostles concluded that the body was taken up into heaven."