"Priest denies bodily Assumption of Mary at Mass while allowing ‘liturgical dance’"

During a televised Mass celebrating the 125th anniversary of his parish’s founding on the Feast of the Assumption, a priest delivered a heretical sermon questioning the Assumption of the Virgin Mary while also allowing men and women dressed in brightly colored hoop skirts to perform a liturgical dance.

The troubling liturgy took place at La Asunción parish in the town of Torrelavega, Spain.

“Today we celebrate Mary ascending to heaven, body and soul,” began Father Juan Carlos Rodríguez del Pozo’s homily. He then declared:

Obviously, we should not take this literally. No human being ascends to heaven, body and soul. Heaven is not a physical place; it is a state of the soul — a state of fulfillment and happiness.

According to a report by InfoVaticana, a media outlet that covers events in both Rome and Spain, the priest also referred to the many names with which the church honors Mary as “mythology”:

God chooses Mary, a humble woman, a woman of the people. Mythology has shaped her and exalted her to such an extent – adorning her with so many necklaces, crowns, privileges, and titles – because sometimes we must turn to mythology to speak of realities that are earthly (…) realities of this world that are difficult to put into words, and so we have to resort to mythology.

Universitarios Católicos (UC), an organization that says it is obliged “to bring the Cross to the world,” took the heretical parish to task.

“Don Juan Carlos, the Assumption of Mary is NOT something “symbolic” or ‘mythological.’ It is a dogma of faith defined ex cathedra by Pius XII in 1950: ‘she was assumed in body and soul to heavenly glory,’” UC declared. “To deny it is to desert the Catholic faith (Munificentissimus Deus).”

“A priest who does this incurs formal heresy, places himself outside of communion, and exposes souls to error,” the UC post adjured.