The Importance of a Veneer

In a little over 50 days in office, it’s become clear that Pope Leo XIV is no “Francis 2.0.” While surely the two men possess many commonalities, Leo is not a carbon-copy of the controversial and divisive Francis. This difference is most stark when it comes to the new pope’s liturgical preferences. He clearly loves the Latin language, and has restored many of the traditional trappings of the papal office—trappings the former pontiff famously eschewed.

This embrace of a more traditional look and feel has encouraged many conservative and traditional Catholics, although a few have claimed it’s just a traditional veneer on the same progressive post-conciliar Catholicism of the previous pontificate—a cover for injecting non-traditional beliefs into the Catholic bloodstream, thus making Leo even more dangerous than Francis. A trojan horse, if you will, to fool the unwary.

No one, of course, can read the mind of Pope Leo, and no one should try. Personally, I see no reason to doubt that Leo’s apparent love for the more traditional expressions of our faith is anything but sincere (for example, you don’t get as excellent as he is speaking Latin if you haven’t been speaking it for years and don’t love using the ancient language). Regardless of his motives, however, I would argue that a pope practicing the faith in a traditional manner in public is a good thing either way. In other words, even if it’s just a veneer, it’s still a positive development.

One of the recurring and most heated debates among Catholics today revolves around the importance of liturgical practices. How much does it matter whether Mass is celebrated ad orientem or Communion is given on the tongue? Defenders of the post-conciliar status quo often cite Our Lord rebuking the Jewish leaders of his time performing public religious acts in order to gain approval (cf. Matthew 23). He calls them “whitewashed tombs,” as they are religiously beautiful on the outside but spiritually dead on the inside. It doesn’t matter, they claim, how Mass is celebrated; what matters is that it’s Jesus we receive and that we follow him.

Traditionally-minded Catholics, on the other hand, respond with the ancient Christian maxim, “lex orandi, lex credendi”— the Latin phrase that translates to “the law of prayer is the law of belief” and means that how we pray shapes what we believe. Practices like ad orientem and Communion on the tongue are not just meaningless outward signs, but actually catechize Catholics to embrace the Church’s teachings on the Real Presence and the sacrificial nature of the Mass.

My own view—which I believe is supported by almost 2,000 years of Catholic tradition—is that outward liturgical practices are extremely important, even when the person performing them does not believe the underlying realities they represent. When we read the Gospels closely, we see that Our Lord does not condemn outward religious practices; instead, he condemns an inner heart that is far from God. More specifically, Christ rejects outward acts of personal piety that are done for show; however, he never rejects the public liturgy of the Jewish religion of his time.  Outward liturgical practices are extremely important, even when the person performing them does not believe the underlying realities they represent.Tweet This

This becomes more clear when we look at the liturgical practices of the early Church, beginning with the apostles. Even after Our Lord’s Resurrection and Ascension, they continued to attend services at the Temple while adding new Christian practices, particularly the “breaking of the bread” (Acts 2:42). Very quickly the Church began adding many “trappings” to the celebration of Mass, and there was no debate among the early Christians as to their propriety. No one believed they were breaking any of the Lord’s commands. How we outwardly express our Catholic beliefs is very important, and these first Christians understood that.

Returning to today, let’s say that Pope Leo is just putting on a show—that he has non-Catholic beliefs behind his outward displays of traditional piety. Even if this were the case (and again, I don’t see any reason to think that), those outward displays would still be objectively good and should be praised.

The Church has just concluded twelve years of a pontificate that not only downplayed but denigrated the way in which Catholics have practiced their faith for ages. This had far-reaching ramifications. Young priests who wanted to celebrate Mass more traditionally—not a full-on TLM, mind you, just perhaps some more traditional music and vestments; maybe even using “Eucharistic Prayer I” more often—were shot down by their senior pastors and bishops, who all pointed to the pope as their model. Anything that even suggested a pre-Vatican II piety was suspect, and those who practiced such pieties were seen as potentially mentally deranged (God forbid a priest would want to wear a cassock—obviously something is wrong with him!).

Now the tables are turned. A priest who wants to flavor a Mass with a little Latin can now point to Pope Leo as his model. Eucharistic processions are back in favor, with the pope personally leading a beautiful one on the streets of Rome for Corpus Christi this year. Traditional practices became traditional precisely because they helped many practice their faith more fully—so bringing back those practices is always a good thing.

All of this matters. To be clear, this is not all that matters. A person can love the traditional trappings of the Faith and reject its content. He might love beautiful vestments and hate his neighbor. This would be clearly a case which falls under Our Lord’s condemnations. But as Catholics we believe that the purpose of the traditional trappings—the traditional veneer, if you will—is to lead people to a deeper understanding and love for the Faith. A beautiful Corpus Christi procession can deepen one’s belief in the Real Presence; it can sometimes lead one to Confession in order to receive Communion more worthily, even if the man leading the procession is himself unbelieving. So when a pope engages in these traditional practices, seen throughout the world, that can have a deep impact on the faith of millions. 

For too long Catholics have acted like Protestants and pretended that outward expressions of the faith don’t matter. We’ve tried to turn the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass into nothing more than a nondenominational prayer service. We’ve also Protestantized much of the content of the Faith—reducing the catechism to the lowest common denominator that doesn’t offend the surrounding culture. This dual movement has been catastrophic to the faith of countless souls, and in both aspects we need to improve. But let’s not reject one aspect of improvement just because it’s not immediately joined by the other aspect. Let’s embrace traditional forms of worship and piety, no matter who performs them, knowing that by themself they have the power to bring people closer to Our Lord.