Pope Leo has continued his catechesis on Vatican II, this Wednesday, May 20th, opening a new cycle on the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium.
In this first installment, Leo reminded his hearers, the Council Fathers “sought not only to undertake a reform of the rites, but to lead the Church to contemplate and deepen that living bond which constitutes and unites her: the mystery of Christ.” Notably, the pope does not mention or even allude to the liturgy wars that the Church has faced in the decades since the Council. This framing signals that the pope intends to approach the Mass not in terms of rubrics and preferences, but in terms of liturgical formation.
The liturgy, Leo said, is the very locus of the mysterion. It is “at once the space, the time and the context in which the Church receives her very life from Christ.” Drawing on the threefold biblical, patristic, and liturgical ressourcement of the twentieth century, the pope located the Council’s liturgical vision within its Pauline horizon. The mysterion hidden from all eternity and revealed in Christ (cf. Eph 3:2–6). The liturgy is not an external ornament to that mystery. It is its sacramental presence. “Every time we take part in the assembly gathered “in his name,’” Leo said, “we are immersed in this Mystery.”
Citing Sacrosanctum Concilium 7, Leo recalled that Christ “is present in the proclaimed Word, in the sacraments, in the ministers who celebrate, in the gathered community and, in the highest degree, in the Eucharist.” Stressing that this presence is multiform was one of the most consequential contributions of the Constitution. Our Augustinian pope wasn’t remiss in quoting the doctor of grace. The Church “receives the Body of the Lord and becomes what she receives” (Augustine, Sermon 277).
This Augustinian formulation carries the weight of the Vatican II ecclesiology of communion, in which the lex orandi and the lex credendi are not parallel rails but a single track. “The rituality of the Church expresses her faith,” he said, “and at the same time shapes ecclesial identity.” Word, sacrament, gesture, silence, and space together give form to the people gathered by the Father. Every celebration is, as John Paul II put it in Vicesimus quintus annus, “a true epiphany of the Church in prayer.”
Leo also stressed the bidirectional structure that Sacrosanctum Concilium assigned to participation. The faithful’s participation, he said, is “at once ‘internal’ and ‘external.’” It does not end when the dismissal is given. The liturgy “is called to unfold in a tangible way throughout daily life, in an ethical and spiritual dynamic, so that the liturgy celebrated is translated into life.” Here he touched on Romans 12:1, teaching that our lives through liturgy and practice become a “living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” when we live out the truth of what we have received in the Mass and especially the Eucharist, the Source and Summit of Our Faith. The Council’s hard-won concept of participatio actuosa is ultimately about conformity of the human person’s entire existence to the paschal mystery.
The catechesis closed with a deliberate echo of Francis. Citing Desiderio desideravi, the pope reminded the faithful that “the world still does not know it, but everyone is invited to the supper of the wedding of the Lamb (Rev 19:9).” Leo’s choice of text is meaningful. Desiderio Desideravi was the most mature statement of Francis’s pontificate on the liturgy, particularly on liturgical formation, written nearly a year after the controversies surrounding Traditionis Custodes and consciously aimed at recovering the deep theological substance of the reform which are largely missed by polemics surrounding the liturgy. By weaving it into the opening catechesis of a new cycle on the Constitution itself, Leo again situated his pontificate’s Magisterium in straightforward continuity with that of his predecessor, and with the vision of Vatican II carried on through the pontificates since the Council.
What this opening installment quietly accomplishes is significant. It removes the question of Sacrosanctum Concilium from the genre of liturgy-wars commentary and restores it to the genre of catechesis on the mystery of Christ. The pope did not adjudicate disputed questions about translation, posture, or the relationship of the two forms of the Roman Rite. He returned instead to the Constitution’s own first move, which is theological and Christological before it is rubrical. “Let us allow ourselves to be shaped inwardly by the rites, symbols, gestures and above all the living presence of Christ in the liturgy,” Leo concluded, perhaps opening a new chapter of reflection on the ongoing discussions surrounding the liturgy.
Image: Mass Presided Over By Pope Leo XIV In St. Peter’s Square Photo: Vatican Media
Andrew Likoudis is a Catholic scholar specializing in ecclesiology, ecumenism, and contemporary debates surrounding Church authority and reform. He is the founder and president of the Likoudis Legacy Foundation. He is also the author of Faith in Crisis: Critical Dialogues in Catholic Traditionalism, Church Authority, and Reform (En Route Books, 2025), which features a foreword by Rocco Buttiglione and contributions from Cardinal Robert Sarah and over thirty Catholic scholars. His writing has appeared in the National Catholic Register, Catholic Review, Patheos, and Philosophy Now. He holds a B.A. in Communication Studies from Towson University, an A.A. in Business Administration from CCBC, and is an M.A. candidate in Catholic Studies at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is an associate member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy. Learn more at andrewlikoudis.com and subscribe to his Substack, Tradition and Renewal.
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