Pope, in audience on Vatican II, reflects on motivations for liturgical reform

August 26, 2026

Continuing his series of Wednesday general audiences on the Second Vatican Council and its documents, Pope Leo XIV today reflected on the motivations for liturgical reform.

Today’s audience (video) took place in St. Peter’s Basilica. It was the twenty-third in the series and the eighth and final audience devoted to Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963).

“Through the Church’s ritual actions, while the memorial of the work of salvation is celebrated, the opportunity is provided to experience a true relationship with God, coming into contact with the salvific event,” Pope Leo said. “Since the gestures, the words of the sacred liturgy are critical to realizing this experience, the participation of the faithful cannot be passive.”

“The Conciliar reform, by placing at the center that which constitutes the heart of the ecclesial experience, was intended to allow the liturgy to shine forth as the primary source of that divine exchange in which the life of God is communicated to us,” he continued. “From this conviction arose the need to make the richness of the biblical texts and prayers more accessible to all the faithful, and to streamline the order of the celebration compared with that set out in the liturgical books then in use.”

The Pope added:

Indeed, since the liturgy is a living entity, throughout the centuries it has always been subject to developments and changes. The Magisterium adapted its forms to the needs of different eras. It is therefore not surprising that the Second Vatican Council too, with the utmost respect for the heritage of tradition, and precisely in order to make it more accessible, considered it necessary to revise the liturgical books ...

The distinction, within the liturgy, between divine, immutable elements, and human elements, which instead “admit of various modifications, as the needs of the age, circumstance and the good of souls may require, and as the ecclesiastical hierarchy, under guidance of the Holy Spirit, may have authorized,” dates back to Pope Pius XII’s Encyclical Mediator Dei.

Recalling liturgical changes made by Venerable Pius XII and St. John XXIII, Pope Leo said that “the liturgical reform promoted by the Second Vatican Council is thus firmly rooted in the living tradition of the Church. A correct understanding of it also enables us to reject the abuses that occurred in certain sectors of the Church during the post-Conciliar period, and which, unfortunately, still occur from time to time today, where some of the principles underlying the reform itself have been taken to extremes or misunderstood.”

The Pontiff concluded:

It is therefore the primary responsibility of pastors, of bishops but also of each individual priest, to safeguard and promote a liturgy which, while respecting liturgical norms, shines with noble simplicity and thus manifests the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church. Such a liturgy will also be a fundamental vehicle for evangelization, the instrument of grace through which, as the Council teaches, we may learn to offer ourselves and, through Christ’s mediation, be perfected in unity with God and amongst ourselves.

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Audiences in series “Vatican Council II through its Documents”

• Introductory catechesis (1/7/26)

On Dei Verbum, the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation (1965):

• God speaks to men as to friends (1/14/26)
• Jesus Christ reveals the Father (1/21/26)
• A single sacred deposit: The relationship between Scripture and Tradition (1/28/26)
• The Sacred Scripture: the Word of God in human words (2/4/26)
• The Word of God in the life of the Church (2/11/26)

On Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church (1964):

• The mystery of the Church, sacrament of the union with God, and the unity of all humanity (2/18/26)
• No audience on 2/25 (Pope, Roman Curia on retreat)
• The Church, a Visible and Spiritual Reality (3/4/26)
• The Church, people of God (3/11/26)
• The Church, a Priestly and Prophetic People (3/18/26)
• On the foundation of the Apostles: The Church in her hierarchical dimension (3/25/26)
• Living stones in the Church and witnesses in the world: The laity in the People of God (4/1/26)
• Holiness and evangelical counsels in the Church (4/8/26)
• No audience on 4/15 and 4/22 (in Africa), followed by a special general audience on his apostolic journey to Africa (4/29/26)
• The Church, pilgrim in history towards the heavenly homeland (5/6/26)
• The Virgin Mary, model of the Church (5/13/26)

On Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963):

• The liturgy in the mystery of the Church (5/20/26)
• The reform of the liturgy: tradition and development (5/27/26)
• Rite, sign, and symbol (6/3/26)
• No audience on 6/10 (in Spain), followed by a special general audience on his apostolic journey to Spain (6/17/26)
• The mystery of the Eucharist (6/24/26)
• No audiences in July
• The prayer of the Church (8/5/26)
• The liturgical year (8/12/26)
• Sacred music (8/19/26)
• Motivations for liturgical reform (8/26/26)

 

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Further information:

• General Audience (Dicastery for Communication - Vatican Media, 8/26/26)