Pope Leo XIV, The Sacramentalism of Vatican II, and Social Catholicism

His Social Pontificate and the Path toward Ecclesial and Societal Renewal

Reminder: readers can view the following post, and dozens of other ones, at the Social Catholicism and a Better Kind of Politics website.

Pope Leo XIV has indicated clearly—through his chosen name and through his explicit statements on Catholic social teaching—that he seeks to foster a renewal of that tradition to address the great challenges of our time, including the great disruption threatened by artificial intelligence. He does so, at a time in history when Catholic intellectuals have given diverse interpretations of the challenges we face and how we should respond to them.

[Pope Leo XIV arrives for inauguration Mass May 18, 2025. (OSV News / Reuters / Claudia Greco)]

In an insightful new book entitled The Uses of Idolatry (Oxford University Press, 2024), William T. Cavanaugh engages with Charles Taylor’s celebrated explanation of how the widespread understanding that the world manifested God’s presence was lost through a process he calls “disenchantment.” Cavanaugh argues, on the contrary, that what has happened is better understood as a process of “misenchantment” because the problem is not so much that we no longer see God in the world, but that we have come to effectively worship the wrong gods by giving to created things a level of commitment and affection due only to God. On this basis Cavanaugh offers a detailed analysis of what he thinks are two of the greatest examples of this contemporary idolatry, namely nationalism and consumerism. In all of this, Cavanaugh provides a fascinating critical engagement with some of the most important attempts to understand the fate of religion in the modern world.

I am especially interested in the remedy Cavanaugh proposes for this situation of misenchantment. He does so in his final chapter under the heading of “Incarnation and Sacrament.” The basic idea is that the remedy for what Cavanaugh argues amounts to idolatrous forms of nationalism and consumerism is the worship of the true God who took on flesh in Jesus Christ. This incarnate God, moreover, calls for a kind of worship in which believers—as members of the body of Christ—continue to make present in the world the incarnate love of God. In so doing, they manifest the Church as a sacrament—that is, an efficacious sign and instrument—that mediates the incarnate love of God in Christ.

[Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, Photo by Dr. Jem Sullivan]

This proposed remedy strikes me as precisely what is needed as it reflects the rich sacramental vision of the Catholic Church, especially as articulated by the Second Vatican Council, with deep roots in Pauline theology, understood broadly.¹

In my opinion, these Pauline foundations of incarnational and sacramental theology toward which Cavanaugh points provide precisely the remedy for the misenchantment that needs to be overcome. I would emphasize more explicitly than Cavanaugh, however, the way this sacramental vision includes the living out of Catholic social teaching through what has been called social catholicism.

In what follows, therefore, I will first briefly sketch the key Pauline roots of this Catholic sacramentalism. Then, in the main part, I will outline how this sacramental vision can be seen throughout the documents of the Second Vatican Council. I will close by connecting this Pauline thought, and Catholic sacramentalism to living out the Social Doctrine of the Church through social Catholicism.

I think this comprehensive Christocentrism rooted in Pauline theology, and continuing through the theology and documents of the Second Vatican Council, offers us a robust foundation for the renewal of social Catholicism sought by Pope Leo XIV.

1. Pauline Roots of Catholic Sacramentalism: The Mystery of Christ

What we can describe as the late Pauline theology of the “mystery of Christ” finds its fullest articulation in the letter to the Ephesians, which provides a framework for integrating Pauline thought and theology more generally. The key text is found within the prayer of praise in Eph 1:3-10, which the Church prays regularly as part of Evening Prayer. The culminating text is in verses 9-10, which speak of the mystery [emphasis added] of his [God’s] will, …to unite [or recapitulate] all things in him [Christ], things in heaven and on earth” (RSV).²

First a brief etymological digression. The Greek word in this text for mystery is mysterion, which is translated into the Latin vulgate—and thus into the theological tradition—as either mysterium or sacramentum. This etymology helps to explain how the Greek tradition came to speak of “the mysteries” while the Western tradition came to speak in terms of sacraments, while retaining a closely related sense of mystery.³ They both speak of the same reality of particular and liturgical ways in which we encounter the mystery of God’s saving plan in Christ.

Returning to Ephesians 1:9-10, which can be paraphrased as “the mystery of God’s plan to bring all things under the headship of Christ,” this text becomes a favorite way of referring comprehensively to the whole of revelation, and doing so in a Christocentric way.⁴

Within the letter to the Ephesians, the next reference to this multifaceted mystery comes on 3:3, where we read of how this “mystery was made known” to Paul “by revelation.”⁵ Paul writes to the Ephesians so they “can perceive [his] insight into the mystery of Christ” (3:4). This mystery includes the reconciliation of all people “into the same body” of Christ (3:5-6). It also refers to the great mystery of how the union of man and woman in marriage relates to the union of Christ with the Church (5:31-32).

Within this comprehensive perspective of the mystery of God’s plan to reconcile everything in Christ, we can locate the other aspects of the rich Pauline theology of Christian life. According to the letter to the Colossians, upon which Ephesians seems to build, the mystery is “Christ in you the hope of glory” (1:27). In the broader Pauline corpus, we read that Christians become incorporated into Christ through faith and baptism (Rom 6), which is how we can be said to “put on Christ” (Rom 13:14). We, thereby, live “in Christ,” and “have the mind of Christ” (1 Cor 2:16), which is a mind oriented toward sacrificial love in building people into Christ’s body the Church.

This living in Christ involves a sharing in his redemptive work. Paul writes of how those engaged in apostolic ministry “carry about in our bodies the dying of Jesus” (2 Cor 4:10). They rejoice, however, for while “death is at work in us” this results in life for those to whom they minister (2 Cor 4:12). Many more texts could be sighted to illustrate how the human person is born “in Adam” the fallen Image of God, brought to life in Christ, the perfect Image, and transformed into his likeness.

In summary, within the mystery of God’s plan of salvation, Christians are part of the “new creation” “in Christ” (2 Cor 5:17), where we participate in the salvific pattern of his life, and thereby bring new life to those we serve. This incorporates us in God’s reconciliation of the world to himself through Christ (2 Cor 5:19), with Christians and the Church continuing—in a way—the redemptive incarnation of Christ in space and time.

Although the seven sacraments have a special place in the liturgical life of the Church, they should be understood in the broader context of the mature Pauline theology of the mystery of God’s plan to reconcile all things in Christ. This includes, moreover, a sublime participation of believers “in Christ,” and in his redemptive and reconciling work. In this way, we can affirm Cavanaugh’s judgment that the proper response to contemporary misenchantment—including nationalism and consumerism—is the incarnational and sacramental vision of the Second Vatican Council.

2. Sacramentalism in the Texts of Vatican II

This Pauline theology of the mystery of Christ provides a foundation for the sacramental vision we see in the various documents of the Second Vatican Council.

Dei verbum: Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation

The theology of revelation on which Dei verbum is based begins in no. 2 with reference to the foundational text of Eph 1:9. It prefaces this theology with the opening “In His goodness and wisdom God chose to reveal Himself and to make known to us….” The authoritative Latin text then uses the word sacramentum for the Greek Mysterion, which the translator renders as “the hidden purpose of His will (see Eph. 1:9).” In my opinion, this translation is unfortunate as it obfuscates the rich Pauline theology that the conciliar text contains.

The brilliant young theologian and council peritus Joseph Ratzinger understood the broader theology reflected in this text, even if the translator apparently did not. In his commentary on Dei verbum, Ratzinger wrote the following.

The idea of mystery in the epistle to the Ephesians, with all its associations, should echo here: this idea includes the universality of salvation (“unite all things in him,” i.e. Christ; 1: 10), the unity of mankind in the one Christ, the cosmic dimension of what is Christian, the relation of revelation to history, and finally its Christological center. For the mystery of God is ultimately nothing other than Christ himself -- it is the person (Colossians 1: 27).⁶

As we will see below, other conciliar texts draw upon the fecundity of this sacramental theology rooted in the Pauline understanding of the mystery of God’s plan of salvation in Christ.

Lumen gentium: Dogmatic Constitution on the Church

The opening paragraph (no. 1) of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium draws upon the rich potential of this theology. The key text occurs in the third sentence after the first proclaimed Christ as the light of the nations (lumen gentium), and the second explains that the council wishes to “bring the light of Christ to all men, a light brightly visible on the countenance of the Church.”

The text reads as follows:

…the Church is in Christ like a sacrament or as a sign and instrument both of a very closely knit union with God and of the unity of the whole human race…

This text on the Church as an efficacious sign and instrument of unity follows from Pauline texts like the previously referenced Eph 3:5-6 on how the mystery includes the reconciliation of all—both Jew and gentile—in the one body of Christ. It also echoes a wide range of Pauline and New Testament texts on unity, including the previously referenced 2 Cor 5:19 on God reconciling the world to himself in Christ and entrusting to the apostles the ministry of reconciliation (5:18).

This understanding of the Church as a mystery or “visible sacrament of saving unity” also occurs in no. 9, whereas no. 48 speaks of the Church as the “universal sacrament of salvation.”

I have previously written of the liturgical theology of Columba Marmion, OSB, which emphasized how we encounter an aspect of the mystery of Christ through the word and sacrament of the Church’s liturgy.

I will next illustrate how the council’s constitution on the liturgy can be seen as following from this same Pauline theology of the mystery.

Sacrosanctum Concilium: Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy

The official English translation of Sacrosanctum Concilium refers to the “mystery of Christ” 5 times within a total of 14 total references to mystery. These other occurrences include the Pascal mystery (8 times), the mystery of faith (1), the mystery of the Eucharist (1).

The first reference to the mystery of Christ addresses how the liturgy is “the outstanding means whereby the faithful my express in their lives, and manifest to others, the mystery of Christ…” (no. 2) Through “baptism men are plunged into the paschal mystery of Christ: they die with Him, are buried with Him, and rise with Him; they receive the spirit of adoption as sons ‘in which we cry: Abba, Father’ ( Rom. 8 :15). (no.6)” In the study of the sacred liturgy, the text directs that professors should expound the mystery of Christ, and bring out the unity that underlies scripture, dogmatic, spiritual, pastoral theology, and priestly training (no. 16), to which the conciliar Optatam totius: Decree on Priestly Training (no. 17) adds moral theology.

No. 35 speaks of how the sermon brings out “the intimate connection” between the words and rites that mediate the mystery of Christ. In Chapter V on The Liturgical Year, we read of how.

Within the cycle of a year, moreover, she unfolds the whole mystery of Christ, from the incarnation and birth until the ascension, the day of Pentecost, and the expectation of blessed hope and of the coming of the Lord.

Recalling thus the mysteries of redemption, the Church opens to the faithful the riches of her Lord’s powers and merits, so that these are in some way made present for all time, and the faithful are enabled to lay hold upon them and become filled with saving grace (no. 102).

Much as we saw in the liturgical spirituality of the Benedictine Abbott Columba Marmion, the Constitution on the Divine Liturgy elucidates a vision in which the Church mediates to the faithful—throughout the liturgical year—different aspects of the mystery of Christ, mediating special graces for our sharing in Christ’s redemptive work.

Optatam totius: Decree on Priestly Training

At a time when almost everyone who studied theology was a priest, the previously cited Optatam totius: Decree on Priestly Training (1965) encourages a renewal of seminary education in light of the theological vision of the Council. This vision was deeply influenced by the ressourcement or “back to the sources” movement that—in the years of the council—finally broke through the neoscholastic dominance. In the interwar decades, the great scholastics of the time like Louis Billot SJ, Pedro Descoqs SJ and Reginald Garrigou Lagrange OP, had little interest in practical theology, social teaching, or democracy and sought an integralist alliance with fascist regimes. After the Second World War, the social Catholics—who supported democracy and sought a corresponding spirituality—came to align with the ressourcement thinkers like Henri de Lubac who influenced the council.

The concise but prescient instructions for the renewal of moral theology reflect this consensus. It reads as follows:

…let the other theological disciplines be renewed through a more living contact with the mystery of Christ and the history of salvation. Special care must be given to the perfecting of moral theology. Its scientific exposition, nourished more on the teaching of the Bible, should shed light on the loftiness of the calling of the faithful in Christ and the obligation that is theirs of bearing fruit in charity for the life of the world.

Several points merit emphasis. First, the moral life is meant to flow from an encounter with and participation in the mystery of Christ. Second, moral theology needs to be “nourished more on the teaching of the Bible.” Third, it should “shed light on the loftiness of the calling of the faithful in Christ,” which aligns with not only Pauline theology, but the universal call to holiness in chapter V of Lumen gentium. Fourth, it is ordered to “the obligation that is theirs of bearing fruit in charity for the life of the world.” This last point suggests a new emphasis of Christian morality on not just bearing the fruit of charity—as we saw was integral to Pauline theology—but precisely doing so “for the life of the world.” This last point suggests that the ordering of the renewal of moral theology is toward life in the world, which directs us not only to the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, but to the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity, the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, and all of Catholic social teaching since especially the postwar reconciliation with constitutional democracy.

Apostolicam Actuositatem: Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity

This decree specifies the apostolate of the laity formed by the moral theology that has been renewed to nourish the faithful in Scripture, direct them to their high calling to holiness in Christ, and to their obligation to bear the fruit of charity for the life of the world. It sees our times—actually those of the mid 1960s—as calling for a zealous lay apostolate.

Because it seems that not only the language of lay apostolate, but the lay apostolate itself, has fallen out of the life of the Church, it is worth reviewing some of the characteristics of it as described in this document. It is directed to “the evangelization and sanctification of men and to the penetrating and perfecting of the temporal order through the spirit of the Gospel” (no. 2). It follows from our “union with Christ the head,” and “the power of the Holy Spirit” through whom we “offer spiritual sacrifices in everything [we] do” to “witness to Christ throughout the world” (no. 3.1). It is carried out through the theological virtues (3.2) and the gifts of the Holy Spirit (3.3), and the laity’s “living union with Christ” nourished by “active participation in the sacred liturgy,” and results in our growing union with Christ (4.1).

“Impelled by divine charity, [we] do good to all men.” “They should also hold in high esteem professional skill, family and civic spirit, and the virtues relating to social customs, namely, honesty, justice, sincerity, kindness, and courage, without which no true Christian life can exist” (4).

The fundamental objectives of this apostolate are “not only to bring the message and grace of Christ to men but also to penetrate and perfect the temporal order with the spirit of the Gospel” (5). “God’s plan for the world is that men should work together to renew and constantly perfect the temporal order” (no. 7), although “a true apostle looks for opportunities to announce Christ by words…” (no. 6).

The laity must take up the renewal of the temporal order as their own special obligation. Led by the light of the Gospel and the mind of the Church and motivated by Christian charity, they must act directly and in a definite way in the temporal sphere. As citizens they must cooperate with other citizens with their own particular skill and on their own responsibility. Everywhere and in all things they must seek the justice of God's kingdom. The temporal order must be renewed in such a way that, without detriment to its own proper laws, it may be brought into conformity with the higher principles of the Christian life and adapted to the shifting circumstances of time, place, and peoples. Preeminent among the works of this type of apostolate is that of Christian social action which the sacred synod desires to see extended to the whole temporal sphere, including culture.

The second chapter concludes as follows:

Therefore, the laity should hold in high esteem and, according to their ability, aid the works of charity and projects for social assistance, whether public or private, including international programs whereby effective help is given to needy individuals and peoples. In so doing, they should cooperate with all men of good will.

The whole document continues along these lines, which are to often unknown to contemporary Catholics. For decades, many American Catholics have instead followed a social conservatism, which traces more to the work of Republican political operatives and Evangelical Protestants. The latest fad among influential Catholic intellectuals, moreover, is postliberal thought, which claims that the “liberal democracy” and “postwar liberal order” that have given us relative peace and prosperity for eight decades have failed. The reasons such postliberals give center on how an almost diabolical “liberalism” has a deficient understanding of the human person and is not founded on a proper Catholic metaphysics.

From this perspective, it looks like the Second Vatican Council was mistaken in accepting the separation of Church and state and encouraging Catholics to participate in society to advance the common good. In my opinion, too many Catholics have instead failed to live out the apostolate of the laity and social teaching of the Church and we are now facing the consequences.

Gaudium et spes: Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World

This pastoral constitution is a massive document so I can only list several points—from the more general first of two parts—to suggest how this constitution reflects the broad Christocentrism of the Council that I have traced from the richest streams of New Testament theology through the conciliar documents.

• The preface introduces the Church in solidarity with the human family (no. 1), and offering service (no.3), much like Christ who joined in solidarity with us by taking human flesh, and came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom.

• The introduction discusses a situation of hope and anguish amidst the rapid change that characterizes the world, where human beings still—however—have the deeper questionings and longings that the faith answers.

• The first chapter discusses the dignity of the human person created in the image of God, who only understands the meaning of existence and life in light of the mystery of Christ.

• The second chapter concerns the human community, and how the social doctrine of the church should order our relation to it.

• The third chapter discusses human activity in this modern world, how it has great value, should be governed by the moral law but has a rightful autonomy, is wounded by sin, and finds its fulfillment in the paschal mystery of Jesus’s death and resurrection.

• The fourth chapter discusses the role of the Church in the world, which builds upon everything said in the previous chapters. The Church is therefore incarnate in the world as leaven, helping to humanize it (no. 40). She reveals to humanity the meaning of existence, and provides an anchor to uphold human dignity and rights (no. 41). The Church fosters the unity of the human family, bringing justice and reconciliation to society (no. 42). She encourages Christians to work for the common good, through “unremiting study” to “fit themselves to do their part in establishing dialogue with those of all shades of opinion,” which is precisely the model exemplified by generations of social Catholics. They thereby infuse the world with a christian spirit and bear witness to Christ (no. 43). While humbly learning from the world (no. 44), the Church also seeks salvation for all through Christ who is the origin and destiny of all things (no. 45).

3. Sacramentalism and Social Catholicism

Since this post has such an ambitious scope and has already become so long, I will wrap things up concisely. The renewal of Catholic social teaching that Pope Leo XIV has placed at the center of his pontificate, along with his firm commitment to the program of renewal sought by the fathers of the Second Vatican Council, all follow from the deepest wellsprings of the Catholic faith. Perhaps the richest of these is the late Pauline theology of the mystery of God’s plan to bring all things under the headship of Christ. I have tried to sketch how this integrating vision from the letter to the Ephesians provides a way to read the key conciliar texts in a way that illustrates how they lead directly into the living out of Catholic Social Doctrine through what has been called social Catholicism, and which Pope Francis called “a better kind of politics.”

A cursory review of these Catholic sources should alert us to the fact that too many of us have somehow been diverted from living out the social dimension of the faith. Influential Catholic postliberals, on the other hand, tell us that the manifold crises that confront the human family today have emerged because “liberalism” was not built upon a proper Catholic metaphysics, and that we therefore need to reestablish some form of alliance with political power.

With the election of Pope Leo XIV, Catholics have been blessed with a new opportunity to scrutinize their socio-political orientation in light of the richest, and most authoritative teachings of the Church. My hope is that God will do far more than we can ask or think (Eph 3:20) in helping us to respond to this new kairos, at a pivotal moment in human history.

1. I use the term “Pauline” broadly to include not only the 7 uncontested letters, but the letters to the Colossians and Ephesians. In so doing, I am less interested in whether these latter texts come from Paul’s hand than in the fact that they are firmly grounded in the vocabulary and theology of the uncontested letters. They also develop this theology in important ways, including a more cosmic understanding of Christ and the language of mystery, which is richly mined by the theological tradition, including and the conciliar texts.

2. The most literal translation of the RSV reads as follows: [1:9] “For he has made known to us in all wisdom and insight the mystery of his will, according to his purpose which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.”

3. For a classic treatment of this notion of mystery, see Raymond Brown’s two articles “The Semitic Background of the New Testament Mysterion,” Biblica 39 (1958): 426-48; and “The Pre-Christian Semitic Concept of ‘Mystery,’” Catholic Biblical Quarterly 20 (1958): 417-43.

4. The Second Vatican Council, for example, uses this text as the opening line of no. 2 of the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation, the section that treats revelation itself. This same theology of revelation is the provides the foundation of John Paul II’s 1998 encyclical Fides et ratio: On Faith and Reason.

5. This apparently refers to Paul’s conversion involving—according to the account in Acts 9:4—an encounter with the risen Christ. Jesus asks the then Saul “why do you persecute me,” whereas Saul had been persecuting the Church.

6. Joseph Ratzinger, “Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. Chapter 1,” in Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II, ed. Herbert Vorgrimmler (New York: Herder and Herder, 1969), 171. Similar discussions regarding the significance of the word Sacramentum or mysterion can be found in Latourelle, Theology of Revelation, 458-459, and Henri de Lubac, La révélation divine, 3e éd. rev. et augm. ed., "Traditions chrétiennes", 16 (Paris: Cerf, 1983) 36-37.