Vatican City - This morning’s General Audience, held on Wednesday 27 May 2026, took place at 10 a.m. in Saint Peter’s Square, where the Holy Father Leo XIV met groups of pilgrims and faithful from Italy and from across the world. A crowded square, bathed in late-spring sunshine, welcomed the Pontiff for the customary weekly appointment.
In his address, the Pope continued the cycle of catecheses dedicated to the documents of the Second Vatican Council, focusing this time - for the second consecutive catechesis on this conciliar text - on the Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium, with a reflection entitled “The reform of the liturgy: tradition and development”. The biblical reading which introduced the meeting was taken from the Letter to the Romans (15:4-6), Saint Paul’s passage on the harmony of believers in glorifying God “with one mind and one voice”.
“Retain sound tradition and leave the way open to legitimate progress”
The thread running through the catechesis was the apparently paradoxical, yet in fact deeply coherent, pairing of fidelity and renewal. Leo XIV began with a passage from Pius XII’s Encyclical Mediator Dei, according to which the Church is “a living organism” which, also “in respect of the sacred liturgy”, “grows, matures, develops, adapts and accommodates herself to temporal needs and circumstances”.
From there came the reference to the Introduction of Sacrosanctum Concilium, where the Council Fathers recognised as their duty to take “particular care also for the reform and promotion of the liturgy”. A reform, the Pope recalled, intended to “impart an ever increasing vigour to the Christian life of the faithful” and “to adapt more suitably to the needs of our own times those institutions which are subject to change”.
The heart of the address revolved around the formula chosen by the conciliar Constitution to describe the direction of this path: “That sound tradition may be retained, and yet the way remain open to legitimate progress” (SC, 23). Leo XIV quoted Benedict XVI, who, in an address on 6 May 2011, observed that “tradition and progress are often clumsily opposed”, whereas “actually, the two concepts merge: tradition is a living reality, which therefore includes in itself the principle of development, of progress. It is as if to say that the river of tradition also carries its source in itself and flows towards the outlet”. The Pontiff then recalled the distinction, fundamental in Sacrosanctum Concilium, between the immutable part of the liturgy, “because divinely instituted”, and elements subject to change, which, over time, may or must vary when there has been an intrusion of “anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy” or when they have become unsuited to it.
A catechesis that also speaks “beyond” the walls
It is difficult not to read these catecheses on Sacrosanctum Concilium - and more broadly the Pope’s decision to devote a cycle to the documents of the Council immediately after concluding the one on the Jubilee begun by his predecessor - also in the light of what has been happening in recent months through the actions of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X.
On 13 May, in a note from the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández reiterated that the episcopal ordinations announced by the Fraternity for the coming 1 July in Écône do not have the corresponding pontifical mandate and that this will constitute “a schismatic act”, with consequent excommunication. On 26 May - only yesterday - the Fraternity made public the names of the four future bishops, confirming its intention to proceed despite the appeals of the Holy See.
In this context, Leo XIV’s words on liturgical reform acquire a particular resonance. The Pope was keen to underline how the Council affirms “the legitimacy of this progress, rooted in authentic Tradition”: an equilibrium that is neither surrender to the fashion of the moment nor immobile rigidity. Changes of this kind, he observed, “have taken place constantly over the centuries in order to enable the faithful to participate fruitfully, through ritual actions, in the Paschal Mystery of Christ”.
The liturgy, he reiterated, “has thus been, for centuries, a driving force for evangelization”, and the Church’s worship has been “embodied” in the cultural forms of each age. It is a message addressed to the whole Church - and, implicitly, also to those who have placed themselves at its margins - so that tradition and reform are not lived as opposites, but as two movements of the same living river. The Lefebvrian question, after all, arises precisely from historical opposition to the reforms willed by the Second Vatican Council, and for this very reason Leo XIV’s catechesis - calm, doctrinal, profoundly conciliar - also appears as an implicit invitation to reconsider that reading.
The Pope then recalled a central point of Sacrosanctum Concilium: the revision of rites, when it corresponds to “the good of the Church genuinely and certainly” requiring it, must be carried out “taking care that any new forms adopted should in some way grow organically from forms already existing”, and must always be “preceded by careful theological, historical and pastoral investigation” (SC, 23). Hence the warning of the conciliar Magisterium against anyone who would presume, “on their own initiative”, to add, remove or alter anything in liturgical matters (cf. SC, 22). “The progress evoked in the Conciliar Constitution,” Leo XIV concluded on this point, “in no way compromises ecclesial communion: rather, it seeks to confirm and foster it.” He urged in particular priests, “who exercise the ministry of liturgical presidency”, to preserve “respect for the texts and regulations of the liturgy”, showing “humility before His greatness and sincere fidelity to ecclesial communion”.
The Pope’s affection for the People of God
After the catechesis, the Pontiff offered the customary greeting to Italian-speaking pilgrims, in particular to the consecrated persons present: the Religious Sisters of the Union of Superiors Major of Italy, the Sisters of Saint Paul of Chartres, the Capuchin Tertiary Sisters of the Holy Family, the Ursuline Missionaries of the Sacred Heart and the Marist Brothers. To each he wished the grace to “rekindle the fervour of consecration” and to “give new impetus to the mission”. Affectionate greetings were also addressed to the seminarians of the Puglian Regional Seminary and to the participants in the Marian championship “Festa dei popoli” of Orte Scalo.
The Pope also greeted the English-speaking pilgrims and visitors taking part in the Audience, in particular the groups from England, Ireland, Cameroon, Kenya and Nigeria, India, Pakistan, the Philippines, South Korea, Canada and the United States of America. He prayed that “the peace of God” might guard their minds and hearts, so that they may know the love of Jesus Christ and joyfully share it with others.
As usual, the Pope finally turned to young people, the sick and newlyweds, expressing the hope that the pilgrimage to Rome, and in particular to the tombs of the Apostles, might “strengthen your faith in Christ”.
The appeal for Ukraine
In conclusion, Leo XIV made a heartfelt appeal for the situation in Ukraine, marked in recent days by a significant intensification of the conflict. “I am following with concern the war in Ukraine,” the Pope said, expressing his closeness “to all those suffering as a result of the recent attacks, which have also targeted civilians”. The Pontiff renewed his condemnation of war as an instrument: “War does not solve problems; it exacerbates them. It does not build security; it multiplies suffering and hatred. Where missiles and drones fall, hopes are crushed, homes and places of worship are destroyed, and innocent lives are cut short.” He finally entrusted “all peoples stricken by war to the protection of the Virgin Mary, Queen of Peace”, concluding the Audience with the Apostolic Blessing.
fr.R.V.
Silere non possum