The blessed Code, and the Carolina liturgy wars
The Tuesday Pillar Post
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Hey everybody,
First, you’re getting this newsletter a little late, because yesterday was Memorial Day. I’m sure you understand. I had bratwurst to eat, and Little League practice.
Second, today’s the feast of St. Augustine of Canterbury — and you’re reading The Tuesday Pillar Post.
I know what most of you are thinking — that I am about to tell you a great deal about ole Augustine, who went to the Kingdom of Kent, in modern-day England, saw King Æthelberht become a Christian, and then led thousands more to Christ — as Augustine himself became a bishop, built monasteries, received the pallium, and consecrated other bishops across Britain.
But I can’t spend too much time on that, because of another solemn memorial we mark today.
On this date in 1917, 108 years ago, Pope Benedict XV promulgated the 1917 Code of Canon Law, marking the first time that the Church’s universal ecclesiastical law was codified into a singular comprehensive volume.
Saints be praised.
I realize that to some readers, the promulgation of a code of canon law does not sound like the sort of thing to send us into festal celebration.
But consider this: The Church is the communion of the baptized, both divine institution and a human society aimed at fulfilling our divinely mandated purposes: worshipping God, proclaiming the Kingdom, loving the poor, becoming saints.
Law allows us to do that with a sense of how to relate to one another, and even how to relate to God, as we undertake tasks that exceed our own human capacity — which can only be accomplished by grace.
“From her very beginnings,” Benedict XV wrote, the Church “set about regulating and defending with certain laws the conduct of consecrated persons and of the Christian people.”
The reason for this was elucidated well by John Paul II, when he promulgated the 1983 Code of Canon Law, and explained that canon law aims to “create such an order in the Church” that it “renders easier the organic development of … faith, grace, and the charisms.”
In other words, canon law helps us to relate better to one another, in order to see grace manifested in our lives together — in order to see the Holy Spirit move powerfully through the Church.
For the last few years, the Church has had a rocky relationship with canon law. Pope Francis promulgated a great deal of law during his pontificate, but, by many accounts, the rule of law — confidence in its consistent, impartial and predictable application — has diminished significantly.
But even before that, the Church has been in a slump with regard to the use of canon law for several decades, owing to the cultural antinomianism of the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, and the failure of bishops to actually legislate locally in the ways the 1983 Code of Canon Law expected them to.
By John Paul II’s schematic reckoning, when the rule of law declines, experiencing the primacy of grace, and the charismatic presence of the Holy Spirit, becomes all the more difficult for Christians. Moreover, law serves unity — it helps to order relationships which, when disordered, can become marred all the more easily by dissension.
Which means we should want the Church to be a human society in which law is intelligible and knowable, regulates our conduct, and gives us a clear sense of what to expect in moments of disagreement, or difficulty, or misconduct. The theory is that all of that makes it easier for each one of us to live as a Christian — and for all of us to live together as Christians.
We’re on our ninth pope since Benedict XV and the 1917 code of canon law. Five of them, by my count, have been canonists. But it’s been a while, and we’ve not had a canonist pope since we’ve had the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Plus, some of the canonists we did have were distracted by things like ecumenical councils, a world war, and resolving longstanding conflict with the Italian nation-state.
It’s possible that Leo will be the first pope in a while free to focus on shoring up the rule of law in the Church — and trained juridically to do so. I can’t overstate what good that would do.
So when your family has an extra dessert tonight to celebrate the blessed 1917 Pio-Benedictine Code, pray for Pope Leo XIV, and for the law’s service to our life together as Christians.
The news
There’s a great deal of interest in this appointment, since the Pontifical Academy for Life has been a flashpoint of controversy, and Paglia especially, under whose leadership the academy has published and said things which have called into question its commitment to Catholic moral teaching.
In that sense, the appointment of a successor for Paglia has been taken as a litmus test for Pope Leo’s leadership. But what do we know about Msgr. Pegoraro? Well, it turns out that depends a lot on who you ask.
There’s a lot of conversation about the pope’s leadership record — but for a few reasons, I’m not sure any of it reveals much about how he’ll tackle the Church’s serious crises from the Apostolic Palace.
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The martyrs, 10 Servants of God, were killed in odium fidei during the 20th century after the Bolshevik Revolution which led to the creation of the Soviet Union. The best known member is Bishop Antony Malecki, who died in Warsaw in 1935 after four years in Siberian forced labor camps.
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And a little bit west of Russia, Luke Coppen asks whether Leo XIV can help the Church in Switzerland to emerge from a crisis its faced since six Swiss bishops fell under formal canonical investigations in 2023 — with five accused of mishandling abuse cases, and another facing sexual harassment allegations.
Luke sketches the complicated history of the Church in Switzerland, and its complicated present. Read all about it.
In a lawsuit filed last week, Charities sued both the former finance director and the auditing firm which — the suit says — failed to detect years of theft and fraud in financial statements.
The auditors say they did their job, but whether a court will agree remains to be seen.
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Carolina liturgy wars
Catholics across the U.S. have pushed back in recent days, after a North Carolina bishop rolled out restrictions on the extraordinary form of the Mass, which traditionalist Catholics have widely panned as draconian.
The regional restrictions are sure to remain controversial in the U.S., but they also point to the acuity of a more universal question that some Catholics have raised in recent weeks: Can Pope Leo XIV actually resolve the Church’s liturgy wars?
I think that if North Carolina teaches us anything, it’s that resolving liturgical conflict in the Church will be a lot harder than most people expect. And the solution is probably not the triumph of enforced uniformity.
Here’s why: