Blog post 2

Cardinal Blase J. Cupich

Tradition vs. traditionalism

September 3, 2025

The late Jaroslav Pelikan, a historian of Christianity, made an important distinction that is helpful to remember: “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”

That quote came to mind as I reflected on the recent decision of Pope Leo to declare Cardinal John Henry Newman a doctor of the church. A key factor in his decision to join the Catholic Church was his understanding of the development of doctrine. He observed that while Protestants readily accepted some doctrines that developed over time, such as the Trinity and the divinity and humanity of Christ, they were inconsistent in rejecting the analogous developmental history of other Catholic doctrines, such as purgatory and those related to Our Lady. 

This understanding of the development of doctrine has a rich history in the life of the church. St. Vincent of Lérins, a fifth century monk, compared the maturation of the human form to the development of doctrine. He observed that “the tiny members of unweaned children and the grown members of young men are still the same members. Men have the same number of limbs as children. Whatever develops at a later age was already present in seminal form; there is nothing new in old age that was not already latent in childhood.” Likewise, “the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.”

At the same time, St. Vincent wrote, “If the human form were to turn into some shape that did not belong to its own nature, or even if something were added to the sum of its members or subtracted from it, the whole body would necessarily perish or become grotesque or at least be enfeebled. In the same way, the doctrine of the Christian religion should properly follow these laws of development, that is, by becoming firmer over the years, more ample in the course of time, more exalted as it advances in age.”

Newman’s writing on the development of doctrine greatly influenced the bishops as they addressed it in the Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation. In paragraph 8 they wrote: “There is a growth in the understanding of the realities and the words which have been handed down. This happens through the contemplation and study made by believers, who treasure these things in their hearts (see Luke 2:19, 51) through a penetrating understanding of the spiritual realities which they experience, and through the preaching of those who have received through Episcopal Succession the sure gift of truth.”

I am convinced that the bishops approached the reform of the liturgy as an exercise in taking responsibility for the correct development of church teaching as manifest in the way we worship. In many ways, the reform was a recovery of truths of the faith, which over time were obscured by a series of adaptations and influences that reflected the church’s expanding relationship with secular power and society.

Particularly prominent during the Carolingian (seventh to ninth centuries) and baroque (17th to 18th centuries) periods,  many adaptations were inserted in the liturgy that incorporated elements from imperial and royal courts, transforming the liturgy’s aesthetics and meaning. The liturgy then became more of a spectacle rather than the active participation of all the baptized in the saving action of Christ crucified.

One could easily read the bishops’ Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, “Sacrosanctum Concilium,” as a correction  of these Carolingian and baroque liturgical adaptations through a restoration of the liturgy’s original emphasis on active participation by the laity and a noble simplicity. These reforms were a direct response to the centuries of development that erroneously had transformed the Mass from a communal event into a more clerical, complex and dramatic spectacle.

What is at stake in accepting the liturgical reforms of the council, then, is our very understanding of what it means to be a church of tradition. On his flight back from Canada in 2022, Pope Francis observed that: “A church that does not develop its thinking in an ecclesial sense is a church that is going backward. This is today’s problem, and of many who call themselves traditional. No, no, they are not traditional, they are people looking to the past, going backward.”

In a word, the true understanding of Catholic tradition provides the church with the capacity to witness to the Gospel in new contexts. True reform is the church’s way of going deeper into the tradition in order to move forward.

Indeed, “Tradition is the living faith of the dead, traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”