By Maximilien de la Martinière
After Vatican II, people began to think that popular piety would fade on its own… even greasing the skids a little! With the liturgy now celebrated in the vernacular (thus encouraging participation by the faithful) and personal Bible reading becoming widely accessible, it seemed reasonable to assume that the people of God would no longer need devotional practices to maintain their relationship with God. But that was overlooking two things and forgetting a third.
Firstly, it failed to anticipate the rapid and radical separation between Catholicism and postmodern culture, which we are witnessing today. Christianity no longer forms the foundation of our culture. When a culture is no longer closely linked to religion, everyone is left to fend for themselves, creating their own universe of meaning by picking what they need from the vast supermarket of contemporary religiosity.
Need for meaning and religion
When religion fades, religiosity emerges, as the need for meaning does not disappear with religion. Among the contemporary world’s offerings for seekers of meaning are the treasures of popular piety: practical, simple to use, and part of a shared heritage. They are far more accessible to those disconnected from Christianity than the liturgy or the Bible!
These objects (medals, statues, incense, holy water, candles, rosaries…) connect us to the tangible aspects of existence; these rites (blessings, pilgrimages, processions, novenas, the Stations of the Cross…) express our trust in God; these places (shrines and churches) provide a sense of safety; these figures (the Virgin Mary, the saints, and angels) allow us to feel less alone.
Secondly, there was a failure to anticipate the shift in the church’s center of gravity from the Northern countries to the South, where popular piety remains vibrant, untouched by either disembodied rationalism or misunderstood secularism. Take Brazil, where I served for a few years, a country where popular piety can flourish openly. Globalization has brought faithful from these countries into our parishes, bringing their uninhibited piety!
Popular piety as a theological space
Finally, there was a fundamental oversight: popular piety is not mere superstition or a lower-tier form of “perfect” Catholicism. Rather, as Pope Francis put it in Evangelii Gaudium (n. 126), popular piety is “a theological place,” a means through which God reveals Himself. Observing the faith of the humble and the poor, contemplating the piety of the people of God and popular wisdom, I discovered something of God that I had previously missed!
The pope illustrates this beautifully (EG 125): “I think of the steadfast faith of those mothers tending their sick children who, though perhaps barely familiar with the articles of the creed, cling to a rosary; or of all the hope poured into a candle lighted in a humble home with a prayer for help from Mary, or in the gaze of tender love directed to Christ crucified. No one who loves God’s holy people will view these actions as the expression of a purely human search for the divine. They are the manifestation of a theological life nourished by the working of the Holy Spirit who has been poured into our hearts (cf. Rom 5:5).”
Devotion to the Sacred Heart
If, after Vatican II, people thought that popular piety would naturally disappear, it is evident today that this is far from true! Not only does it remain vibrant, providing a wonderful opportunity for new evangelization, as Pope Francis again points out (EG 126): “Expressions of popular piety have much to teach us; for those who are capable of reading them, they are a locus theologicus which demands our attention, especially at a time when we are looking to the new evangelization.”
Moreover, the same pope now celebrates it, dedicating an encyclical to one of popular piety’s treasures: devotion to the Sacred Heart. In this encyclical, Dilexit nos, he says, “I ask that no one mock the expressions of faith of the holy and faithful people of God, who, in their popular piety, seek to console Christ.” Who would have thought? – La Croix International
