EWTN News portal reports that U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Second Lady Usha Vance discussed their family’s Mass attendance practices, including the “perk” of having priests celebrate Mass at home due to security concerns. Vance, who converted to Catholicism, also promoted his memoir “Communion: Finding My Way Back to Faith.” This article, while seemingly innocuous, reveals a profound misunderstanding and trivialization of the Most Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, reducing a sacred obligation and the source and summit of Christian life to a matter of personal convenience, “creature comfort,” and logistical negotiation, thereby reflecting the very essence of modernist indifferentism and the privatization of faith that the pre-conciliar Church unequivocally condemned.
The Mass as “Creature Comfort”: A Modernist Trivialization
The most glaring theological error in the Vances’ statements is their characterization of the Holy Mass as a “perk” or “creature comfort” of JD Vance’s political office. Vice President Vance explicitly stated: “Having priests come to celebrate Mass at home is ‘one of the rare privileges of this life’… It makes it very easy, but it’s one of those creature comforts of being vice president I try not to use too much because I think it makes us a little lazy… It’s a perk.”
This language is not merely informal; it is theologically bankrupt and deeply offensive to Catholic sensibilities. The Holy Mass is not a “perk” or a “creature comfort.” It is the unbloody renewal of the Sacrifice of Calvary, the most sacred act of worship, the very means by which God’s grace is dispensed to humanity. To describe it as a “perk” akin to a luxury or an optional convenience demonstrates a fundamental failure to grasp its supreme importance and transcendence. It reduces the infinite God’s offering to a mere service provided for personal ease, a “lazy” alternative to the communal and public act of worship.
This attitude directly contradicts the Church’s perennial teaching on the necessity and supreme value of the Holy Mass. Pope Pius XI, in his encyclical Quas Primas (1925), emphasized the spiritual nature of Christ’s kingdom and the Church’s mission, stating: “His kingdom is primarily spiritual and relates mainly to spiritual matters… For His kingdom, as the Gospels present it, is such that men who wish to belong to it prepare themselves through repentance, but cannot enter except through faith and baptism…” The Mass is the central act of this spiritual kingdom, not a private convenience. Furthermore, the Church has always taught that the faithful have a grave obligation to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, not as a “perk,” but as a divine commandment and a means of sanctification. The idea that one would avoid public attendance due to “laziness” or a preference for “easy” home Masses is a direct affront to this obligation and a sign of spiritual tepidity.
Privatization of Worship: A Symptom of Modernist Apostasy
The Vances’ preference for home Masses, while understandable from a security standpoint, reflects a broader modernist trend towards the privatization and individualization of faith. This stands in stark contrast to the Catholic understanding of the Church as a visible, hierarchical society and the Mass as a public, communal act of worship.
The Church teaches that the faithful are not isolated individuals but members of the Mystical Body of Christ, united in public worship. The Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity (Apostolicam Actuositatem), while a conciliar document, itself emphasized the importance of communal participation, stating: “The Christian vocation by its very nature is also a vocation to the apostolate… The laity derive the right and duty to the apostolate from their union with Christ the Head; incorporated into Christ’s Mystical Body through Baptism and strengthened by the power of the Holy Spirit through Confirmation, they are assigned to the apostolate by the Lord Himself.” While this document is post-conciliar, the underlying principle of communal worship is perennial. The early Christians, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). This communal aspect is intrinsic to the Mass, which is offered pro populo (for the people) and signifies the unity of the Church.
The Vances’ approach, while perhaps born of necessity, risks fostering a “private chapel” mentality, where faith becomes a personal affair detached from the visible community of believers. This is a hallmark of modernism, which, as St. Pius X condemned in Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907), seeks to separate the “Christ of faith” from the “Christ of history” and reduce religion to individual experience. The article’s focus on “adjusting timing and location” to “mitigate discomforts” for others, while pragmatic, subtly shifts the emphasis from the sacredness of the Mass to the logistical convenience of a powerful individual, further eroding its public and communal character.
The “Rootedness” of Catholicism: A Superficial Appeal
JD Vance’s explanation for his conversion to Catholicism, as presented in the article, reveals a superficial understanding of the Faith. He stated: “Catholicism ‘felt rooted’ and ‘if I went to a foreign country and I didn’t understand the language, I kind of knew what was going on. And I liked that feeling of rootedness.'” He also mentioned being attracted to the “tradition of the church” and the “core tenets of the Christian faith.”
While the Catholic Church is indeed rooted in tradition and possesses a universal character, Vance’s description reduces this profound theological reality to a mere aesthetic or cultural preference. His conversion narrative, as presented, lacks any mention of the Church’s divine institution, her infallible Magisterium, the necessity of the sacraments for salvation, or the reality of sin and redemption. It focuses instead on a vague “feeling of rootedness” and the “tradition” as a comforting constant in a changing world. This is a far cry from the robust, intellectual, and supernatural conversion that the Church demands, which involves an assent to revealed truths and a submission to her authority.
St. Pius X, in Lamentabili Sane Exitu (1907), condemned the modernist proposition that “The dogmas which the Church proposes as revealed are not truths of divine origin but are a certain interpretation of religious facts, which the human mind has worked out with great effort” (Proposition 22). Vance’s emphasis on “feeling at home” and “rootedness” without a clear articulation of doctrinal assent risks falling into this very trap, where faith becomes a matter of personal comfort rather than objective truth.
The “Inconvenience” of Faith: A Secularist Mindset
The Vances’ concern about “inconveniencing everybody” due to their security details, while understandable from a public relations perspective, subtly reinforces a secularist mindset where the practice of faith is expected to conform to secular norms and avoid any disruption to public order. Usha Vance’s statement, “It means sometimes people can’t get into Mass when they arrive… It means that you have people trickling in after the start because they’re being put through magnetometers,” highlights this tension.
While the Church acknowledges the legitimate authority of the state and the need for public order, she also teaches that the rights of God and the Church are supreme. Pope Leo XIII, in his encyclical Immortale Dei (1885), clearly stated: “The Almighty, therefore, has given the charge of the human race to two powers, the ecclesiastical and the civil, the one being set over divine, and the other over human, each supreme in its own kind… Each in its kind is fixed within the limits defined by its own nature and special object.” The Church has always maintained that the state cannot impede the free exercise of religion or the fulfillment of religious duties. While security concerns are a reality, the framing of the issue as “inconveniencing everybody” suggests a prioritization of secular comfort over the sacred obligation of attending Mass, a subtle but significant shift in values.
Conclusion: A Symptom of the Conciliar Church’s Spiritual Bankruptcy
The article on the Vances’ Mass attendance practices, far from being a simple news report, serves as a poignant illustration of the spiritual bankruptcy that pervades the post-conciliar Church. The trivialization of the Most Holy Sacrifice as a “perk,” the privatization of worship, the superficial understanding of conversion, and the subtle capitulation to secular norms all point to a profound crisis of faith and understanding. This is not merely a personal failing of the Vances, but a systemic issue fostered by decades of modernist catechesis and the dismantling of Catholic identity within the conciliar structures.
The true Church, the immutable Ark of Salvation, calls her children to a faith that is public, communal, and rooted in the unchanging truths of divine revelation, not in “creature comforts” or “rootedness” as a mere feeling. The Vances’ approach, however well-intentioned, stands as a stark reminder of how far the conciliar sect has drifted from the perennial teachings of the Catholic Faith, reducing the sacred to the convenient and the supernatural to the merely natural. Extra Ecclesiam nulla salus (Outside the Church there is no salvation) remains the unchangeable truth, and the path to salvation lies not in “perks” but in humble submission to the true Church and her divine Founder.
Source:
U.S. vice president, second lady share family Mass attendance practices (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 15.06.2026