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Young Catholic women have started wearing veils at Mass – just as their grandmothers did before the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s.
Those who attend the Traditional Latin Mass are most likely to have adopted the practice.
What’s driving the change?
Madeleine Kearns, associate editor at The Free Press and a Catholic, says there is a variety of reasons for the new veil-wearing trend in young Catholic women.
One says the practice enhances her spiritual experience by serving as a reminder of the sacredness of the Mass.
She says it’s “like feeling I’m under a blanket — I can kind of shut other things out” while providing comfort and focus to her prayers.
Some women first adopted the head covering because of its aesthetic appeal. However it soon transformed into something much deeper.
Kearns quoted one such woman after she began veiling – she “fell in love” with it as a way to show her reverence for the Eucharist.
Now she always has it with her – along with other necessities like her keys, phone and wallet.
Another told Kearns that veiling “fits this entire aesthetic” in parishes with Gothic and Baroque architecture “which you don’t see in as many modern parishes”.
“When you have a parish that’s filled with women wearing these finely made pieces of lace, it’s beautiful to look at” she explained to Kearns.
She said this beauty is that of a “lost type of Catholicism”.
Holier than thou
Both women say they hesitated to adopt the veil for fear of seeming “holier than thou”.
One says while this perception arises largely from a misunderstanding of the scriptural meaning of veiling, this stemmed from views expressed by some Traditional Latin Mass communities.
Kearns says the growing trend to veil is a symptom of a “wave of nostalgia for an ancient, more solemn and reverent form of the religion” that Catholics are experiencing in the aftermath of Vatican II.
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