Lifestyle

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The Vatican Clarifies the Pope’s Stance on ‘Mar-a-Lago Face’

If cleanliness is next to godliness, what is Botox next to?

Roosa Rahkonen

Editorial Intern, The Looker

Published

Mar 9, 2026, 2:25 PM EDT

Updated

Mar 9, 2026, 2:26 PM EDT

Updated Mar 9, 2026, 2:26 PM EDT

Published Mar 9, 2026, 2:25 PM EDT

If you thought the celebrities who rant and rave about “aging naturally” seemed awfully holier-than-thou, you’d be right.

A statement issued by the Vatican confirms that those who forgo cosmetic enhancements are literally holier than thou—or at least better aligned with the Catholic Church’s views on such matters.

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The Vatican released a lengthy document last week outlining its standpoint on technological advancements, titled “Where are you going, humanity? Thinking about Christian anthropology in light of some scenarios for the future of humanity.”

The announcement details the Church’s positions on a wide range of futuristic topics, including transhumanism (which centers on the belief that science will one day allow humanity to transcend its biology and even eliminate death), equitable access to technology for the poor, and artificial intelligence.

Plastic surgery, too, is on the table, as it seems even the head of the Catholic Church has something to say about the “frantic search for a perfect figure.”

The document, which was released in Italian and Spanish, was created by the Vatican’s International Theological Commission and signed off on by Pope Leo XIV. It explored the effects of technological advancements on humanity and reflected on the risks of current beauty trends.

While Botox and fillers are not in the Pope’s typical wheelhouse, we live in a time when cosmetic enhancements and GLP-1 weight loss medication rule the zeitgeist, and conservative circles are overflowing with the overfilled “Mar-a-Lago face.” As these procedures and treatments have become increasingly widespread, churchgoers and members of other religious groups will inevitably have questions for their leadership.

According to translations provided by Reuters and the National Catholic Reporter, the document stated that, “especially in the West, advances in cosmetic surgery… offer tools that significantly change the relationship with one’s own corporeality and therefore with reality and with others.”

Continuing, “A widespread ‘cult of the body’ follows, tending toward a frantic search ​for a perfect figure, always fit, young, and beautiful."

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The document also warned about modifying one’s body in accordance with fleeting beauty trends.

“In this dynamic, it is no longer necessary to accept one’s own body to realise one’s own identity. It can be transformed according to the tastes of the moment,” the document read. “A curious situation arises: the ideal body is exalted, sought after, and cultivated, while the real body is not truly loved, being a source of limitations, fatigue, aging. A perfect body is desired, while one dreams of escaping from one’s own concrete body and its limitations.”

The release was discussed on the March 6 episode of The View.

“Can we all agree that it’s a bad idea to invite [the Pope] and the Kardashians to the same party?” joked Joy Behar, 83, who enjoys regular Botox and filler appointments.

“It reminds me of this one joke I once heard in reference to a group of people that had had a lot of plastic surgery,” Sara Haines, 48, said. “It said ‘they’re the only ones who consider their God-given face merely a suggestion.”

“Joking aside,” she continued, “You might have lost your way when your body becomes your one obsession, which I definitely have veered in that lane a thousand times, but we become so obsessed with the vehicle that we’re losing sight of the message.”

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“I’m going to have to go to confession,” Sunny Hostin, 57, told her co-hosts, “because I just had Botox a couple of days ago.”

Haines, however, did not believe that the document referenced Botox at all, positing instead that it was focused on the more permanent and extreme procedures.

“We see almost every day those extreme examples of people that have had 22 surgeries and become obsessed. They’re not doing Botox, they’re literally transforming,” Haines said, adding, “I don’t think God blames you for your Botox.”

Roosa Rahkonen

Editorial Intern, The Looker

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