Gerald Augustinus has a translation of comments made by Cardinal Schoenborn on the question of orientation at Mass. He recently gave permission for the parish of St Rochus in Vienna to use the baroque, eastward-facing altar instead of the movable "people's altar." Some people have complained about this and called for a boycott of the (hugely popular) Church.
You can read the Cardinal's comments here:
Cardinal Schoenborn on "ad orientem" & "versus populum".
St Rochus is the Church of the Vienna Oratory. Here is a picture of the altar. Can't you just hear all the "people" crying out "No, give us back our portable table!"
9 comments:
a boycot? What the hell is wrong with these people?
If you don't like it, don't go. Is someone holding a gun to their heads? I'm sure there's no shortage of parishes with balloons and guitars and clapping ladies in the sanctuary. Talk about absolutism. There's no absolutism like tolerant relativism hey?
Actually, yes, I can! Unfortunately, many lay Catholics at the moment have an incomplete understanding of the Mass (as you well know). Surely solid catechesis is a necessary prerequisite to re-orientation. A church I attend experimented briefly with Mass ad orientem and there were indeed some complaints, along the lines of, 'It makes the Mass seem like the priest's private affair'. Solid teaching in parishes and schools is surely the best way to start a (genuinely popular) liturgical renewal...
Interesting.
I have partook in a few Novus Ordo Masses, with the priest eastward-facing, and my experience of this has always been very good and prayerful.
I'm not a traditionalist, in terms of the Old Mass, but I am most definitely conservative in my faith. I've grown up with Novus Ordo and in my parish it is celebrated with the greatest of reverence.
I once heard the opinion that as the priest is leading us in the Holy Sacrifice, then we should really all be facing eastwards--especially the priest.
One of my friends at university commented today on what the average Catholic's knowledge is on what the Mass is, and he put forward the suggestion that a good many would not know that it is a sacfrifice. His point was that this is largely due to the westward-facing priest, and in his words the Mass being a 'show'.
I suspect that the protesters against Schoenborn are not by and large young people. I find increasingly that young people who have managed to receive something of the Catholic faith are either enthusiasts for traditional liturgy or have relatively mild views on it without hostility.
The hardcore opposition is from those who grew up through the radical changes after Vatican II and are angry at what they see as "going back."
Hum.
Perhaps the Holy Father is wrong then when he described the Novus Ordo as a "banal, fabricated, on the spot product."
Banal reverence?
Yes, I also find the oppostion ironic. A certain lack of solicitousness for those who grew up with a real Catholic Mass was evident some little time ago.
Come in protestant Novus Ordo, your time is fast up
Does the priest face the people in the Novus Ordo of turn his back on Cavalry?
Of course Uwe Lang used to be at the Viennese Oratory, didn't he?
Anybody needing some historical/archeological/theological background on this question should read his short book.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Turning-Towards-Lord-Orientation-Liturgical/dp/0898709865/sr=8-1/qid=1172536112/ref=sr_1_1/202-0615148-2702246?ie=UTF8&s=books
I thought that there was some sort of guidance in the Notitiae of the Congregation that where there is one permanent ad orientem altar and a temporary table altar then the former should be used. This was mid-nineties I think. When I visited Sta Croce and S Lorenzo's in Florence both had gone back to their original High Altars. That was 1997; assume it didn't last...?
"The Table at the Communion time having a fair white linen cloth upon it, shall stand in the body of the Church, or in the Chancel, where Morning and Evening Prayer are appointed to be said. And the Priest standing at the north side of the Table shall say the Lord’s Prayer, with the Collect following, the people kneeling."
- Book of common prayer 1662
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