This photo is of St. Joseph Church in Augusta, Georgia after my sister's wedding in July of 1966:
Please note the six high candlesticks, which at one time would have been the trademark of any Catholic Church, simple like this one or more ornate. You see, as well, the temporary altar placed in front of the original pre-Vatican II altar (although his church was completed in 1958). I remember it clearly as the legs straddled the three steps to the high altar, but made the table part on an equal level with the old altar's table and kept the priest on the same level as the third step.
If you look closely between my sister and brother-im-law you see the tabernacle, dead center, still on the old altar. The priest's chair is to the side as it was prior to Vatican II.
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This photo of the same sanctuary is my first Mass on June 8, 1980 some 14 years after my sister's wedding photo:
Some time around 1971 or 72, the new odd-legged altar was removed and this old altar pulled away from the back wall so Mass could be celebrated on it facing the congregation. The celebrant's chair was place directly behind it one step higher and the tabernacle was removed to a side altar. The trademark six altar candles are completely gone.
I remember seeing this look for the first time on a Sunday in the early 70's and thinking the pastor had stripped our church and it looked so Protestant to me. It was really sad for many people.
And we all wondered at the time why in the name of God and all that is holy, the pastor would put his chair dead center, higher than the altar behind the altar and the tabernacle demoted to a lower side altar. It was scandalous then and still is in my mind today.
Was this new placement of the priest's chair the one thing that indicated that clericalism in the Catholic Church was now on steroids as it concerns priests at Mass? Just how did it make the priest feel, now front and center and for the entire Mass except when he read the Gospel and preached the homily (which many priests began to do from the center in front of the altar or from their chair?
We all know that priestly clericalism as it regards the new, vernacular Mass exploded overnight. Is the old Mass with its altar arrangement the antidote to this new clericalism?
Please note the six high candlesticks, which at one time would have been the trademark of any Catholic Church, simple like this one or more ornate. You see, as well, the temporary altar placed in front of the original pre-Vatican II altar (although his church was completed in 1958). I remember it clearly as the legs straddled the three steps to the high altar, but made the table part on an equal level with the old altar's table and kept the priest on the same level as the third step.
If you look closely between my sister and brother-im-law you see the tabernacle, dead center, still on the old altar. The priest's chair is to the side as it was prior to Vatican II.
-----------------------------
This photo of the same sanctuary is my first Mass on June 8, 1980 some 14 years after my sister's wedding photo:
Some time around 1971 or 72, the new odd-legged altar was removed and this old altar pulled away from the back wall so Mass could be celebrated on it facing the congregation. The celebrant's chair was place directly behind it one step higher and the tabernacle was removed to a side altar. The trademark six altar candles are completely gone.
I remember seeing this look for the first time on a Sunday in the early 70's and thinking the pastor had stripped our church and it looked so Protestant to me. It was really sad for many people.
And we all wondered at the time why in the name of God and all that is holy, the pastor would put his chair dead center, higher than the altar behind the altar and the tabernacle demoted to a lower side altar. It was scandalous then and still is in my mind today.
Was this new placement of the priest's chair the one thing that indicated that clericalism in the Catholic Church was now on steroids as it concerns priests at Mass? Just how did it make the priest feel, now front and center and for the entire Mass except when he read the Gospel and preached the homily (which many priests began to do from the center in front of the altar or from their chair?
We all know that priestly clericalism as it regards the new, vernacular Mass exploded overnight. Is the old Mass with its altar arrangement the antidote to this new clericalism?
2 comments:
It is interesting that the old altar isn’t a large ornate altar. It looks fairly simple and I wonder if the church was built with V2 in mind. I do miss those six candles, and all of the candles in churches. I recall in the older churches racks and racks of votive candles, enough to illuminated the church. I definitely prefer that old altar. I think the only part of V2 that I liked at the time was the Mass in English. Everything after that was one disappointment after another.
Father looking at your first mass makes me want to cry. How ugly our churches became after the abomination of VII
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