The Bishop of Pittsburg is regulating ad orientem Masses in the Ordinary Form, but not forbidding it.
I happen to believe that the bishop of a diocese is the primary liturgist, not just because I believe it, because he is. Thus he should assure that the Holy Mass is celebrated according to the Books of the Church, the Roman Missal.
I think that imposing ad orientem on a parish that is not accustomed to it, hasn’t asked for it and doesn’t understand it is a mistake, when it is completely lawful to celebrate it toward the people.
I would be outraged as a pastor, if the Masses in my parish were offered toward the laity and I had a parochial vicar or a visiting priest tell me that he only celebrates Mass ad orientem. Having Mass one way one day and another way the next is divisive and confusing and causes anger in the laity.
The same would be true if a parish has had ad orientem for years and a priest comes in and says I won’t celebrate Mass that way.
Thus there needs to be regulation. Parochial Vicars and visiting priests aren’t the ones to make the decision.
However, the bishop needs to be the one to catechize not only his priests about pastoral theology when it comes to the Liturgy but also he needs to teach the laity that both ways of celebrating Mass are acceptable.
A way to start properly teaching priests and laity about the direction of the Mass is to do what Pope Benedict did. It is called the “Benedictine” altar arrangement. Place the crucifix centered on the altar facing the priest. This doesn’t preclude a crucifix on the wall above the altar for the laity to focus upon.
The same thing about Holy Communion and how to receive properly which does not exclude kneeling, but kneeling like standing should not be imposed on anyone and kneelers or an altar railing should be made available for those who want to kneel. That is called graciousness in the south and hospitality everywhere else.
The greatest problem at Communion time isn’t kneeling but how people receive in the hand, which has no consistency whatsoever and we can talk about the right way until we are blue in the face and at the Mass where we say it, even prior to Holy Communion, people don’t follow the proper procedure!
One thing is clear, though. Bishops need to follow the rubrics of the Mass themselves and scrupulously so and they need to address the horrors of how the Mass is celebrated in so many places which have nothing to do with ad orientem whatsoever!
4 comments:
How is he regulating ad orientem? The rubrics assume ad orientem so is he re-writing the rubrics for his diocese, inserting that a priest must confer with the local branch manager first? I agree you need catechesis before introducing ad orientem which is something that did not happen when versus populum celebration was imposed.
Agree with TJM.
Ad Orientem has been turned into the boogey-man when it's actually what was and is called for.
Ad Orientem has been demonized such that we daresn't risk PTSD or upset among donors of a certain age group.
I've attended mass that was celebrated Ad Orientem without knowing prior to this was to be the posture. Look, I'm here, not traumatized and surviving and thriving. My thought when discovering this was "oh goody!!" and, this church is kinda beautiful.
As I've said a few times, and I'm not some kind of radical with this stuff, Divine Liturgy would be absurd if forced into the verses populem mold. I said that once to a Roman priest who responded, "It would look no more absurd than how the mass looks".
ByrRus,
I recall a time when I accidentally stumbled upon a vernacular Mass celebrated ad orientem. Although the language was English, the mere use of the ad orientem took me back in time to when the TLM held sway. This Mass was very dignified and reverent. It occured to me then and there if the ad orientem posture had been maintained, the reforms may have been less jarring.
TJM,
That's exactly it. The reforms weren't good faith, preserve the tradition to hand on, it was radicalism and capturing the euphoria of the era. The world moved on from the '60s/'70s (except for the music), yet the Church is still focused on "fresh" if you perused the Oceania posting. What in the hell does that even mean? I have a life sized image of an Orthodox fixating on being "fresh".
BTW, I like the current ad orientem Masthead however, Fr. better not step back and admire his work or he'll end up at the bottom.
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