PAPAL CLERICALISM? THE EVER CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF THE PAPAL ALTAR…

 With the modern Mass, everything hinges on the tastes or fickleness or both of the clergy, even the popes, when it comes to how the altar should be dressed.

After the minimalism of the first post-Vatican II popes, Pope Benedict XVI brought back the traditional arrangement for his papal Masses at St. Peter’s and elsewhere with the central crucifix even when facing the nave:

I took this photo at a Pope Francis Mass less than six months after his election. He had maintained the Benedict arrangement for about the first year but this is Pope Benedict’s outdoor altar look, which I think is the best:

Then Pope Francis modified Pope Benedict’s arrangement but not terribly so. The Episcopal Candle was eventually removed altogether, smaller candlesticks angled more on the altar and a smaller crucifix, but still central. It isn’t bad but not as nice as Pope Benedict’s arrangement:

And now Pope Leo or his papal MC are completely fickle about the papal altar arrangement. There’s been a variety since Leo’s election. But it appears that His Holiness preference is for bigger candlesticks and a return of the Episcopal Candle and the crucifix to the side rather than central—what a pity! But overall it isn’t horrible just not as nice as Pope Benedict’s arrangement:

Let’s get back to the rubrics in the 1962 Roman Missal and spare the Church all this post-Vatican II fickleness about this, that and the other!