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THE P
Snapdragon
RTAL
August 2016 Page 5
The debate about ad orientem or versus populum
Snapdragon adds some words of wisdom
Cardinal Robert Sarah , Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments , has well and truly put the liturgical cat among the pigeons . His recent comments to the International Sacra Liturgia conference in London about the desirability of priests celebrating the Mass ad orientem ( facing east ), and his invitation to priests to begin doing so this Advent , has attracted heated comment from both supporters and opponents of the centuries-old tradition and opened up a fault line that has been running through the Church for decades .
You might not think it from the way some people speak , but Mass celebrated ad orientem was never actually outlawed , nor Mass versus populum ( facing the people ) mandated , by the Second Vatican Council ; both ways of celebrating the Mass , judged the Council , are valid and legitimate . As we all know , the latter quickly became the norm and the former the exception following the Council , but both are deemed lawful .
Critics of ad orientem routinely and crudely speak of it as “ the priest with his back to the people ”, rather than priest and people together facing the rising sun , symbol of Christ . But equally crudely and erroneously critics of versus populum speak of that practice as “ the priest with his back to God ”. The peddling of both of these half-truths in a ‘ debate ’ in which opposing groups are in reality just talking past each other , has done so much to polarise the faithful in regard to the Sacrament of Unity , when a conciliatory approach in which it is accepted that each orientation is a valid way to celebrate the Mass and expresses something true and profound , would much more profitably serve them .
Cardinal Sarah speaks for many of us in lamenting the quality of much Catholic worship . “ God , not man ”, he said , “ is at the centre of Catholic liturgy . The liturgy is not ... where we celebrate our identity or achievements or exalt or promote our own culture or local religious customs .
The liturgy should first and foremost be about God and what he has done for us .” It is distressing that this basic truth is not reflected in many Masses . But instead of engaging in trench warfare over ad orientem versus versus populum , we might much more productively expend our energy focusing on how we could in other
ways restore a sense of transcendence and reverence in our worship .
Improving the way we conduct ourselves in church , especially in relation to the altar and tabernacle , would be a good starting point - showing due reverence to Christ , truly present in the Sacrament and symbolised by the altar . The Anglican priest who trained me up as an altar server once said that the real test of reverence is whether you bow and genuflect even when there is nobody else in church to see it . Ensuring that the periods of silence required by the rubrics are observed would be another step ; we could go further and ensure that a holy silence is kept immediately before and after worship ; priests kneeling visibly in church for a few minutes before and after Mass would give a strong lead in this .
A move away from catchy tunes and simple words towards a hymnody with deep roots in the Church ’ s history might help to correct the fashion for speaking to God as if he were our best but dimmest buddy . Making available the facility for kneeling at Holy Communion might awaken in Catholics the urge to fall down in adoration in the presence of God .
Astonishingly , some of these are hardly uncontroversial in today ’ s Church either , but they are perhaps some of the smaller and more achievable goals to re-orientate our worship towards God .
THE P RTAL
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