Vatican says no changes foreseen in direction priests face during Mass

IMAGE: CNS/Paul Haring

By Colleen Dulle

WASHINGTON (CNS) — Recent comments by a high-ranking Vatican official have
sparked questions about the direction priests should face while celebrating
Mass, but the Vatican spokesman said Pope Francis has made it clear no changes
are foreseen.

Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Sacraments, urged priests and bishops at the Sacra Liturgia
conference in London July 5 to start celebrating Masses “ad
orientem,” or facing away from the congregation, beginning the first
Sunday of Advent this year.

However, Jesuit Father Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, issued a
statement July 11 indicating the Pope Francis met with Cardinal Sarah July 9 to
indicate no liturgical directives will begin in Advent.

“Cardinal Sarah is always rightly concerned with the dignity of the
celebration of Mass, that it might adequately express an attachment of respect
and adoration for the eucharistic mystery,” Father Lombardi’s statement
said.

“Some of his phrasing has been badly interpreted, as if he had
announced new, different indications from those now given in liturgical norms
and the words of the popes on celebration toward the people and the ordinary
rite of the Mass,” the spokesman added.

He recalled that the General Instruction on the Roman Missal, which
“remains fully in force,” indicated that the altar should be built
away from the wall so “that Mass can be celebrated at it facing the
people, which is desirable wherever possible.”

The statement also reminded people that when Pope Francis visited the
offices of the congregation for divine worship, “he expressly recalled
that the ‘ordinary’ form of the celebration of Mass is that foreseen by the missal
promulgated by Paul VI,” and that the extraordinary form permitted by
retired Pope Benedict XVI “should not take the place of that ‘ordinary’
form.”

Father Lombardi also said it would be better “to avoid the use of the
expression ‘reform of the reform,’ referring to the liturgy, given that it’s
sometimes the sources of misunderstandings.”

At the conference in London, Cardinal Sarah had asked that “wherever
possible, with prudence and with the necessary catechesis, certainly, but also
with a pastor’s confidence that this is something good for the church,”
priests face east when celebrating the Liturgy of the Eucharist.

Several liturgical experts said Cardinal Sarah does not have the authority
to impose a change but is simply encouraging a practice that liturgical law
already permits.

“I think he’s just encouraging as anyone can encourage, but because of
his position, his encouragement carries more weight. He’s not changing the
legislation at all; he’s just giving his opinion that he thinks this would help
people to pray better,” Father Andrew Menke, associate director of the
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ divine worship office, told Catholic News
Service July 6.

Father Menke also said that as new editions of the Roman Missal are
released, liturgical law is bound to shift, but he doubts anything would happen
regarding the direction the priest faces, except perhaps more encouragement of
“ad orientem” Masses in future missal editions.

Others agreed, saying neither bishops nor Cardinal Sarah have the right to
force priests to celebrate Mass “facing East” until there is an
official change to the missal, the official liturgical law.

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