Clarifications about the celebration of Mass

This morning at the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, SJ, the Director of the Holy See Press Centre offered some clarifications in regard to a speech that was made last week in London (England) by His Eminence, Robert Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments.  

Cardinal Sarah's comments (that priests should celebrate Mass ad orientem - facing East - from Advent onward) drew a written response from his brother Cardinal, Vincent Nichols which was published last week in the Catholic Herald.

Father Lombardi said that the comments, made during a conference in London last week, were wrongly interpreted and do not represent new guidelines for priests about which way to face during the celebration of Mass.

In a statement issued yesterday evening, Father Lombardi said that Cardinal Sarah has always been rightly concerned about the dignity of the celebration of the Mass so that it adequately expresses an attitude of respect and adoration of the Eucharistic mystery.

However he noted that the Cardinal’s words were misinterpreted by some parts of the media to suggest that new liturgical directives would be introduced next Advent regarding the question of whether a priest should face towards or away from the congregation during the celebration of Mass.

The statement quotes from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM, 299) which states that The altar should be built separate from the wall, in such a way that it is possible to walk around it easily and that Mass can be celebrated at it facing the people, which is desirable wherever possible. Moreover, the altar should occupy a place where it is truly the center toward which the attention of the whole congregation of the faithful naturally turns.

Father Lombardi notes that Pope Francis made this view clear to Cardinal Sarah during a recent audience, stressing that the Ordinary form of the celebration of Mass is the one laid down in the Missal promulgated by Paul VI, while the Extraordinary form, permitted in certain specific cases by Pope Benedict XVI, should not be seen as replacing the Ordinary form.

Vatican Press Statement

Some Clarifications about Celebrating the Mass

(working translation)

A clarification is opportune following news reports circulating in the media after a conference held in London some days ago by Cardinal Sarah, the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship.

Cardinal Sarah has always been rightly concerned for the dignity of the celebration of the Mass, in a way that expresses adequately the attitude of respect and adoration for the Eucharistic mystery.

Some expressions were nevertheless badly interpreted as if they announced new indications differing from those given to-date in the liturgical norms and in the words of the pope on the celebration (looking) towards the people and on the ordinary rite of Mass.

It is therefore good to recall that in the General Order of the Roman Missal Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani, that contains the norms relating to the Eucharistic celebration and (which) are still fully in force, No. 299 states that the altar is built separated from the wall, so as to be able to move around it easily and to celebrate looking towards the people, which thing is convenient to realize wherever possible. The altar is to be place in a way so as to really constitute the center towards which the attention of the people spontaneously converges.

Pope Francis, for his part, on the occasion of his visit to the Dicastery (Congregation for Divine Worship) has expressly recalled that the ordinary form of the celebration of the Mass is that envisaged by the Missal promulgated by Paul VI, while that extraordinary (form), which was permitted by by Pope Benedict XVI for the purposes and the modalities explained by him in the Motu Proprio Summorum Ponticium, must not take the place of the ordinary (form).

There are therefore no new liturgical directives beginning from next Advent, as someone has improperly deduced from some words of Cardinal Sarah, and it is better to avoid using the expression the reform of the reform, in referring to the liturgy, given that this has sometimes been the source of misunderstanding.

The Vatican communique added that all this was expressly agreed during a recent audience given by the pope to the said Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship (which took place on Saturday, July 9, 2016).