I noticed on the Deacon's Bench and on Catholic Culture News Briefs that Bishop Edward Slattery of Tulsa has announced in the diocesan publication The Eastern Oklahoma Catholic that when he is celebrating Mass at the cathedral he will do so ad orientem, or facing in the same direction as the people.
While he recognizes some benefits of the celebrant facing the people as has been standard following the Second Vatican Council, Bishop Slattery sees a problem in that "... it can give the appearance that the priest and the people were engaged in a conversation about God, rather than the worship of God."
I believe many others will follow Bishop Slattery's lead (my pastor may well be one of the early adopters of this return to the traditional orientation) but I am not quite sure how I feel about it. Nowhere in the documents of Vatican II was the change in orientation from ad orientem to versus populum mandated, but it has been a part of my lived worship experience for the past 40 years.
Many a lively discussion will result from Bishop Slattery's initiative, but that is part of the reason I enjoy church work so much. As the great philosopher Roseanne Roseannadanna said, "It's always something!"
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Let me ask a silly question... doesn't ad orientem mean "toward the east"? Does that mean the priest faces the same way as the people, or does it mean the priest faces the east? Presumably, these two are not always the same.
ReplyDeleteIt does mean toward the east and that is why traditionally churches were oriented so that the people would be facing east -- for it was expected that Christ would return from that direction. In practice it became common to refer to the "litugical east" which was essentially the direction the people faced without regard to the compass direction. At St. Lambert's, litugical east means facing west. Go figure.
ReplyDeletedon't know why I can't spell Liturgical correctly.
ReplyDeleteAt St. Stephen it means facing North!
ReplyDelete