Comments on: Unto the Altar of God

By: ken88

ken88 — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 01:29:43 +0000

Your Very Welcome, Dennis

By: Dennis Sanchez

Dennis Sanchez — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 22:38:32 +0000

What a wonderful site. I just found it today. Thank you for the info and the beautiful pictures.

By: Dan

Dan — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 01:02:37 +0000

Katherine,

The rubrics, even now, assume Mass ad orientem. There is little to no evidence for Mass versus populum before VII. VII allows it, but like I said, the Missal of Pope Paul VI has at certain points phrases like “the priest turns to the faithful.” The freestanding Altars do not prove anything: most basilicas have freestanding Altars, and have for hundreds of years, but Mass was still celebrated ad orientem, towards the coming Lord. The unity expressed through this gesture is amazing.

By: Katherine

Katherine — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 14:59:59 +0000

The custom of building churches with the altar at the east end had become a mere preference long before the Council or the even the pre-councilar liturgical reform movement. It is often noted that nothing the Council did prohibited a priest from saying Mass facing the apse of the church. This is true, because nothing prior to the Council required him to do so. The Beligans and French rebuilt many of their churches restored during the First War with a free standing altar and the priest would say Mass facing the people. By the 1950s it was not impossible to find this in most parts of the world.

By: ken88

ken88 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:38:56 +0000

Yeah, they can replace it. Maybe next on the list for Pope Benedict?

It should have never happened in the first place, even if they weren’t going to use it, why destroy the Altar where many Popes offered Mass? Even a non-Catholic with an appreciation of Culture and Tradition could see at least the Historical significance of such an edifice.

By: Charles A.

Charles A. — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 16:24:16 +0000

Surely it would be simple enough to rebuild the Altar of the Chair and remove the Ironing Board. The steps and platform are still there, but they’re empty except when a “chair” is placed there for the celebrant.

By: ken88

ken88 — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 14:15:58 +0000

Interesting, Thanks Dino.

By: Dino

Dino — Wed, 18 Jul 2007 02:24:54 +0000

I have heard that the “backwards” direction of the old Roman basilicas is due to the image of the boat (the bark of Peter, or navis from which we get our word “nave”). Remember, the captain of the ship used to steer from the back.

By: ken88

ken88 — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 15:04:25 +0000

Actually, I believe there were many Churches in Rome were the Mass was celebrated “towards the people” because the door was East. This seems to be a pretty common way of doing things in Rome, as the layout in an urban area did not always allow buildings to be built in the direction of the East. A good read on the subject was Fr. Klaus Gamber’s book on the Liturgy.

By: Jedesto

Jedesto — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:59:02 +0000

ken88 “…Church doors faced East towards the Rising Sun (Son) symnbolism…”

Somewhere someone (Ronald Knox?) suggested that the reason for this was to discourage tardiness at Eucharistic celebrations, especially on unpleasantly warm mornings, because, naturally, the faithful would prefer the more comfortable interior to exposure to the elements outside. How’s THAT for symbolism?

By: Philip

Philip — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:17:39 +0000

Fr Kim,

Thanks. I’ve often wondered how best to describe that altar and “ironing board” is simply perfect. I (just about) remember the old altar and always hoped that one day it would be used again. How sad that Cardinal Noe saw fit to remove it. (BTW I saw him once chastising a server in the basilica itself. Wow, what a temper that man had.)

By: Dom Christopher

Dom Christopher — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 11:47:35 +0000

Just to be pedantic and precise, the seventh candle is for pontifical high Mass of the living celebrated by the diocesan bishop; there is no seventh candle at pontifical Requiems.

By: ken88

ken88 — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 15:19:24 +0000

Thanks Fr. Kim, if people look carefully at Papal masses on TV they can see that thing. It looks so woefully out of place.

By: Fr Kim

Fr Kim — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 09:20:22 +0000

Alexander:

The High Altar in St Peter’s is the altar above the tomb of St Peter under the central baldacchino. The altar to which you refer was the ‘Altar of the Chair’ at the far end of the apse. This was indeed removed under Cardinal Virgilio Noe, a disciple of Bugnini and one time Arch-priest of St Peter’s. It was removed while I was a student in Rome, I think in either 1990 or 1991. It was removed furtively while the Pope was away on his summer holidays. The reason Noe gave was that the altar had no historical value! The present altar in this region faces the people and is used for daily Mass and Vespers on a Sunday. It was designed, I believe by Paul VI and looks just like an ironing board.

By: michael

michael — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:46:11 +0000

Also The tomb of St. Peter is positioned beneath the High Altar and this necessitated the nave to go where it does because the Vatican Hill rises behind the basilica, and therefore there was not enough space to put the nave there.

By: ken88

ken88 — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:08:03 +0000

Thank you JT. I hope he does it too, just to show the Bishops he means business.

By: J T Ridd

J T Ridd — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 04:24:12 +0000

I come to your site almost every day. Thank you for these pictures. I love Pius XII. I am praying that come September 14th, Papa Benedict will offer Solemn High Mass in St. Peter’s.

By: ken88

ken88 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:45:33 +0000

Domenico, I do believe that Masses in St. Peter’s were always “towards the people”, not because the people were there, but because the Church doors faced East towards the Rising Sun (Son) symbolism. Apostolic Tradition, it’s important to keep around. Some ill-informed, or malicious folks might have misunderstood why it was done.

By: Domenico

Domenico — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 19:35:25 +0000

I the 4th photo, is the Pope facing the people?
I remember that at the 2nd Vatican Ecumenical Council a (low) Mass was celebrated every day according the Missal of the bl. John XXIII. So some photos are in order.

You may find the video of a ‘day of the Bavarian Pope’. There you may see that the Pope BXVI concelebrates the daily Mass with his two secretaries in his private Chapel in Italian according to the N.O. Missal for 5 Italian faithfuls. Usually the Pope is less papist than the papists. And He may cultivate some pastoral concern for his 5 Italian faithfuls.

By: Bruce

Bruce — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 11:25:02 +0000

If he were to celebrate according to the “extraordinary form”, can we assume the pope would use the ancient papal ceremonial rather than simply the missale romanum?

By: ken88

ken88 — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 00:19:39 +0000

Thank you Anon, Ken