Bishop
of Tulsa Abandons
“Mass Facing the People”
Bishop Slattery on Mass Ad Orientem
By John Vennari
The September 2009 issue of Eastern Oklahoma Catholic featured a
brief article by Bishop Edward J. Slattery, Ordinary of the Diocese of Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The Bishop explains why he has ceased the practice of Mass facing the people,
and now celebrates Mass facing the altar (ad
orientem).
Though
the article does not specify whether
the Bishop will celebrate Old Latin Mass or the Novus Ordo ad orientem, it is said Bishop Slattery is well disposed toward the
Tridentine Mass. The fact that a United States Bishop displays a clear
understanding of why Mass should be celebrated ad orientem is one of the few rays of hope in the Church in
America. His words deserve to be widely known.
Bishop Slattery opens
by explaining the Mass as “Christ’s sacrifice under the sacramental signs of
bread and wine”, and goes on to explain that the people share in this offering,
which is done through the priest.
“From ancient times, the position of the
priest and the people reflected this understanding of the Mass,” writes Bishop
Slattery, “since the people prayed, standing or kneeling, in the place that
visibly corresponded to Our Lord’s Body, while the priest at the altar stood at
the head as the Head, We formed the whole Christ – Head and members – both
sacramentally by Baptism and visibly by our position and posture. Just as
importantly, everyone – celebrant and congregation – faced the same direction,
since they were united with Christ in offering to the Father Christ’s unique,
unrepeatable and acceptable sacrifice.”
He points out that when we study the
most ancient liturgical practices of the Church, “we find that the priest and
the people faced in the same direction, toward the east, in the expectation
that when Christ returns, He will return ‘from the East’. At Mass, the Church
keeps vigil, waiting for that return. This single position is called ad orientem, which simply means ‘toward
the East’.”
He then speaks of the multiple
advantages of Mass ad orientem:
The Bisho s says, “Having the priest and
people celebrate Mass ad orientem was
the liturgical norm for nearly 18 centuries. There must have been solid reasons
for the Church to have held on to this posture for so long. And there were!
First of all, the Catholic liturgy has always maintained a marvelous adherence
to the Apostolic Tradition. We see the Mass, indeed the whole liturgical
expression of the Church’s life, as something which we have received from the
Apostles and which we, in turn, are expected to hand on intact. (1 Corinthians 11:23).”
Secondly, the Bishop continues, “the
Church held on to this single eastward position because of the sublime way it
reveals the nature of the Mass. Even someone unfamiliar with the Mass who
reflected upon the celebrant and the faithful being oriented in the same
direction would recognize that the priest stands at the head of the people,
sharing in one and the same action, which was – he would note with a moment’s
longer reflection – an act of worship.”
He then makes the point: “In the last 40 years, however, this shared
orientation was lost; now the priest and the people have become accustomed to
facing in opposite directions. The priest faces the people while the people
face the priest, even though the Eucharistic Prayer is directed to the Father
and not to the people.”
Bishop Slattery never refers to Mass
facing the people as some sort of recovery of an ancient tradition, but clearly
speaks of it as an “innovation” that took place after Vatican II – an
innovation with negative consequences.
The introduction of this novelty, he
says, was ”partly to help the people understand the liturgical action of the
Mass by allowing them to see what was going on, and partly as an accommodation
to contemporary culture where people who exercise authority are expected to
face directly the people they serve, like a teacher sitting behind her desk.”
He then sums up in three quick
points the negative consequences of this innovation: “First of all, it was a
serious rupture with the Church’s ancient tradition. Secondly, it can give the
appearance that the priest and the people were engaged in a conversation about
God, rather than the worship of God. Thirdly, it places an inordinate
importance on the personality of the celebrant by placing him on a kind of
liturgical stage.”
The Bishop goes on to note that Pope
Benedict, even as Cardinal Ratzinger, urged a recovery of more authentic
Catholic worship based on the ancient liturgical practice, “For that reason,”
says Bishop Slattery, “I have restored the venerable ad orientem position when I celebrate Mass at the Cathedral. This
change ought not to be misconstrued as the Bishop ‘turning his back on the
faithful,’ as if I am being inconsiderate or hostile. Such an interpretation
misses the point that, by facing in the same direction, the posture of the
celebrant and the congregation make explicit the fact that we journey together
to God.”
We may hope the Bishop’s words and
example help to lead not simply to a “ reform of the reform” of the Novus Ordo, but
ultimately to greater numbers of priests abandoning the New Rite, and
celebrating exclusively the Latin Tridentine Mass. May more priests and
prelates come to realize what Cardinal Ottaviani recognized, and what he wrote
to Pope Paul VI on September 25, 1969: “The
Novus Ordo Missae … represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking
departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass as it was formulated in
Session 22 of the Council of Trent.”
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PDF of Bishop's Slattery's article at: http://dioceseoftulsa.org/eoc/eoc200909.pdf (large file)