Cardinal Sarah during a conference in London invited the priests to turn to celebrate towards the East, facing away from the people. After clarification from the Pope, a note from Lombardi.
It seemed to be more than an invitation, since the one talking about it, albeit during a conference and not with an official act, was Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. A week ago, the African cardinal, in London at the opening of the Sacred Liturgy conference, had launched a kind of appeal to all priests of the world, inviting them - starting with the first Sunday of Advent, this November - to celebrate Mass “ad Orientem” that is, with the altar facing east, away from the people, as was the custom prior to the conciliar reform. “It is very important that we return, as soon as possible, to a common direction, the priests and the faithful facing the same direction, towards the east, or at least towards the apse, towards the Lord who comes,” he said, adding: “I ask you apply this practice wherever possible.”
The words of Sarah reverberated around the world, garnering enthusiastic support on so-called traditionalist sites and blogs, also because the Cardinal added that he wanted to initiate, in agreement with the Pope, a study to arrive at a “reform of the reform” of the liturgy, to enhance the sacredness of the rite. The day after Sarah’s conference, the Cardinal Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, wrote a letter to his priests, urging them not to celebrate Mass facing east as requested by the Prefect of Divine Worship, also because of the current legislation on this matter.
In the past few days, Cardinal Sarah went once again to meet with Francis. And in the afternoon of Monday, July 11, Father Federico Lombardi – on the day when the appointment of his successor was announced - issued a statement evidently agreed upon by the Pontiff and Cardinal, which diminished the value of Sarah’s invitation and even rejected the expression “reform of the reform”, already abandoned by Benedict XVI in the past.
“Clarification is appropriate,” said the Vatican spokesman, “following media reports which circulated after a conference held in London by Cardinal Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, a few days ago. Cardinal Sarah has always been rightly concerned about the dignity of the celebration of the Mass, in order to adequately express the attitude of respect and adoration of the Eucharistic mystery. Some of his expressions were, however, misinterpreted, as if they were to announce new indications that differ from those which are given so far in the liturgical norms and in the words of the Pope on the celebration facing the people and the ordinary Mass rite.”
“Thus, it is good to remember,” continued Lombardi, “that the Institutio Generalis Missalis Romani (General Instruction of the Roman Missal), which contains the rules for the Eucharistic celebration and is still in full force, states in paragraph 299: ‘Altare extruatur a pariete seiunctum, ut facile circumiri et in eo celebratio versus populum peragi possit, quod expedit ubicumque possibile sit. Altare eum autem occupet locum , ut revera centrum sit ad quod totius congregationis fidelium attentio sponte convertatur’ (ie: ‘The altar should be built apart 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. The altar should, moreover, be so placed as to be truly the centre toward which the attention of the whole congregation of the faithful naturally turns.’).”
“For his part, Pope Francis,” the Vatican spokesman affirmed, “on the occasion of his visit to the Dicastery of Divine Worship, specifically mentioned that the ‘ordinary’ form of the celebration of Mass is that which is intended by the Missal promulgated by Paul VI, while the ‘extraordinary’ form, which was allowed by Pope Benedict XVI for the purposes and in the manner which he explained in the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, must not take the place of the ‘ordinary’.”
“Thus, new liturgical directives as of next Advent are not foreseen,” clarifies Lombardi, “as some have wrongly inferred from some words of Cardinal Sarah, and it is best to avoid using the expression ‘reform of the reform’, referring to the liturgy, as it has sometimes been a source of misunderstanding. This was mutually expressed during a recent audience granted by the Pope to the same Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation of Divine Worship.”
