Helpful: Archbishop "Forbids" Use Of Altar

en.news3 years ago

Cincinnati Archbishop Dennis Schnurr, 74, Ohio, imposed on December 21 presiding the Eucharist facing the people "wherever possible."

Every church and chapel must have at least one Eucharist facing away from God. He wants to be informed "in writing" and "in advance" of Eucharists regularly presided towards God.

Where a Last Supper Table is available, the Eucharist must be presided there, not at the altar. When the table is not fixed, it may not be removed for the purpose of using the altar.

So far, in Cincinnati, the Roman Rite has been relatively well-protected despite Traditionis Custodes. Schnurr's decree is helpful insofar as it makes clear that Catholic Mass and neo-Protestant Eucharist are not equivalent.

Picture: Dennis Schnurr © wikicommons, CC BY-SA, #newsEbhidwxflw

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John A Cassani3 years ago

As far as the ad orientem part of this decree goes, isn’t the mandating of one versus populum Mass a tacit allowance for all additional Masses to be ad orientem? Perhaps he is overstepping his authority by mandating something that should be at a priest’s discretion, but that aspect of this document isn’t so bad. The altar issue is a different thing. Older churches in the US typically have the free standing altar closely in front of the high altar. It could be down the stairs, or, sometimes they extended the predella so that it could be on the very same level. Sometimes they actually disconnected the altar from the reredos, and moved it just a few feet, so that celebrating facing the people was possible, but not very easy. I’ve never liked using the high altar if the free standing one is there in the way. If it can be moved, that’s great. Move it to the dumpster. But, if it’s fixed, while allowing for ad orientem, it should be used, even if it’s not ideal.

Lisi Sterndorfer3 years ago

The decree is based on false translation. Read here:
A new decree in a US Archdiocese seeks to limit “ad orientem” worship, but it is based on a FALSE translation. Here we go again. | Fr. Z's Blog (wdtprs.com)