Letters

Altar (letter)

Stuart J. Blackwood

Contents - Jun 2001 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Church reform: from Stage One to Stage Two - Michael Gilchrist Archbishop Pell installed in Sydney - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Basic Ecclesial Communities: Adelaide's 'new model of church' - Michael Gilchrist Annual women priests protest in Adelaide - AD2000 Report Denver document addresses challenges to Catholic marriage teachings - AD2000 Report US missionary risks death in Colombia - Zenit News Service Anglican defence of Catholic inter-Communion ban - Fr Geoffrey Kirk How a small rural parish survived against the odds - Paul Newton Light to the Nations 2001 - Young Australian Catholics celebrate their faith - Mary-Jane Donnellan Letters: Archbishop Pell (letter) - Godwin Brown Letters: Ballarat Diocese (letter) - Fr Gerry Baldock Letters: Encouragement (letter) - John F. Doran Letters: Consecrated life (letter) - Therese O'Rourke Letters: Indian appeal (letter) - Kevin L. Fernandes Letters: Annunciation (letter) - Andrew Scholl Letters: Altar (letter) - Stuart J. Blackwood Letters: Science and Christianity (letter) - Mrs Carol V. Phillips Letters: Sexual abstinence (letter) - Errol P. Duke Letters: 'Lest we forget' (letter) - Marion Craig Books: The Turin Shroud: Past, Present and Future, International Scientific Symposium - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: 'As One Struggling Christian to Another: Augustine's Christian Ideal for Today' - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: 'Blessed Columba Marmion: a Short Biography' by Mark Tierney OSB - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: 'The Wedding Present' by Viscountess Margaret Long - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: Heaven in Stone and Glass: Experiencing the Spirituality of the Great Cathedrals - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: 'The Doctors of the Church' by Bernard McGinn - Angela Joseph (reviewer) Books: 'Praying The Psalms: A Commentary' by Fr Stanley L. Jaki - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: 'Praying with Thomas Aquinas' by Houle, Monshau and Norris - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Reflection: The priest: mediator between God and man - Archbishop George Pell

In his letter "Altar?" (May AD2000) Mr D. Davies is somewhat off target. His quote regarding the free-standing altar is not from a Vatican II document (as he claims) but from the General Instruction on the Roman Missal issued some five years after the Council and of which the Council knew nothing.

He might not be aware that the architect of the Novus Ordo liturgy, Fr (later Archbishop) Bugnini, informed the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, that "the task was to remove from the liturgy anything that could constitute the slightest risk of a stumbling block, or a source of displeasure, to our separated brethren."

The Bugnini version was confirmed during a Paris TV program in 1993 by philosopher and academician, Jean Guitton, who had been a close and long-time friend of Pope Paul VI. He affirmed from his association with the Pope that the purpose was "to have the Catholic liturgy conform as closely as possible to the Protestant Lord's Supper ... to correct or soften anything that is too Catholic in the Mass ... to bring the Catholic Mass away from the Council of Trent towards the Protestant Lord's Supper."

As regards the altar, Pope Pius XII had stated that "To separate tabernacle from altar is to separate two things which, by their nature and their origin, should remain united." Pope Pius has yet to be proved wrong, but in the meantime the free-standing altar just ignores him.

As for "the popes since the Council leading by example", that too needs qualifying. The altar in the pope's Vatican private chapel is not free-standing. Altar and tabernacle are as Pius XII would have them, and the pope saying Mass would face the tabernacle, and away from any worshippers present (see front cover of February 1993 AD2000).

STUART J. BLACKWOOD
Ashgrove, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 14 No 5 (June 2001), p. 14