Versus populum


Versus populum is the liturgical orientation in which the priest celebrates Mass facing the people. The opposite orientation, whereby the priest faces in the same direction as the people, is called ad orientem or ad apsidem.
In the early history of Christianity it was considered the norm to pray facing the geographical east. From the middle of the 17th century, almost all new Roman Rite altars were built against a wall or backed by a reredos, with a tabernacle placed on the main altar or inserted into the reredos. This meant that the priest turned to the people, putting his back to the altar, only for a few short moments at Mass. However, the Tridentine Missal itself speaks of the option of celebrating versus populum, and gives corresponding instructions for the priest when performing actions that in the other orientation involved turning around in order to face the people.

History

Earliest churches in Rome

It has been said that the reason the Pope always faced the people when celebrating Mass in St Peter's was that early Christians faced eastward when praying and, due to the difficult terrain, the basilica was built with its apse to the west. Some have attributed this orientation in other early Roman churches to the influence of Saint Peter's. However, the arrangement whereby the apse with the altar is at the west end of the church and the entrance on the east is found also in Roman churches contemporary with Saint Peter's that were under no such constraints of terrain, and the same arrangement remained the usual one until the sixth century. According to Klaus Gamber, in this early layout the people were situated not in the central nave but in the side aisles of the church and, while the priest faced both the altar and east throughout the Mass, the people faced the altar until the high point of the Mass, when they would turn to face east, the direction in which the priest was already facing. This view is strongly criticized on the grounds of the unlikelihood that, in churches where the altar was to the west, they would turn their backs on the altar at the celebration of the Eucharist.

Later pre-twentieth-century churches in Rome

It was only in the 8th or 9th century that the position whereby the priest faced the apse, not the people, when celebrating Mass was adopted in Rome, under the influence of the Frankish Empire, where it had become general. However, in several churches in Rome, it was physically impossible, even before the twentieth-century liturgical reforms, for the priest to celebrate Mass facing away from the people, because of the presence, immediately in front of the altar, of the "confession", an area sunk below floor level to enable people to come close to the tomb of the saint buried beneath the altar. The best-known such "confession" is that in St Peter's Basilica, but many other churches in Rome have the same architectural feature, including at least one, the present Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls, which, although the original Constantinian basilica was arranged like St Peter's, is oriented since 386 in such a way that the priest faces west when celebrating Mass.

Outside of Rome

The earliest Christian churches were not built with any particular orientation in mind, but by the fifth century it became the rule in the Eastern Roman Empire to have the altar at the east end of the church, an arrangement that became normal but not universal in northern Europe. The old Roman custom of having the altar at the west end and the entrance at the east was sometimes followed as late as the 11th century even in areas under Frankish rule, as seen in Petershausen, Bamberg Cathedral, Augsburg Cathedral, Regensburg Cathedral, and Hildesheim Cathedral. In the east also, the original Constantinian Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem had its apse to the west until it was Byzantinized in 1048.

Modernity

Catholic Church

Roman Missal

The present General Instruction of the Roman Missal says, in the official English translation: "The altar should be built separate 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." Where practicable, the church altar should be built in such a way that the priest can easily walk around it and can celebrate Mass versus populum, but the text does not oblige the priest to avail of these possibilities.
In practice, after the Second Vatican Council, altars that obliged the priest to have his back to the people were generally moved away from the wall or reredos, or, where this was unsuitable, a new freestanding altar was built closer to the people. This, however, is not universal, and in some churches and chapels it is physically impossible for the priest to face the people throughout the Mass, as before 1970 some churches, especially in Rome, had altars at which it was physically impossible for the priest not to face the people throughout the Mass.

The present Roman Missal prescribes that the priest should face the people only at six points of the Mass:
The Tridentine Roman Missal requires the priest to face the people, without looking at them, since he is directed to have his eyes cast down to the ground, and, if he is at the same side of the altar as the people, to turn his back to the altar, eight times:
The Tridentine and the Vatican II editions of the Roman Missal expressly direct the priest to face the altar at exactly the same points. His position in relation to the altar and the people determines whether facing the altar means also facing the people.

Tabernacle on the altar

In the second half of the 17th century, it became customary to place the tabernacle on the main altar of the church. When a priest celebrates Mass at such an altar with his back to the people, he sometimes necessarily turns his back directly to the Blessed Sacrament, as when he turns to the people at the Orate fratres. This seeming disrepect is absent when the priest stands on the side of the altar away from the people; but locating so large an object on the altar is arguably inconvenient for a celebration in which the priest faces the people. Accordingly, the revised Roman Missal states:

The Missal does, however, direct that the tabernacle be situated "in a part of the church that is truly noble, prominent, readily visible, beautifully decorated, and suitable for prayer".

Anglican

Historically, priests in the Church of England and other churches of the Anglican Communion celebrated the Holy Eucharist ad orientem, including the praying of the Gloria Patri, Gloria in Excelsis and Ecumenical creeds in that direction. However, over "the course of the last forty years or so, a great many of those altars have either been removed and pulled out away from the wall or replaced by the kind of freestanding table-like altar", in "response to the popular sentiment that the priest ought not turn his back to the people during the service; the perception was that this represented an insult to the laity and their centrality in worship. Thus developed today’s widespread practice in which the clergy stand behind the altar facing the people."

Methodist

The United Methodist Book of Worship mandates that:

Lutheran

In the Lutheran German Mass, Martin Luther, the founder of that denomination, wrote that:
In discussing the Divine Service, Lorraine S. Brugh and Gordon W. Lathrop write that "Many Lutherans, in concert with many other Christians, think that the time of which Luther spoke has indeed come, and that the pastor should preside at the table facting the people, i.e., versus populum. The assembly needs to have a sense that it is gathered around that table, sees and hears what happens there, has a promise of Christ clearly addressed to it, participates in the thanksgiving, and is made into a community through God's gift." Thus, in the Lutheran Church, many altars are now built to be freestanding. In churches where the former altar attached to the wall cannot be moved, it has often been converted to be used as a credence table, as a "significant new table is set up, closer to the people and standing free".

Disputation

Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in his book the Spirit of the Liturgy criticised the use of versus populum as ahistorical and even harmful to the liturgy. He stated that versus populum "turns the community into a self-enclosed circle", where the presider becomes the real point of reference instead of God. He also maintained that praying toward the east is a tradition that goes back to the beginning of Christianity and that is a "fundamental expression of the Christian synthesis of cosmos and history" and urged Catholics to gradually return to this tradition. On the other hand, he warned against quick and frequent changes to the liturgy, so he proposed a temporary solution - placing the cross in the middle of the altar, so the entire congregation "turns toward the Lord", who should be the real center of the Mass.
Edward Slattery, from 1993 to 2016 Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Tulsa, argued that the change towards versus populum has had a number of unforeseen and largely negative effects. First of all, he said, "it is 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".
On the other hand, the Jesuit theologian John Zupez, in an article in Emmanuel based on modern studies in scriptural exegesis, found that the New Testament word for sacrifice '' refers to our expiation from sin, not propitiation impacting or appeasing God. This current translation, accepted in the Catholic lectionary, should "eliminate a strong argument for the priest at Mass facing toward God " and "support the practice of the priest facing the people to elicit their active involvement."

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