John Vennaro is always at his best when trying to spread dissension within the Church. He is the editor of the Catholic Family News, which many people have complained is anything but orthodox Catholic in its content. Now he comes out with a book of interviews of sixteen priests who refuse to celebrate the New Order of Mass and have returned to the so-called Tridentine Latin Mass. The poor Fathers. interviewed show a great confusion of the new Order of Mass with the troubling writings of unreliable theologians, false prophets giving seminars to priests as well as the show put on by some priests when they celebrate Mass. Indeed a lack of reverence is displayed in the latter case, and false understanding of the Eucharistic Sacrifice is conveyed by the wandering “minstrels.” But this is NOT the New Order of Mass. Interestingly Vennaro has sent a copy of this book, I understand, to every priest in the country. I wonder why? Could it be to undermine their fidelity to the official Mass Rite of the Latin Church and the authority of Pope Paul VI who with Apostolic Authority promulgated it?

The priests interviewed have so many details mixed up together that it is impossible to disentagle them. But in virtue of my priesthood I must tackle the major issues.

The principle of orientation, “ad orientem,” is uniformly misunderstood. It does NOT mean the priest’s turning his back to the congregation and facing the reredos. It means from time immemorial the church was so built so that the apse faced the East. In rite of Rome this principle had no influence. None of the early churches in Rome is oriented. In fact, there was a studied posture against it, for some Christians were still influenced by the worship of the sun. In fact, as late as the middle of the fifth century Pope Leo I scolded Christians for turning around and throwing a kiss to the sun before entering church. The practice of orientation in the proper sense was introduced in Gaul in the sixth and seventh centuries under Oriental influence. Sorry, gentlemen, it was never Roman practice.

As for celebrating Mass facing the people, this practice goes back to earliest times in Rome and most of the West. And this for a good theological reason: the priest represents Jesus at the Last Supper offering Himself in sacrifice and as spiritual food for His disciples. The priest is sent to the people and acts in persona Christi; he is not their representative as though facing away from them to God. At the most sacred moment of the Eucharistic Prayers he says, in the words of Christ: “Take this, all of you, and eat it;” “Take this, all of you and drink from it.” Could there be a clearer expression of this sacramental action than to face the people? Actually, the rubrics of the old Mass allow for the celebration facing the people. What led to its discontinuance was precisely Gallican orientation, the union of tabernacle and altar and the veneration of saints’ relics. With the practice of orientation the priest could not stand facing the people. The union of tabernacle and altar did not take place until the sixteenth century. The relics of saints, especially martyrs buried under the altar was taken care of by allowing access by the faithful to a crypt under the sanctuary through stairs one either side of the sanctuary. The practice of constructing the fenestrella confessionis, a small opening below and in front of the altar to allow devotees to see the saint’s tomb and insert devotional objects, touching them to the tomb, was started very late; St. Peter’s Basilica is one of the first examples of this arrangement. Soon devotion to the saints led bishops and pastors to place the their tomb upon the altar, resulting in the inability of the priest to face the people during Mass.

Most of the sixteen priests complain that the priest is no longer a sacrificing priest but a presider over the Eucharist. As far as I can see the celebrant’s being the presider over the assembled faithful is mentioned only once in the introduction to the new Sacramentary and he does preside. That the Eucharist is a sacrifice and that the priest does the sacrifice is brought out continually in the New order of Mass. In the formulation of the Orate Fratres the people respond by praying:” May the Lord accept the sacrifice from you hands . . . .” In every Eucharistic Prayer, the Anamnesis right after the consecration speaks of our offering “this sacrifice.” The only exception is in the Second Eucharistic Prayer where we find the words “We offer you, Father, this life-giving bread and this saving cup.” They are the equivalent of the words in the Anamnesis of the First Eucharistic Prayer, “the bread of life and the cup of eternal salvation.”As for the complaint that “transubstantiation” is not heard in the New Order of Mass, it was never used in the old Mass. That is a theological dogma firmly held by the Church but disparaged by wayward theologians. Again, a confusion of what the Mass says and what way faulty theologians say. Do the laity offer the sacrifice? Yes, using their common priesthood of baptism and confirmation the laity do offer the sacrifice of the Mass with but through the ordained priest. If there is an overemphasis on the common priesthood it is not in the New Order of mass. Even in the Anamnesis of the First Eucharistic Prayer “we, your people and your ministers . . . offer” is clearly written.

To bring this review to a fitting close, let us recall that the so-called Tridentine Mass is not the original Roman Rite. It is a hybrid of Roman and Gallican elements that first made its appearance in the diocese of Seez, France, then in Mainz, Germany, whose bishop brought it to Rome when he was elected pope, Leo IX in the llth century. It was then popularized throughout Europe by the Franciscan Friars with their handy missals and breviaries without music. It was this rite of the Mass that Pope St. Pius V imposed on the West while allowing continuance of all Mass rites that could date back two hundred years.

If one seeks reverence in the celebration of Mass in the new rite, let him ask priests to pray it and while they pray it not look at the congregation, except when they greet or exhort the congregation. This lack of reverence, as priests mumble the English words as they used to do with the Latin, is probably one of the biggest cause of a lack of vocations. When priests celebrate the official Roman New Order of mass reverently, they ipso facto teach youngsters by their example that the Eucharist is essential to a truly Catholic way of life and certainly that of the priesthood. It will help immensely when Rome has finished editing the English translation of the new order of Mass, for it is not only poor English; it is also slanted and theologically faulty.