Changes in Papal Mass

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I caught the broadcast of the Mass on the Occasion of the 50th Anniversary of the Death of Pope Pius XII which was shown yesterday on EWTN. Something was greatly different from the usual.

First of all, the Papal cathedra was moved to the side instead of in front of the altar. The Holy Father didn’t go up the stairs to the Altar of the Confession to incense the altar; two deacons did. Then, the ambo, which was in front of the rotunda leading to the tomb of St. Peter was replaced with what appears to be a larger, older one that was now moved next to the statue of St. Peter. I was waiting for somone to comment on this during the broadcast, but, no mention was made.

Does anyone have any idea? Is this something from the new team at the Office of Liturgy of the Supreme Pontiff?
 
In the Western use, the traditional place for the Bishop’s throne is to the liturgical north–left as you face the altar.
 
The Pope’s throne was in the same place this past Good Friday as it was in yesterday’s Mass-directly opposite the statue of St. Peter. It’s also been there for some of the Vespers Benedict XVI has celebrated in St. Peter’s. Personally I really like yesterday’s throne much better than the Leo XIII throne that has been used on occassion recently.
 
Frosty said:
The Pope’s throne was in the same place this past Good Friday as it was in yesterday’s Mass-directly opposite the statue of St. Peter. It’s also been there for some of the Vespers Benedict XVI has celebrated in St. Peter’s. Personally I really like yesterday’s throne much better than the Leo XIII throne that has been used on occassion recently.
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You’re right in that this is the location where the throne is placed for non-Mass liturgies. I just thought that it was interesting to see it placed there for the Mass. I do think that it is the same throne, it just looks different with the red backdrop.

Now, does anyone have any idea as to why the deacons incensed the altar as opposed to the Holy Father doing it? I also think that they might have to rethink the Gospel procession since it looked a little awkward. During Christmas, they have the Book of the Gospels enthroned apart from the altar. Since they will perhaps use this new set up, maybe they should have the Book of the Gospels enthroned in the location they use for Christmas. It just seemed like it took a good while to get from point A to point B to point C and the choir seemed to have run out of Alleluias. Don’t get me wrong. It was beautiful. I just think that maybe they need to synchronize things a little better.
 
They might have also have different configurations for different occasions. This may have been the ordinary configuration of St. Peter’s.

The cathedra in front of the altar configuration may be for major occasions like Christmas, Easter, etc.

As to the deacons incensing the altar…I’ve seen different “formats” (for lack of a better word) at the different papal masses celebrated at St. Peter’s. The non-major holy day Masses seem to vary and look almost “ordinary” when compared to big Masses. I have seen a papal mass celebrated with the Pope as the sole celebrant with two deacons that looked almost like a run-of-the-mill parish mass, a mass with the Pope as sole celebrant with two cardinal-deacons, and a concelebrated mass with the Pope as presider with two or more cardinals as co-celebrants.

While this was a Papal Mass on a major occasion, it may not have been “big” enough to warrant decking out St. Peter’s in its “big event” Mass configuration and they just decided to keep it in its daily configuration.

Because of EWTN, we see a lot more “ordinary” Papal Masses that we have seen in the past. This has been even more so since Benedict XVI became pope. They have intensified their coverage of Papal events since 2005. It used to be that all we saw was the big Papal Masses…Christmas, Easter Vigil, Easter Day, Holy Thursday, Palm Sunday.

On the matter of vestments: has anyone noticed that Benedict has started wearing the Pontifical dalmatic under his chasuble. I first heard this noted during the washing of the feet on Holy Thursday. And I have noticed it during the Masses in the U.S. and Australia. Some of the other Pontificales have resurfaced: he used the gremiale apron when he blessed the altar at some cathedral near Castel Gandolfo a few weeks back.
 
PacoG said:
Some of the other Pontificales have resurfaced: he used the gremiale apron when he blessed the altar at some cathedral near Castel Gandolfo a few weeks back.
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The gremial, while being a nice touch, also just makes sense for the dedication of an altar - the point of the gremial is to protect the other vestments, and when you’re smearing oil all over a huge altar your vestments are in dire need of protection!
 
Interesting to note that he’s wearing a “Modern” pallium, instead of the “archaic” style (that looks very much like a byzanine Omphorion) he’s so noted for.
 
Around the time of the Feast of the Chair of Peter (when the Pope invests metropolitan archbishops with their palliums), the Vatican announced that the Pope was going to be wearing a different pallium. This is more of a design from the Middle Ages/Renaissance era or so said the press releases.
 
PacoG said:
Around the time of the Feast of the Chair of Peter (when the Pope invests metropolitan archbishops with their palliums), the Vatican announced that the Pope was going to be wearing a different pallium. This is more of a design from the Middle Ages/Renaissance era or so said the press releases.
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Actually, I hate to correct my fellow Longhorn and former classmate, but, the palliums are imposed on the feast of Sts. Peter and Paul (June 29th).

What I did learn, from reading the New Liturgical Movement blog, was that it appears that the Holy Father is trying to move the focus away from himself and keep it to the Lord, hence the new configuration that we saw for this particular Mass. Furthermore, the vestments that he wore, including the Papal dalmatic, were also used for Good Friday. More changes are forthcoming.
 
Actually, he only wore the chasuble on Good Friday with no dalmatic under it.

I have seen pictures of both Pope John Paul II and Benedict wearing full pontificales with fiddleback chasubles, dalmatic and tunic underneath with gloves. We don’t see all their appearances and all the special masses they celebrate. Honestly, I don’t think that the fiddlebacks fell out of use.

I think that the fiddleback has become too associated with the TLM when actually the priests wore gothic chasubles in those days also. I’ve seen footage of JFK’s Funeral Mass and the celebrant is wearing a black Gothic chasuble. My mother’s old St. Joseph Daily Missal from the 1950s has drawings of a priest saying Mass in a Gothic chasuble.
 
I noticed at yesterday’s Papal Mass that the “older” (for lack of a better word) ambo (the wooden one) made its maiden appearance. Now, they did keep the brass one for the proclamation of the first and second readings and the chanting of the psalm and Litany of the Saints.

I also noticed that the red backdrop that had been used at the previous Papal Mass was brought out for this one. These changes may seem small and insignicant, but, they are a depature from what we have seen in the recent past.
 
In today’s Papal Mass to celebrate the end of the Synod, the Papal cathedra was back in front of the altar and the brass ambo was back in use.

I think they have different configurations for different occasions.
 
PacoG said:
In today’s Papal Mass to celebrate the end of the Synod, the Papal cathedra was back in front of the altar and the brass ambo was back in use.

I think they have different configurations for different occasions.
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Or, and this is just my observation, there may have been some logistical concerns regarding the distance between the Cathedra and the altar. It did seem awkward during the proclamation of the Gospel to go back and forth when the Cathedra was off to the side. Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for restoring the proper settings, but, in a space as vastly huge as St. Peter’s, some things might not work well logistically.

As far as the ambo, the older one was probably better suited. But, maybe you have a point that this will probably come back for larger celebrations.
 
benedictgal said:
As far as the ambo, the older one was probably better suited. But, maybe you have a point that this will probably come back for larger celebrations.
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You could see the older one off to the side.

The brass ambo has JP2’s coat of arms on it. So it’s relatively new (20 years at the Vatican might as well be 20 days ago). What was used prior to JP2?

And benedictgal, my old college buddy, let’s pray that the Great Longhorn Fan in the sky continues to shower blessings on our #1 team in college football.
 
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