Communion Table?

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dcointin

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I’ve visited perhaps 10 Catholic parishes, and at each one they’ve used a free standing table as the altar rather than the older altar set against the wall. The clergy stand behind the table and face the laity throughout the entire Mass, even during the consecration. Was this a change mandated by Vatican II or something else, or has it just become popular practice? Thanks!
 
It is part of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Missal.

The Extraodrinary Form of the Roman Mass still uses the old type of altar.
 
ConstantineTG said:
It is part of the Ordinary Form of the Roman Missal.

The Extraodrinary Form of the Roman Mass still uses the old type of altar.
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That’s not really correct. In either form of the Mass, the priest may use either a freestanding “table” altar or a “shelf” altar against the wall.
 
MarkThompson said:
That’s not really correct. In either form of the Mass, the priest may use either a freestanding “table” altar or a “shelf” altar against the wall.
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Indeed, St Peter’s in Rome was a free-standing altar long before Vatican II and the OF Mass.
 
MarkThompson said:
That’s not really correct. In either form of the Mass, the priest may use either a freestanding “table” altar or a “shelf” altar against the wall.
Click to expand...
With a free standing altar the priest can still face either the people or “liturgical east”*.
  • I did not say face the back wall because if you were in a church like the one for my parish both the altar *and *the whole “sanctuary” are freestanding so there are people 365 degrees around the altar.
 
Technically, you are correct Mark but thats kind of “splitting hairs”. Every EF Mass that I have attended over the last 20 years, that has had to use a free standing table altar, was treated as an Altar against the wall. Only the sides and front are incensed, not behind or all the way around.

The only time the priest even walked behind the table was to return the ciborium to the Tabernacle after communion.
 
corsair said:
Technically, you are correct Mark but thats kind of “splitting hairs”. Every EF Mass that I have attended over the last 20 years, that has had to use a free standing table altar, was treated as an Altar against the wall. Only the sides and front are incensed, not behind or all the way around.

The only time the priest even walked behind the table was to return the ciborium to the Tabernacle after communion.
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There’s no “splitting hairs” about it: either form of the Mass can be – and has been, many, many times – said at either type of altar. And the 1962 missal contained this rubrical diagram (below; “Order of Incensing an Altar Which Can Easily Be Walked Around”), so really the incensation ought to be done from all sides:
 
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