Is the OF Mass celebrated correctly?

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Is it true that the Novus Ordo Mass is supposed to be celebrated “ad orientem” AND versus populum? That the 1970 missal didn’t actually say for priests to celebrate the entire Mass “versus populum (facing the people)?” I know that the vast majority of Masses celebrated according to the missal of Pope Paul VI are exclusively celebrated facing the people. Did the Vatican later release a document allowing this?

Thanks.
 
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Is he facing east during the whole Mass or only for some portions of it?
 
Do you suppose hundreds of priests all over the world don’t know what they’re doing?
 
Then let’s trust that the Mass is celebrated properly. The OF Mass can be celebrated versus populum or ad orientem or in a combination. It’s up to the preferences of the priest.
 
CCHcolonel said:
Whenever he is at the altar he faces east. When the lector’s are reading or were singing hyms he faces “north” I suppose.
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Many Catholic churches built in recent times do not have the altar oriented in an east (or west) manner, so the priest is facing whatever direction the altar was built to face.
 
Our priest says most of the Mass versus populum as is common in a OF Mass, but I love that he faces the tabernacle for the Gloria and the Prayer of the Faithful.
 
It may not be mentioned in the missal, but it is clearly allowed in the GIRM, which gives the directions for mass:
  1. The altar should be built apart 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. The altar should, moreover, be so placed as to be truly the center toward which the attention of the whole congregation of the faithful naturally turns. The altar is usually fixed and is dedicated.
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This is famously mistranslated. In the Latin, “desirable wherever possible” does not modify “Mass celebrated facing the people,” but “possible to walk around it easily.”

-Fr ACEGC
 
No person has yet given me a good explanation of why the Versus Populum. It just looks weird to me. Why do I need to see everything the Priest does? And if I were interested I could look it up online.
Hmm…how did Jesus face at the last supper and at the sacrifice on the cross?
 
Sounds like a “weird” way for the Church to say: build altars like the orientals did.
 
OmnesBonum said:
The altar is usually fixed and is dedicated.
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Every parish I can think of offers the OF Mass at an altar that is not fixed, but moveable. Does “dedicated” mean consecrated? Or that this table cannot be used for any other purpose?
 
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edward_george1 said:
This is famously mistranslated. In the Latin, “desirable wherever possible” does not modify “Mass celebrated facing the people,” but “possible to walk around it easily.”

-Fr ACEGC
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A significant difference!
 
Where I live the priest faces the people. But when he does, he faces east.
 
jesusmademe said:
It just looks weird to me. Why do I need to see everything the Priest does? And if I were interested I could look it up online.
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You do realize that when this was changed, nobody owned a computer, and the Internet was not yet invented, right?

The point was for the people to be able to better see and more fully participate in Mass.

Also, the fact that an individual lay person might think it “looks weird” is completely irrelevant to the entire discussion.
 
edward_george1 said:
This is famously mistranslated. In the Latin, “desirable wherever possible” does not modify “Mass celebrated facing the people,” but “possible to walk around it easily.”
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Yes the French is a better translation,
299. Il convient, partout où c’est possible, que l’autel soit érigé à une distance du mur qui permette d´en faire aisément le tour et d´y célébrer face au peuple.
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Which translates to “it is desirable, wherever possible, that the altar be built at a distance from the wall which allows one to easily walk around it and celebrate facing the people”. What is desirable is that the altar should be built to offer that option, not that facing the people is “desirable”. But clearly, the mention of it means it is definitely permitted.
jesusmademe said:
No person has yet given me a good explanation of why the Versus Populum. It just looks weird to me. Why do I need to see everything the Priest does? And if I were interested I could look it up online.
Hmm…how did Jesus face at the last supper and at the sacrifice on the cross?
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Well, we need to keep in mind that versus populum does have a long history in the Church. One, in places like St. Peter’s where east is towards the people, but also in places where the altar is between the nave and the choir, where either those in choir (think monasteries) or in the nave are having the priest face them. And also in some monastic traditions, the community dimension resulted in versus populum for the monks.

My 1935 ceremonial from France shows clearly that versus populum was a possibility before the Council.
Mi_Rose said:
Many parishes around me have fixed stone altars.
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Same here.
 
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