Is your Sanctuary Suitable?

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Traditional Catholics have long discussed whether their local Priests would be willing/able to celebrate the traditional rite of Mass. However, with the Pope’s Motu Proprio, the Universae Ecclesiae document and a growing interest in the traditional Mass, do you feel your Church and its sanctuary would be suitable for the traditional Rite. I have seen a lot of changes and restorations of Chapels in my own diocese which leave the Churches in a state whereby it would be difficult to celebrate Mass in the traditional rite. For example, one local Church now has cut up the high altar and left perhaps only 60 % of it remaining, while building and even bigger table-like altar in front of it for the celebration of the new rite, which is permanent and hides the view of the high altar. Another Church in a neighbouring diocese has just been built and it shares the same design as a number of Churches in my own diocese: a round structure with chairs all around and a round altar in the middle. I thought to myself when I visited these churches: "How could a traditional Mass be celebrated here if the faithful wanted it? Would it be possible to celebrate the traditional Mass here?

So is this the case where you live? Have you seen more modern churches used for the celebration of the traditional rite? Do you think the design of future Church buildings should take this into consideration?
 
This is my sanctuary about half an hour after I was baptised:

i795.photobucket.com/albums/yy232/starrball-summer2010/Easter%20Vigil/eastervigil10.jpg

A high altar used to sit where that huge plain curved palisade wall structure is now. Several ‘old-timers’ told me that the original high altar is now broken up and in the harbour; the communion rails line the walls of an old Victorian pub, and the tabernacle (to the left) is the only remnant from the altar. Those white spaces shaped like arches used to have utterly beautiful and immaculate paintings of angels and our Lady, but they were totally painted over in the 1960’s - probably destroying the then-80 year old paintings forever. The whitewash and smash-fest was horrific in that cathedral.

I’m not sure if there’s enough space in front of the new “table”-altar for the Extraordinary Form. There probably is, but it would be very sparse-looking; still, the Mass is the Mass, and I’d like E.F. even in that minimalist setting. 😃
 
Even where there is no High Altar, 99.9% of the time even the usual Novus Ordo-style table-altar could be used for ad orientem celebration. Maybe they exist, but I don’t think I’ve ever seen one that couldn’t be used that way. To make it at least appear less table-like, it’s very easy to use an antependium, but while it definitely improves the aesthetics, even that’s not absolutely necessary. In some cases, it may have to be pushed back a foot or two. In other cases (where it’s too heavy and sits at the edge of the step) I’ve seen homemade portable platforms (plywood covered with low-budget carpet) placed in front of them and voilà! it’s suitable for ad orientem celebration. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. 🙂
 
Iotaunum said:
Another Church in a neighbouring diocese has just been built and it shares the same design as a number of Churches in my own diocese: a round structure with chairs all around and a round altar in the middle. I thought to myself when I visited these churches: "How could a traditional Mass be celebrated here if the faithful wanted it? Would it be possible to celebrate the traditional Mass here?
Click to expand...
Speaking of round, consider the chapel of the New Camaldoli Hermitage in Santa Lucia, California:



http://blog.michellekaufmann.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/monks.jpg
 
It always saddens me to see the beautiful High Altars cut up and Churches “renovated.” (More like wrecked.) There are a lot of Churches in my Diocese that probably are not perfectly suited to the celebration of the Extraordinary Form. (EF). For some Churches, it would be fairly difficult, if not impossible without some major adjustments for the celebration of the Usus Antiquior. However, do not be discouraged. It may take a good amount of work, but it is possible to set up sanctuaries in order to celebrate the EF.

In my home parish, the Sanctuary would just require an altar crucifix, altar candlesticks and the altar cards, as well as moving the credence table.
 
My parish completed a renovation last year, and the pastor definitely took into consideration the EF mass – we have the EF every first Friday.

Here’s the new interior:



I also agree with a previous poster that the mass is the mass. Some sanctuaries may not make the EF easy, but for those who are determined, a way can be found 👍

Gertie
 
Ack. Please resize that image. I have to scroll to the right to read everything now. 😦
 
My parish’s architecture is a tad bit too modern for my tastes, but - yes - it is acceptable.
 
I am so sorry! The picture on the website was nowhere near that large. I have no idea how to resize it, and it’s too late to edit it 😦

Gertie
 
It’s okay. We make mistakes. Usually when I post pics, I upload them to imageshack, photobucket or tinypic, and they have resizers on their website that change the size for me. 🙂
 
:eek: Gertabelle, that’s beautiful and glorious! Back in June 2010, when I first started attending Mass at the cathedral, there was a short-lived practice of placing an antependium on the very bare altar. It actually made the altar look very ‘respectable’ from the old-fashioned point of view. There was a sense that it actually retained solidity and permanence. The “table” style looks very impermanent and moveable.

We are not to be moved… we should be firm. Your renovated sanctuary shows the strong bastion that is our Lord Jesus Christ. He is no blade of grass in the wind or table that can be caught up in a tornado, but an immutable fortress!
 
Every church is “suitable” for celebrating the TLM. There is no magic rule that says a sanctuary must be contorted (plywood platforms built, etc.) so
that the priest can turn his back to the congregation. If the altar faces the people, then you simply celebrate facing the people. This is the way it has
always been done at places like St. Peter’s and San Clemente in Rome (altar shown below across the choir; you’ll see that it can only be approached
from the apse side). I don’t recall anyone over saying, “Gee, San Clemente would sure be a nice basilica, if only someone would build a plywood box
so that we can celebrate Mass there.”

 
The sanctuary where I attend the TLM is, frankly, quite ugly, and architecturally inimical to the Liturgy, period (OF or EF).

Our celebrating priest, a Franciscan friar, brings in accouterments (like a standing, wooden framework that sets around the base of the existing altar–which is finished with cedar shakes(!), a suitable altar cloth and a crucifix (the sanctuary has a prominent “resurrectrix” on frontal display, etc.).

The banality of the church’s interior used to bother me, seemingly to no end, but the awe of the TLM has won me over and I’m not as disturbed with the structural anomalies as before. We are hoping to relocate to a nearby church that is beautifully, traditionally appointed.

Our group became somewhat nomadic after the regular parish that we occupied was dissolved and the church building sold to an Evangelical Protestant sect.
 
My Parish has a very modern layout. There are no altar rails, so we just used the first set of pews.
 
Does the architecture display the theology of the faithful? I was just thinking - those who attend a modern church (for example a round building with a round altar in the middle) probably would not be inclined to ask for a traditional Mass anyway - or would they? I guess if they did not like the Chapel they would go to another. Perhaps, likewise those who are drawn to the traditional Mass, and tradition in general, would attend a more traditional style of Chapel anyway, which could more easily be adapted for the celebration of the traditional Mass. I don’t know, it is just a thought.
 
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