I would just like to point out that the custom of the Church for many centuries has been for some Masses to be offered facing the people.
The 1911 Catholic Encyclopedia says, “[T]he fact [is] that in the fourth century the celebrant at Mass faced the people, and, therefore in a church with a western apse, [he] looked towards the East when officiating at the altar.” (Article: Orientation of Churches)
The same work also names several Roman churches where Masses facing the people are the norm because the Altar is on the Western side of the Church and prayer is typically made in them toward the East, where the people are gathered: “[T]he great Roman Basilicas of the Lateran, St. Peter’s, St. Paul’s (originally), St. Lorenzo’s, as well as the Basilica of the Resurrection in Jerusalem and the basilicas of Tyre and Antioch, reversed this rule [of having the high altar in the East] by placing the apse in the western extremity.” (ibid.)
1708 A.D. - Claud de Vert - “Suppose the end of the Church [is] East of the Altar. In this situation the Priest celebrating at the Altar with his face to the East, has his back to the people, who are in the West in the Nave, and turned like himself toward the East in praying. Necessarily then when he wishes to address them, he must turn and look at them. So that in Churches turned to the West, whose end is to the West of the Altar, the Priest saying Mass with his face to the East, consequently faces the people, who are placed in the Nave and praying toward the West (i.e. the Altar)…[In this case he] has no need to change his position to turn to them.” (Explication simple, littérale et historique des cérémonies de l’Église, in explanation of a place titled “Place du Celebrant a l’autel, regardant l’orient,” as translated in “The Church and the World, Volume 3” p. 49)
1577 - St. Charles Borromeo - “[T]he Bishop can decide and permit that [the altar] be built facing another direction, but in this case care must be taken at least that if possible it does not face north, but south. In any case the chapel in which the priest celebrates Mass from the high altar facing the people, in accordance with the rites of the Church, must face west.” (Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae Book 1 Chapter 10, De Capella Maiori)
1570 A.D. - The Missale Romanum of Pope Pius V - “Si altare sit ad orientem versus populorum, celebrans versa facie ad populorum, non vertit humeros ad altare, cum dicturus est, Dominus vobiscum, Orate fratres, Ite Missa est, vel daturus benedictionem: sed osculas to altari in medio, ibi expansis & iunctis manibus, ut supza, salutat populum.” (Ritus Servandus Chapter 5 Paragraph 3)
Translation: “If the altar faces East toward the people, the celebrant facing toward the people, he does not turn his back to the altar when saying Dominus vobiscum, Orate fratres, Ite missa est, or when giving the blessing, but having kissed the altar in the middle, there extending and joining his hands, as above, he salutes the people.”
There are many more examples from Church History, but suffice it to say that offering Mass facing the people is quite traditional in many important Catholic churches, especially in Rome – though it was not the norm in most places until Vatican 2. I do not think the “facing the people” orientation became controversial until the 1950s, and this controversy only got bigger when the new Missal said that new altars should be made allowing “facing the people” in more instances. Some Catholics took this to be a step in the wrong direction, which I suppose is fine, but do be aware that the tradition of the Church has always allowed for facing the people and, in some cases, preferred it.
