The following comes from a January 8 Catholic News Agency article by Mary Rezac:
When Bishop Robert Morlino arrived as the new bishop for the Diocese of Madison, Wisconsin in 2003, he began quietly encouraging priests to promote more reverence towards the Blessed Sacrament – through more adoration, more reverent Masses, and moving tabernacles back to the center of churches.
Now, he’s made it official. Bishop Morlino has asked his priests to make sure every tabernacle is moved to the center of each church behind the altar by 2018.
In the wake of Vatican II, many churches in Madison and throughout the United States relocated their tabernacles either to the side of sanctuaries or to their own side chapels. The idea at the time, was that this created a separate, quiet space which would encourage more people to spend time in adoration, Patrick Gorman, director of the Office of Worship for the Madison diocese, told CNA.
“The chapel kind of got divorced from the worship space of the church and kind of got put aside for a separate thing almost,” said Gorman.
Even before Bishop Morlino told his priests of the three year plan to move the tabernacles, he had asked several years ago that every new church built in the diocese place the tabernacle in the center behind the altar.
Many priests were also preferring to move tabernacles to the center of their parishes on their own initiative, so it was a direction in which the diocese was already heading, Gorman said.
“The idea is we’re going to put Christ in the most central place in the Church because that’s the position he has in the Church, in the body of Christ,” he added. “Of course Jesus Christ himself is in it, therefore standing at the head of our church.”
Bravo Bishop Morlino, would that more tabernacles be brought front and center!
God bless this good Bishop!
When and if that, hopefully, happens, the pastors should remind the faithful that genuflection before the Lord before entering the pew is a must to show real respect. It is God Himself in the tabernacle. So many people go into church today and enter the pew without any sign or gesture of respect . Our people need some catechetical training.
Our parish just changed the tabernacle to be in the sanctuary and we were instructed to genuflect and also to remain silent. People still forget to genuflect and the chatter after Mass is still bad, with the choir being the worst. People need to be reminded.
I am not surprised.
I too was brought up to genuflect when entering a pew, for example, and to be very quiet in church. If you talked in church you got the wrath of St. ____ at school on Monday. I know why we were supposed to genuflect and be quiet, but … Is that really what God expects of us? Reverence? Yes. A community of worshipers? Yes. Prayerful? Yes. And yet, over the last twenty years or more I have become aware of how important talking to your neighbor before and after Mass has become. I wonder if Christ would not have encouraged us to be community? Lots of question marks because there are lots of questions. Or, has church become too casual? I find it “uplifting” to have the pastor walk up and down the aisle before Mass chatting with…
Our church has an area where people can gather to talk outside of the sanctuary.
I find it “uplifting” to have the pastor walk up and down the aisle before Mass chatting with parishioners, welcoming them and visitors, asking about their families, getting to know them better, etc. Could that be done outside before and after Mass? Of course, but that is when people are in a hurry, arriving late or leaving for the soccer game, etc. It builds community, it increases faithful worship, increases hymn singing (praying twice) and helps him make his homilies meaningful for parishioners. Many will disagree, I guess, but I’m wondering.
Bob One you are prime example of why the post-V2 Council Church parishes are closing en masse. ….
I will tell you, Bob One, how bad it is in some places. There is a video of a priest in Italy who did a faux strip show during or after the Mass in the sanctuary. I say “faux” strip show because he really had clothes on under his vestments when he teasingly took them off. Another video of a Mass in Latin America is nothing but a circus with children skating in as angels before the Mass: a pretty woman holding a Bible in a big mechanical chair held up nearly to the ceiling while circus type music is playing and on and on. You can google it all it if you do not believe me.
One of the videos is called “An Italian Priest Shows Off His Vestments”.
Anne T., there are mentally ill priests. There are drug-addicted priests. There are alcoholic priests. There are priests with personality disorders. There are priests with emotional disorders.
Anonymous, if it is just mentally ill priests, why does the congregation go along with something like this and clap in encouragement as is shown in many of the videos? Something must be wrong with them, too. In many cases the Orthodox churches are using these videos to compare Latin Rite Catholic Masses to the Orthodox — Russian, Greek, etc. — which are beautiful and reverent.
There are mentally ill commenters too.
The worship of God is more uplifting than gossip and idle talk.
Bob One your blather continues…
Is that really what God expects of us,,no He is deserving of it..
And yet, over the last twenty years or more I have become aware of how important talking to your neighbor before and after Mass has become. The constant and non-stop chattering is one of the reasons I will not attend a modernist NO parish…you guys just can’t keep your mouths shut,
has church become too casual? I find it “uplifting” to have the pastor walk up and down the aisle before Mass chatting with… When the priests starts walking up and down the aisle he is making the mass about him not Christ.. its my signal to leave the mass ASAP..
Canisius as usual on point.
Some trad- or trad-oriented Catholics are assailed for suggesting that it appears the Real Presence is “not there” in the Novus Ordo churches and tabernacles—at least at times—but the greatest witness to the possible non-presence of Christ in a N.O. tabernacle is the very demeanor—mindless, inattentive, cell-phone-checking, etc. behavior— of many (not all) regularly-attending, chattering, sometimes offensively-dressed New Church attendees.
So do you judge the Real Presence of Christ on the Cross by the demeanor of many (not all) of those beneath It?
Bob One, the service in the Temple and the synagogue were so prayerful and respectful during the time of the Lord Jesus that men and women were separated so there were no distractions to either. While I am not suggesting that we go to back to separating the men and women. although it would not really bother me at all, we certainly should respect Christ’s teaching that his house should be called a house of prayer for all nations. There is plenty of time and space to communicate with parishioner outside the church, in the hall or many other places — work included. The Mass should be about God not us.
I am not talking about quietly asking a friend how they are or other quick or necessary conversation, but the overdone and irreverent chatter that goes on in many churches.
Hello, Fr. Jack Gibson, pastor of St. Ambrose Church in Berkeley, CA, where the tabernacle is to the side. Are you listening?
What a blessing that at least ONE Bishop knows where the tabernacle belongs.
Did it 3 times
At Our Lady of the Sacred Heart San Diego
At St. Mary Escondido (and 24 hour adoration here in a separate chapel)
At Immaculate Conception San Diego
All 3 places increased reverence in church and attendance as well.
Thank you Fr. Perozich for your reverence shown to the Lord, and thank you for being you.
Canon Law provides for the Tabernacle to be in one of three places: 1) in the center of the sanctuary behind the altar 2) to the side of the sanctuary or on a side altar and 3) in a separate chapel easily found and well decorated. Which place is used in a church is up to the decree of the local Bishop. This Bishop has made his choice clear for his diocese. How long will it take for other Bishops to follow?
Perhaps now the fundamental question can be asked: “Why in the first place was there ever the removal of the Blessed Sacrament—if it really is the Transubstantiated Presence of Jesus Christ—to any position of less-than-premier significance?
V2’s Sacro.Concil. (n. 128) ambiguously states “the nobility” of the tabernacle governs location; but then well-known V2 progressive Card.Giacomo Lercaro, president of the Consilium on the Liturgy, in a letter dated 30 June 1965 advised hierarchy around the world (they so dutiful to fulfill V2’s directives), that they should place the Sacrament in ” a chapel specially set aside” for its reservation and supposed adoration.
We all know what happened: just what was meant to…
Removal is dismissal: out of sight, out of mind. However, it did meet the demands of the 7 prominent Protestant observers.
So, this is just another error of Vatican II, just as were nearly 45 years of erroneously vernacular-translated words of institution, or also the false “suppression” of the true “ordinary form” of the Catholic Mass, the TLM. What Bp. Merlino did is not only good, it is true restoration of the liturgy. But there is more to do, and the truth will “out”. Read true V2 Liturgist and eye-witness Klaus Gamber’s The Reform of the Roman Liturgy, and you will see for yourself.
To Steve Phoenix– Michael Davies also was a good author on this subject! He wrote a book all about the destruction of the Roman Catholic Mass, and other books too, on that same subject! He was very good at detailing everything very accurately!
Yes, Linda, Michael Davies’ trilogy “Cranmer’s Godly Order” which details Cranmer’s “table”; “Pope John’s Council”; and ” Pope Paul’s New Mass”) is must-reading for the Bob Ones among us—Davies, whose work was praised by the way by then-Cardinal Ratzinger for their research and true-Catholic orthodoxy, Bob One, Davies was never an evil “SSPX’er” as you have elsewhere mistakenly averred.
At least we have moved the conversational football forward from the 20-yard line, for anyone validly trying to claim that the TLM “was created at Trent”.
[Even GIRM (2014 version) now holds that the TLM was substantially the same as the Mass of Pope Innocent III (d. 1216), making it also the Mass of SS Francis, Clare, Bonaventure, Dominic, Anthony of Padua as well.]
To Steve Phoenix– Did you ever read Michael Davies’ book, “The Roman Rite Destroyed?” I think it was first published in 1978. Bless him! He was a very good writer, on this topic!
By the way, Bob One, your citation of the article by Notre Dame graduate and pastoral liturgist Victoria Tufano on a supposed original Greek-Aramaic liturgy is a completely bogus piece: (“When did We Start Celebrating the Mass in Latin”, from of all places, US Catholic mag:
https://www.uscatholic.org/church/2010/06/when-did-we-start-celebrating-mass-latin
..(“Why Will People Drive for Hours for the Latin Mass, 12/16/15, Cal Catholic Daily, Jan 7 2016 comment) . There is absolutely no archaeological nor original source evidence of a precursor “Greek-Aramaic” liturgy to the Latin Mass. This is just bunk to displace the ancient tradition of the Traditional Latin Mass. There is however archaeological tho fragmentary evidence…
of a contemporaneous Latin liturgy with the same prayers as in the Roman Canon, contemporary to SS Peter, Paul, Linus, Clement, Sixtus. Just to get you in touch with your true and ancient Roman roots, Bob One. Don’t be ashamed of them.
To Steve Phoenix– This is very sad, but before Vatican II, many Catholic schoolchildren, at age ten or twelve, knew and understood more about the Catholic religion, than many Catholics of today (including the clergy!) who hold Master’s degrees, and beyond! Catholics of all social classes and intellectual aptitudes, once were very literate, regarding their religion! It would be wonderful, to see excellent religious and moral training once again, in the Catholic Church, worldwide! Well-trained laymen and clergy, would make a far better Church! Religious and moral ignorance is so unnecessary, and such a shame!
To Steve Phoenix– p.s. I have heard some people call Notre Dame, “Notre Shame!” It is sadly true!
Bishop Morlino is a good man. Now that he has “clarified” his position on the SSPX, he is thoughtfully attempting to right the terrible wrongs of Vatican II implementation. Too bad so few bishops are like B. Morlino, such as B. McElroy, Abp. Cupich and many others.
This Bishop is likely to get punished.
What is the table still doing there in front of the main altar in the sanctuary? It spoils and cheapens the sanctuary. With the results of a national survey indicating nearly 2/3rds of modern catholics (like the lutherans and etc.) don’t believe in transubstantiation, it goes to show how with the loss of graces, affected so many tens of millions of them to leave the church.
Bear in mind however, the Roman Catholic parishes practicing traditional sacraments have not given up and instead pass true Roman Catholic Catechism and conduct to their children.
Only by the sanctifying and actual graces given from God are we able to see His truths. By our sins we are precluded from seeing His truths. I thank God for blessing us with the SSPV, SSPX, and CMRI in preserving the true Roman Catholic Faith and our 7 Holy Sacraments as they were before the V2 Council. It is through them that Jesus stands beside His Church until the end of time.
Schism is a mortal sin.
It would be just wonderful, if Archbishop Cordileone could fix our strangely-designed modern Cathedral, in San Francisco, and place the holy Tabernacle at the front, behind the altar! Maybe he could figure out a way to do that, and also re-design the strange place, where the Blessed Sacrament now resides, to the left side of the altar, in a wall, with goofy modern seats, for worshippers!
Well-stated, Harv: a table, as devised by the apostate bishop Cranmer of Henry VIII, and also preferred by Luther, is for a commemorative meal of humans; an altar for a divine sacrifice.
Those who mock the “high altars” of the Roman Liturgy reveal their true heritage lies with those two heretic fellows.
To Steve Phoenix– Thanks for all of your excellent posts! I will never forget the Sunday in 1969, when the Novus Ordo Missae was first introduced, in our parish church! They had moved in the “table” Protestant-style altar, in front of the beautiful high altar, of our old and very beautiful church, and the Pastor entered, quietly, to no music (musicians did not know what to do, on that day, and even the organ was silent!) and he was wearing strange, new vestments! And no altar boys, no incense, no prayers at the foot of the altar, nothing! We all were standing up, not yet kneeling. I will continue…
I will continue. So, the Pastor turned to face the congregation, and began reciting a verse of Scripture, which I recognized, from St. Paul. It reminded me of a Protestant-type of service, that I had seen on TV. We all followed along, in our cheap, new, little paperback missalettes. The entire Mass was deeply shocking! On the way home, we all discussed it. I quietly began, on that Sunday, to daily pray for the return of our beautiful, old, authentic Latin Mass. Since that very day, in 1969, every time I enter a Catholic church, the first thing I do, is to offer a short little prayer, for the full return of the Tridentine Mass, to my old parish church, and to all Catholic churches, worldwide!!
if it be Your Will, O Lord.
Before Vatican II, all Catholic churches were open 24/7. The Blessed Sacrament, with the Living Presence of Our Lord, was a very holy and unique place of silence and prayer, similar to a monastery. Many of us made frequent visits to the blessed Sacrament! Also, one could light a candle, say a Rosary, and pray for loved ones, especially for those in danger, sickness, or close to death’s door, at any time! It was wonderful to cross the threshold, from the crass, noisy, sinful, secular world– to the portal of Heaven, an oasis of holiness, silence, beauty, peace, and ultimately, Divine Healing, Love, and Joy! God is truly Present, in all His Divine Glory– in the Blessed Sacrament!
Before Vatican II, Churches weren’t vandalized as they are today, and COULD be open 24/7.
We could (and in my opinion should) do the same today by having guards at the doors and throughout the sanctuary to protect those in prayer and, of course, the holy objects present. Start with one or two churches in a region, then expand the idea.
I DO think getting back to the idea that Churches are there for us to worship and pray 24/7 would revive our Church and our people.
Well-done, YFC: in fact, the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace at Santa Clara, which is open 24/7, has active closed-circuit cameras and security personnel for the 24-hr. protection of the worshiping faithful.
And my beloved St Boniface here in SF on Golden Gate Ave cries out for the same, but don’t hold your breath: they will wait til something horrible happens, just like the City and Kate Steinle.
I have always loved the Shrine of Our Lady of Peace, in Santa Clara! I felt so badly for its founder, who was persecuted cruelly, by the crazy liberals of the Church! I talked to him shortly before he passed away, and expressed my gratitude– and felt so badly, for all he went through! Bless his dedicated, courageous soul!!
To Steve Phoenix– Msgr. Sweeney, evilly persecuted by the crazy liberals– gave us the greatest gift, with Perpetual Adoration and the beautiful statue of Our Lady, at the 100% orthodox and faithful, Shrine of Our Lady of Peace! The dear Shrine was doubly blessed, when Fr. Patrick Peyton, the “Rosary Priest,” came for the special Mass and celebrations, when the lovely statue was installed! He is up for Sainthood! LOVE Fr. Peyton! Fr. Joseph Illo, at Star of the Sea church in San Francisco, is now hoping to establish Perpetual Adoration, at our dear church! Wonderful!
Amen. Amen. How many times I have entered a church distracted or troubled, and stay sometimes no longer than 15 minutes); to leave centered and at peace after silent contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament. Sometimes it’s best to let God do ALL the talking.
The above reply was meant to be to Linda Maria’s lovely thoughts.
Thanks, Caritas! Bless you! I bet you love Our Lady of Peace, too! Maybe you would also love to come to Star of the Sea in San Francisco, sometime, for Adoration!
Beautifully said Linda Marie!