| EWTN’s bishop says priests must face the people
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR Staff
In an action that appears directed primarily at Mother Angelica’s
Eternal Word Television Network, Bishop David Foley of Birmingham, Ala., has
prohibited priests in his diocese from celebrating Mass with their backs to the
people under most circumstances.
EWTN is headquartered in Irondale, Ala., just outside Birmingham.
Foley’s decree never mentions the network but refers to “any Mass
that is or will be televised for broadcast or videotaped for public
dissemination.”
Neither Foley’s office nor EWTN responded to requests for comment
from NCR.
Both supporters and critics of Mother Angelica, known for her feisty
conservatism on church affairs, told NCR that the decree seemed to be
directed at EWTN, since its daily Mass often shows the priest with his back to
the audience.
In churches, shrines and public oratories, the Oct. 18 decree says, the
priest must face the people if the altar is “free standing,” meaning
not built into a wall. The language about televised Masses is more direct
-- the priest must use a freestanding altar and face the people.
The decree was to take effect Nov. 18, one month from its issue
date.
The back-to-the-people stance is sometimes called
ad orientem, or “to the east,” referring to the ancient
Christian tradition of facing Jerusalem during the liturgy. Because the priest
stood with his back to the people during the pre-Vatican II Mass, the question
of which way the priest faces has become a symbol of the broader struggle over
the church reforms launched in the wake of the 1960s council.
In a letter accompanying his decree, Foley said the
ad orientem stance “amounts to
making a political statement and is dividing the people.”
EWTN supporters believe Foley’s action creates a dangerous
precedent. “The implications may be wider and raise more questions than
were perhaps intended by the bishop,” said Helen Hitchcock of Adoremus, a
liturgical advocacy group.
Mother Angelica is on the Adoremus board of advisers.
Hitchcock said that since the law of the church permits celebrating Mass
in the ad orientem style, it’s
questionable whether a diocesan bishop has the authority to prohibit it.
“Could a bishop say that you can only celebrate Mass in English, even
though Latin is permitted?” Hitchcock said. “In that sense, it’s
hard to know where this stops.”
Some canonists agreed that the decree may be overly broad. “It
seems to eliminate the back-to-the-people posture entirely,” said Msgr.
Frederick McManus, former member of the Canon Law Department at the Catholic
University of America and a frequent adviser to the U.S. bishops on liturgical
questions.
“A bishop cannot issue a decree that is contrary to the universal
law of the church,” McManus said.
On the other hand, McManus said a bishop could issue narrower
restrictions for pastoral purposes. “He is certainly within his rights to
say that you can’t celebrate the Mass this way on television,”
McManus said. “He could say that on television you’re supposed to be
teaching, that this disturbs the people.”
Fr. John Huels of St. Paul’s University in Toronto, however, said
that he felt Foley was on “solid ground” with the decree as it
stands. “I think it’s extremely unlikely the Holy See would overrule
it,” he said.
Huels said that Foley’s argument that Mass facing the people has
become customary over the past 30 years, hence it overrides earlier
legislation, is “very carefully reasoned.”
It is possible that network officials may argue that the ruling does not
apply to their circumstances. A “frequently asked questions” section
on the EWTN Web site says the televised Mass is primarily for the Franciscan
nuns at Our Lady of the Angels Monastery, and not for a viewing audience.
“The priests at EWTN are celebrating a conventual Mass for the
nuns, hence, they face the cloistered nuns and the tabernacle,” the
response says. “Not being a parish church but a convent chapel, the people
are there by open invitation.”
The U.S. bishops’ expert on liturgy, however, said that since the
Mass is broadcast all over the world, it’s hard to argue that it is
intended primarily for a cloister.
“The particular responsibility that a broadcaster has to reflect
the appropriate liturgical legislation and to be pastorally helpful is of the
greatest importance,” said Fr. James Moroney. “In most dioceses you
would have to ask the bishop if he finds it helpful that a Mass is being
broadcast that does not reflect the same values as his worship office may be
promoting.
“I dare say most would say no,” Moroney said.
Some sources told NCR that the
timing of Foley’s decree might be linked to the dedication of a new
structure on the EWTN grounds. A large new Shrine of the Most Blessed
Sacrament, which will serve as a monastery and place of worship, was to be
formally dedicated at the end of November. The dedication has been postponed
until final preparations, such as the installation of stained glass, are
complete.
Because Foley’s decree refers specifically to the celebration of
Mass with a “free-standing altar,” some sources said that EWTN could
skirt the ruling by attaching the new shrine’s altar to a wall.
Moroney, however, said that would not work. “The General
Instruction on the Roman Missal
states clearly that when a new church is constructed, the altar must be
free-standing so that one can walk around it and so that Mass can be celebrated
facing the people,” Moroney said.
The decree surprised some observers because Foley, since taking office
in 1994, has been seen as generally supportive of Mother Angelica and EWTN.
Foley has his own show on the network, “Pillars of Faith,” which airs
Monday evenings at 8 p.m. Eastern.
The cable television network, which broadcasts 24 hours a day, says its
signal reaches more than 55 million homes in 38 countries and territories.
National Catholic Reporter, November 19,
1999
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