May J.R.'s 'providence' remember the maniple - Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger - humor - Column

National Catholic Reporter, July 2, 1993 by Richard P. McBrien

In a recent interview with the Italian weekly Il Sabato, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, says he would like to see the altar eventually turned around again, away from the people.

He registers at least two complaints about the change mandated by the Second Vatican Council: (1) The congregation "must always be looking at [the priest]," and so he "has become too important"; (2) as a result, women what to become priests, too.

If the cardinal's first complaint has any empirical validity, it surely suggests a failure in catechesis, because the General Instruction of the Roman Missal is utterly clear about the matter. The purpose of turning the altar around was to make the altar, not the priest, the center of attention (n. 259).

It is at the altar that "the sacrifice of the cross is made present under sacramental signs. It is also the table of the Lord and the people of God are called to share in it. The altar is, as well, the center of the thanksgiving that the Eucharist accomplishes" (n. 259).

Cardinal Ratzinger correctly points out that the ancient custom of the church was to worship facing East. And that's why both the priest and the congregation were faced in the same direction at Mass.

But that custom was never uniform -- not even in Rome, as Joseph Jungmann reminds us in his definitive two-volume work, The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development (1950). "History indicates that both practices were in use from the very start, at least in the vicinity of Rome" (vol. 1, p. 255).

He points out that even in the old Missale Romanum, in use before Vatican II, both practices were "countenanced."

The cardinal's second complaint is even more intriguing. If the turning of the altar has stimulated the desire of women to become priests, why has it not had the same effect on young men?

Whatever one thinks of the cardinal's proposal, he himself has made it clear that he's not advocating an immediate reversal of the change. He believes that we've already had "so much restlessness" in the church that we need "some liturgical peace for the moment."

Accordingly, he is willing to "leave [it] to providence" to determine when "a reform of the reform" should occur. His is a prudent pastoral posture, to be sure, although some may wonder if the cardinal means to imply that "providence" was somehow nodding when the church adopted the original reform.

Cardinal Ratzinger's musings about the altar may encourage similar ruminations about other council-inspired changes in the liturgy.

Why, for example, could we not at least think about bringing back the maniple?

For the benefit of younger readers: The maniple is a now defunct vestment that the priest, deacon and subdeacon (no time to explain that one) wore over the left forearm. It had originally served a very practical purpose as a handkerchief or napkin.

When one recalls that the Eucharist is not only a sacrifice but a meal, one begins to appreciate the maniple's potential importance.

One of the first things people notice when they are seated in a restaurant, even if it's at the counter, is the absence of a napkin. They immediately alert the waitress or waiter.

And one of the first things we check as we dash off for work or school or an appointment is the presence of a clean handkerchief in the pocket or pocketbook.

We sneeze, we reach for our handkerchief, and it's not there. The sensation is almost as disorienting as reaching for one's car or house keys, and not finding them at first grope.

Why wouldn't the absence of the maniple at Mass be as distracting for the priest-presider as the absence of a napkin at a meal or of a handkerchief away from home are for the rest of us?

But the disappearance of the maniple at Mass creates more than practical problems. It also sets a bad example.

Many older readers will recall that, following President John F. Kennedy's bareheaded style, men stopped wearing hats. Does anyone really want to see the sleeve replace the napkin and the handkerchief in polite society?

If "providence" should follow Cardinal Ratzinger's lead and eventually turn the altar around again, one hopes it won't forget the maniple.