The Last Word

Re-oriented

Richard R. Gaillardetz

Much is being made of rumors that the Vatican will soon issue a decree mandating that the priest celebrate the Mass ad orientem (“toward the East” and, presumably, with his back to the people). I would like to support that, but only if we take the spirit of the proposal seriously and follow through completely with what the supporting arguments actually require. There are tw (...)


 

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about the writer

Richard R. Gaillardetz is the Murray/Bacik Professor of Catholic Studies at the University of Toledo. He is the author of The Church in the Making: Lumen Gentium, Christus Dominus, Orientalium Ecclesiarum (Paulist, 2006) and Ecclesiology for a Global Church: A People Called and Sent (Orbis, 2008).

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