According to liturgy scholar Florian Kluba, the recent celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass in St Peter's Basilica exposed its supporters and those responsible for its preparation.
"Instead of the focus of prayer, it seems to be more about demarcation," writes Kluba in an article for the portal "feinschwarz.net" (Thursday). This can be seen above all in the celebration of the Eucharist with the "back to the people", which is considered a characteristic feature of the celebration according to the 1962 missal - even though St Peter's Basilica faces west.
At the end of October, the US Cardinal Raymond Leo Burke celebrated a mass in the old rite in St Peter's Basilica with the permission of Pope Leo XIV.
It took place as part of a pilgrimage by followers of this mass rite; around 3,000 people are said to have taken part. The Eucharistic celebration took place at the bronze cathedral altar from the 1980s, "where daily services are celebrated according to the Roman rite missal in force since the Second Vatican Council," said Kluba.
Due to the westernisation of St. Peter's Basilica, masses are normally celebrated there "versus populum", towards the people, and at the same time "ad orientem", i.e. towards the east.
"Paradoxical situation" at Mass in St Peter's Basilica
"As churches are normally ostentatious, the characteristic celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass 'with the back to the people' corresponds to this logic of praying ad orientem," emphasises the theologian, who works at the Department of Liturgical Studies at the University of Bonn.
However, the rubrics of the Roman missal before the liturgical reform also recognised the phenomenon of west-facing churches: "When the altar is facing east, the priest celebrates versus populum - not to look at the people, but to pray ad orientem together with them."
However, Burke and those responsible had decided to celebrate towards the cathedra and thus towards the west.
"This led to the paradoxical situation that Burke did not raise the host and chalice to the east, but to the choir set up behind the cathedral altar."
In traditionalist circles in particular, the question of the direction of the celebration seems to epitomise resistance to the post-conciliar liturgical reform, writes Kluba. The direction of celebration chosen for the Mass in St Peter's Basilica showed that it was not about a "pious turning to God", as otherwise the "early Christian principle of prayer facing east" would have been followed.
Rather, the direction of the celebration served to distinguish it from the Roman liturgy after the Second Vatican Council.
"Instead of being a place of unity in faith and prayer, the service thus degenerates into the scene of a liturgical-political culture war - and thus loses the spiritual, theological and tradition-conscious depth that its followers believe they find in it," emphasises Kluba.