Scottish Catholic Observer

Speaking at the Sacra Liturgia conference in London last week, the Guinean cardinal, who is Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, addressed priests who were present, saying: ‘It is very important that we return as soon as possible to a common orientation, of priests and the faithful turned together in the same direction – eastwards or at least towards the apse – to the Lord who comes’.

“I ask you to implement this practice wherever possible,” the cardinal said.

He said that ‘prudence’ and catechesis would be necessary, but told pastors to have ‘confidence that this is something good for the Church, something good for our people’.

“Your own pastoral judgement will determine how and when this is possible, but perhaps beginning this on the first Sunday of Advent this year, when we attend ‘the Lord who will come’ and ‘who will not delay’.”

Cardinal Sarah has previously said that from the offertory onwards it was ‘essential that the priest and faithful look together towards the east’.

In his talk, Cardinal Sarah also said that Pope Francis had asked him to begin a study of ‘the reform of the reform’, that is of adapting the liturgical reforms that followed the Second Vatican Council.

“The liturgy is not about you and I,” he told the conference. “It is not where we celebrate our own identity or achievements or exalt or promote our own culture and local religious customs. The liturgy is first and foremost about God and what He has done for us.”

—This story ran in full in the July 8 edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.