CHAPTER 7. Why do so many churches built for the Mass of Paul VI look so “un-churchy”? Why does the priest face the people now for Mass? Why did the tabernacle disappear? Why are there so few statues and images?
The answer isn’t fads or bad taste. It’s bad theology — specifically the modernist theology of the Mass as assembly.
Naturally, understanding the Mass primarily as an assembly supper rather that as a sacrifice offered to God will have a profound influence on the externals of the rite.
Chapter Seven of Work of Human Hands examines how assembly theology affected the new legislation governing the externals of the Mass of Paul VI — church architecture, the altar, the tabernacle and the rest.
If the last Catholic church you were in looked like a food court or a Pizza Hut on the inside, you’ll find the explanation here.
———-
“Thoroughly researched and eminently readable… marshals an impressive array of evidence… excellent… a thorough scholar.”
— Dr. Stephen McInerney
Campion College, NSW
Oriens Journal