Countering Increasing Irreverence and Disrespect. By Gerard T. Mundy | New Oxford Review. April 2024.

Gerard T. Mundy is a writer who teaches philosophy at a New York City university.

The sacred territory of the Catholic altar, at which the Lord Himself is consecrated and the tabernacle holding the Lord is expected to repose, commands respect at all times, most especially during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Although the sacred character of the altar has not changed since the implementation of the Novus Ordo Missae after the Second Vatican Council, the reverence given, by some, to that altar has increasingly diminished.

For anyone with an ambiguous understanding or ignorance of the altar’s sacredness, or who has a proclivity for disrespect or a lack of boundaries, there was, prior to the so-called spirit of Vatican II, both a social climate and a protective perimeter that enforced the altar’s sacredness. The social climate dictated to all persons, even those not serious about the faith and those not of the faith, that the high altar was due reverence and respect. Many altars were constructed with a sacred offertory altar bridge at which the properly disposed faithful would kneel for reception of Holy Communion. The offertory altar bridge provided a visual and physical attestation to the separateness of the high altar.

A recent incident illustrates how disrespect of the altar, even during the Mass, is so frequent that many Catholics today are no longer surprised at, or even recognize, significant affronts.

At a Novus Ordo Sunday Mass in New York City, a local politician running for re-election in what was expected to be a competitive primary and then a very competitive general election was invited to give a speech during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, at the altar, and from the ambo. In order to mask any overtly political overtones, the politician’s speech focused on his upbringing and early life and on the type of “work” he does in the electoral district. As the politician spoke in English from the microphoned ambo, his translator and legislative aide stood below, without a microphone, translating his speech into Spanish by yelling in a loud voice.

The politician, who is neither a Catholic nor a Christian, concluded his stunt by walking directly across the sanctuary, passing the tabernacle (showing it no reverence whatsoever), and taking photographs with the presiding priest — again, at the altar and during the Mass.

At the conclusion of the Mass, the politician spoke to parishioners and handed out business cards, first in the vestibule and then in the nave. As may be expected after such an appearance, photographs taken by the politician’s aide and translator — of his speech from the ambo, with the priest at the altar during Mass, and of his gladhanding parishioners afterward — were proudly displayed on his social-media pages.

This incident represents a larger problem and is evidence of an irreverent climate long established. The common understanding that the utmost reverence is due the altar and the liturgy has evaporated in the decades since the implementation of the Novus Ordo Missae. That climate has become entrenched to the point that not only is a non-Catholic and non-Christian politician running for secular public office allowed to give a publicity speech at the altar from the ambo during Mass, but most of the parishioners saw nothing untoward about this occurrence, with some even clapping at the speech’s conclusion.

One may begin analyzing this incident with guidance from Scripture. All four Gospels recount a cleansing of the Temple, with John’s providing the most forceful imagery:

He [Jesus Christ] found in the temple area those who sold oxen, sheep, and doves, as well as the money-changers seated there. He made a whip out of cords and drove them all out of the temple area, with the sheep and oxen, and spilled the coins of the money-changers and overturned their tables, and to those who sold doves he said, “Take these out of here, and stop making my Father’s house a marketplace.” (2:14-16)

The New American Bible Revised Edition provides a noteworthy explanation of Matthew’s record of the Temple cleansing (cf. 21:12-17): “These activities were carried on in the court of the Gentiles, the outermost court of the temple area” (emphasis in original).

Jesus’ words and actions regarded activities occurring in what was not even considered the worship area proper and, most especially, in what was not the central place of the worship area: the altar. This distinction is important in order to demonstrate the gravity of offenses against the central sacred altar.

Moving from Scripture to Church thought, the 1912 Catholic Encyclopedia, drawing from St. Thomas Aquinas, summarizes the sacredness attached to churches while expounding on what is prohibited within them: “the doing of certain things (whether sins or not), which, either by their own nature or by special provision of law, are particularly incompatible with the demeanour to be maintained in such a place. Such would be for instance turning the church into a stable or a market, using it as a banquet hall, or holding court there indiscriminately for the settlement of purely secular affairs.”

The macro-level antidote to the frequent showing of disrespect toward the altar during Mass is the restoration of a climate of reverence. The most fitting prescription leading to this restoration would be liturgical instruction that, specifically and explicitly, prohibits non-liturgical related activity during the Holy Mass.

In the specific cases of egregious desecration of the altar, of course, purification in accord with canon law is required to restore the altar’s sanctity. An unfortunate recent example occurred late last year in the Diocese of Brooklyn when a popular music star filmed a raunchy, mocking, erotic, and Satanic-themed music video in a church’s sanctuary in front of the altar. The obscene desecration made worldwide headlines in the secular press. Light emerged from the darkness, however, when, demonstrating a deep love and respect for God, Bishop Robert Brennan acted swiftly …

But what is being argued here is that the normalization of everyday disrespect must be addressed… Continue.

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— Raymond Cardinal Burke celebrates Novus Ordo Missae, 2021, reverently