Cardinal Sarah Calls For Ad Orientem And Other Reforms At Mass

Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments, called upon bishops around the world to implement several reforms by Advent of this year, e.g., November 27th.  The First Sunday of Advent is the start of a new liturgical year.  See here and here.  The reforms are:

• The priest should face "ad orientem", meaning that he faces the tabernacle instead of the congregation.
• Communicants should kneel for Holy Communion.
• Kneeling at the Consecration.  In most U.S. dioceses, that already happens.  In some countries, like England, the congregation stands for the Canon.
• Curtailing usage of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion

There are others.  The Cardinal states that he is initiating these measures at the request of the pope, for which the latter should be thanked.  If these changes are implemented I think that can only be beneficial to the Church at large.  Two years ago, Cardinal Burke explained that "there is a strict correlation between liturgical abuse and moral corruption".  The Mass is utterly crucial to the Catholic life; we need to worship God properly if we are to secure our own salvation and be effective in the culture wars in which we are now embroiled.

We know, of course, that there will be a concerted "push-back" from liberal and progressive parishes and dioceses.  We must prepare to engage them in battle.  If and how we'll do that remains to be seen.