ARTICLES

Where Have They Taken Him?

A Tabernacle Survey

By Robert Kumpel

SIDEBAR: Tabernacle Survey Results

In his 1997 booklet "The Catholic Sanctuary" author Michael Davies asserts, "There is not one word requiring the demoting of the tabernacle in any document of the Second Vatican Council." If that is the case, why do most churches in the San Diego Diocese have the tabernacle set aside?

Davies mentions a letter from Pope Pius XII to a liturgical congress in 1956 in which he chided liturgists exploring the idea of removing tabernacles and warned that their actual motivation was to lessen esteem "for the presence and action of Christ in the tabernacle." He wrote, "To separate the tabernacle from altar is to separate two things which by their origin and nature should remain united."

In a 1999 directive to priests, Bishop Brom wrote, "Postconciliar reform has sought to correct a preconciliar imbalance in which eucharistic reservation and veneration was given emphasis at the expense of eucharistic celebration, but now just the reverse seems to be happening. We need, therefore, to continue to strive in eucharistic theology and practice for a proper relationship between eucharistic celebration and eucharistic reservation which should be reflected and promoted by liturgical art and architecture.

"Consequently, the place of eucharistic reservation, whether a chapel or otherwise, should be visually and proportionately located in relation to the altar of sacrifice without competing with it."

In many local churches the tabernacle has no chance to "compete," as it is shut away in chapels of reservation, often no larger than a closet. This is especially true along the I-15 corridor where most of the new churches have been erected to accommodate the largest areas of new housing. Every church, except two, from Tierrasanta to Escondido is a modern structure with the Blessed Sacrament sequestered in an adoration chapel. The only exceptions are St. Gabriel's in Poway, where it is to the side of the main altar and St. Mary's, Escondido's oldest Catholic church, where current renovations will move it from a side altar to a separate chapel. So Catholics in Tierrasanta, Mira Mesa, Peñasquitos, Rancho Bernardo, Escondido, and Valley Center are restricted to worship in non-traditional settings unless they are willing to drive long distances to another church.

Some argue that postconciliar documents give permission to the demotion of the tabernacle, but none of these documents or their directives have anything from Vatican II that supports them. Confusion seems to be the rule. For example, a 1967 Instruction, Eucharisticum Mysterium Article 53 reads:

The place in a church or oratory where the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in the tabernacle should be truly prominent. It ought to be suitable for private prayer so that the faithful may easily and fruitfully, by private devotion also, continue to honor Our Lord in this Sacrament.

Yet Article 54 seems to contradict the previous article:

The Blessed Sacrament is to be reserved in a solid, burglar-proof tabernacle in the center of the high altar or of another altar if this is really outstanding and distinguished. Where there is a lawful custom, and in particular cases, to be approved by the local ordinary, the Blessed Sacrament may be reserved in some other place in the church; but it must be a very special place, having nobility about it, and it must be suitably decorated.

Not every chapel in our diocese is prominent. Many are located on the far sides of churches, such as St. Catherine Laboure (Kearny Mesa) and San Rafael (Rancho Bernardo) while others are clearly in the back, such as Good Shepherd (Mira Mesa). Many are so small that they would seem to discourage devotion, such as St. Timothy (Escondido) or St. Luke (El Cajon). A notable exception is St. Gregory the Great (Scripps Ranch). Even though located in a small chapel at the rear of a round church, large panels of stained glass brilliantly illuminate the tabernacle which sits behind an ornate metal gate, lending a sense of grave dignity. Next to the gateway is a large San Damiano crucifix.

Another common problem with separate chapels for the tabernacle is accessibility. While leaving the congregants without sight of the Real Presence, the tabernacles themselves are almost always easy to reach. The tabernacle in the sanctuary followed the Jewish Tradition of the Holy of Holies and the tabernacle has never been a box for the faithful to place their hands upon. While this reporter was visiting Good Shepherd parish, a custodian entered the chapel, touched the tabernacle, crossed himself and left. Mission San Diego's St. Francis Center, located behind the old church, keeps a tabernacle stored in a back closet, inaccessible to anyone but the priest; most parishioners have no idea that it is there. This leaves more than a few people genuflecting at nothing before sitting down.

Three priests spoke with this reporter regarding tabernacle placement. Father Green and Father White, who contributed to the July-August News Notes, are both pastors in the diocese and Father Brown is an associate.

Who is responsible for the design for the construction of new churches?

Father Brown: "You would make a presentation to the bishop, saying you wanted to build a new church, and there's the matter of fund raising and all that. But there's a list of architects who are available who have been approved by the bishop. The liturgy committee would be involved, and there would be a liturgical consultant from among several approved by the diocese. They will help you with certain aspects of the design."

Do you think it's very likely that the bishop and the commission would approve a traditional church design with the tabernacle centrally located over the high altar?

Father Brown: "When you do put it there, they usually want some sort of screen so that it is not completely visible and a center of focus during the Mass."

Father White: "Bishop Brom has expressed his opinion that the tabernacle should be off to the side or in a proper chapel of adoration. He's bought into the whole dichotomy between the so-called 'Static Presence of Christ' and "Dynamic Presence of Christ'. If you want to see where he stands, just look at the way he remodeled the diocesan chapel at the chancery."

But should the Blessed Sacrament be separated from the sacrifice of the mass?

Father Brown: "No, and the bishop has written as much. In his 1999 letter he writes, 'The place of eucharistic reservation, whether a chapel of otherwise, should be visually and proportionately located in relation to the altar of sacrifice without competing with it; it should be seen as distinct but inseparable from the place of eucharistic celebration and should not be completely separated from it; it should not be located behind the majority of the assembly ... 'and he sent this out to us priests."

Father Green: "[In the letter], the bishop recognizes that now the tabernacle is becoming almost inconsequential, insignificant and not even tied to the altar. He did say that the tabernacle needs to be in relation to the altar, and I'd like to see them start doing that in the churches they're building, because the chapels are all way off somewhere! I don't see them doing that, but I thought the letter was very good, even encouraging."

It seems like if you're a Catholic who moves into a newer area, you're going to have an agenda imposed upon you whether you like it or not.

Father Brown: "That's ri-ight! Mary Ann Fallon (director of liturgy and spirituality) has said directly that they in no way impose a particular style on anybody, but they go with what the people want -- but they try to direct them to do things according to various guidelines. If you read Inaestimabile donum -- which came out from the Holy Father after the General Instructions to the Roman Missal -- it will tell you about different ways of placing the tabernacle. It's almost a correction to some of the things that were recurring.

"It was never the intent of the Council (Vatican II) to move the tabernacles. The point is, there are so many different kinds of churches. Is the tabernacle anywhere near the altar at St. Peter's? No. But in your average parish church, there is no reason to do that."

Father Green: "If you read the Vatican II documents, it seems to me that this is for historic churches that are visited for their historical value or architecture -- then it's appropriate to have a chapel. But it shouldn't be mandated for every church. I think this has done grave damage on a parochial, parish and pastoral level. It has definitely affected people's devotion to the Real Presence for the worse. It has done nothing to help it."

Father White: "The implication is obvious. You can be certain that there will be very little eucharistic devotions in those parishes."

When I spoke to a parish secretary in Chula Vista about the tabernacle, I asked her if any of the churches in Chula Vista had the traditional tabernacle set behind the high altar. She said, "There shouldn't be, because that's not the liturgical norm."

Father Brown: "They really don't know what they're talking about. What they are doing is leading by example. They've witnessed this for the last 30 years, and they presume that that's how it should be done."

What is the effect of separating the presence of the tabernacle from the faithful when they enter a church?

Father Brown: "It creates a different atmosphere. I was in an Episcopal church where there is no tabernacle once, and a lady told some people to be quiet, and I thought, 'Why? Why be quiet in a church like this where there is no tabernacle?' At that point it becomes just a gathering space for the faithful. It doesn't become that quiet place of prayer before The Lord in the Blessed Sacrament. We can pray anywhere. Why bother to go in to a church if it's just a gathering place for events -- lectures, prayer services, or the sacrifice of the Mass. It's just multipurpose space. You lose the sense of sanctity and reservation of God's temple."

Father Green: "It seems that there's an underlying ideology with the way certain liturgists, priests, pastors and, perhaps, bishops want our churches to look, with the tabernacle being absent from the sanctuary. Because with the tabernacle there, it's a reminder that the church is the Domus Dei, the house of God and that Christ dwells there. It's a call to reverence, to devotion, a sense of the sacred, and it seems they don't want that. Instead, the buildings are simply liturgical shells. If the tabernacle is present, they think it distracts from the sense of Christ being present in the people, which I never understood."

Does a separate "adoration chapel" really increase devotion to the Eucharist?

Father White: "Absolutely not. It decreases, no question about it -- because except for a handful of pious souls, it is ignored.

Father Brown: In the churches where the tabernacle has been restored, more people come to pray more often all day long.

Father Green: "I think [an adoration chapel] can, for example where there's a huge worship space which is used for other things like choir practice. I've seen good-sized Blessed Sacrament chapels built right behind the sanctuary where there's a glass wall so you can see it, and you can go in where it's always quiet. That's my notion of a Blessed Sacrament chapel, but absolutely not these little rooms that they're placing Jesus in. Even if you're not claustrophobic, going into one of those little rooms will make you claustrophobic. They're just miserable, even if they have some stained glass windows or something, because they're just tiny little rooms. It looks like, 'We didn't know what to do with tabernacle. It doesn't fit in to our theology of the liturgy, so we stuck it here in this closet we built for it.' I think the average person wants to sit in the main body of the church when they go to pray outside of the Mass.

"Even with these churches that have the little separate chapels, when people go into the church, they won't go into the chapel to pray. Why? Because, number one, they can't find it. Or they simply don't want to, and I don't blame them. Who wants to sit in a little, stifling closet? I don't think it encourages devotion whatsoever."

What about people touching the tabernacle?

Father Green: "It's inappropriate because that's where Christ dwells in His fullness, Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity. It's a more powerful Presence than, say, in His Word or in the priest or in the people. It fits the Old Testament image of the Holy of Holies. It's not appropriate to get up and touch it. There needs to be a sense of sacredness. Eventually, the Sacrament becomes more like a sacramental. It's been moved to the side and put on the same par as a statue or a potted palm or the holy oils. I've actually been in churches where they've enshrined the oils, and people are confused about what is more sacred."

Father Brown: "The sacred and the profane all become the same thing. There's no rubric that says that you can't touch the tabernacle, but in the old days, no one would have gone into the sanctuary itself, except the priest, and that's where the tabernacle was kept. Once you do away with the sanctuary, the nave and the sanctuary all become part of one space, and people will do that. The sacred blends into the vulgar and become one."

Father Green: "You see it with extraordinary ministers of the eucharist and the way they talk about the Holy Eucharist and treat it like a sacramental, constantly referring to it, in every parish I've been in as 'the bread and wine.' When they're carrying the Blessed Sacrament to the sick, you constantly have to remind them: 'Don't stop and talk. Don't place it in your purse. Use the leather carrying purse that you put around your neck. Go quietly to the sick and take them communion.' It's as if they're carrying holy water. I think it's because of the way we've designed our churches and the way we treat the Blessed Sacrament. People don't recognize the Real Presence, and it's done a lot of damage at the parish level. But maybe that's what a lot of the liturgists and bishops want--let's just celebrate ourselves--that's what's really important to them."

One local pastor, Father William Lawson of St. Anthony of Padua in National City, built a relatively traditional church. A simple structure in the Mission style, St. Anthony has a tabernacle chapel directly behind the main altar, but it is only separated by an open iron fence, allowing the tabernacle to be visible from anywhere in the church. Lawson explained, "We had a little trouble initially, because of the old attitude toward the tabernacle -- you know, that it should not be in the center, that it should be in a side chapel -- but we were helped by Father Peter McGuine, who was the bishop's liturgical advisor. He has a licentiate in liturgy from Notre Dame. We used the same solution as at the diocesan chancery. The only difference is that the separation between the altar of sacrifice and the Blessed Sacrament chapel is a wrought-iron screen that can be seen through. And it does conform to the laws of the Church. Our people wanted the tabernacle at the front and center of the church, and we were faced at first with resistance to that notion. We were advised to either put it to the side or in a separate chapel, but Father McGuine helped up through this with the liturgy commission and they eventually approved the notion."

The new church was necessary after the old one burned down in 1995. Father Lawson is happy to say that the new church is not just a copy of the old one. "It was providential that it burned down. First of all, it was too small and it was too full of all different sizes and styles of statuary -- there was no artistic continuity at all. So what we're trying to do is make sure that what goes in conforms to a certain style. We're trying to follow the liturgical recommendations of the official documents as closely as possible.

"Most people practice their devotion from the main part of the church. Not many will go up into the Blessed Sacrament chapel but they can do so. There is a great deal of eucharistic devotion here. It just seems to be part of the spirituality of the people here not to want to."

Father Lawson doesn't think hiding the tabernacle in a separated chapel where it is not visible fosters devotion. "My opinion would be that it would not foster eucharistic devotion. One of our parishioners, during the planning process, told me that she visited a church near her work which has a separate chapel. She said she went into the main part of the church looking for Our Lord and she couldn't find him. She had to ask where He was. She was pointed to the Blessed Sacrament chapel, which she had to enter through an exterior door. She said, 'I felt like Our Lord was in prison.' And having it so easily within reach in these chapels, I would be concerned about exposing it to the possibility of abuse."

SIDEBAR: Tabernacle Survey Results

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