Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

I know that Prax isn’t too much of a fan of Schwarz. He is right to point to the problem of the ‘legibility’ of liturgical symbolism and Schwarz could be accused of fabricating arbitrary categories. However, I think that a complete reading of Schwarz’s oeuvre and works show that he always had, or came to have, a settled preference for the priest to stand before the altar, with the people either disposed processionally behind him or around him. Read his salient self criticism of the ‘sacred inwardness’ model in Vom Bau Der Kirche.

If you look at Schwarz’s churches, the ones that have been reordered since VII, these have been as undermined liturgically as many historical churches receiving the same treatment.

I’m pretty sure that Schwarz was an ad orientem man. He would make a useful figure to reclaim onto the side of liturgical continuity rather than that of rupture.