From Deacon Fritz Bauerschmidt at the blog Pray Tell:
Though the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore was dedicated in 1959, its design did little to anticipate the changes in liturgical practice that were to sweep through the Catholic Church in the ensuing decade. The building is long and narrow, on the traditional basilican plan, with the high altar at some distance from the first pew and, though technically “free-standing,” impossible to use versus populum, since the steps on which it stood did not extend behind it.
At some point shortly after the Second Vatican Council, following a trend in many Catholic parishes, a table was set up in the large open space in front of the original high altar. This allowed for versus populum celebration as well as bringing the altar about twenty feet closer to the people. Other than that, the space went unrenovated. During my quarter-century in Baltimore, the table-altar has, except on Good Friday, been covered by very attractive frontals. The original altar, under its impressive baldachino, served as a stand for candles and, on occasion, flowers (because, following traditional practice for cathedrals, the Blessed Sacrament is in its own chapel, the high altar didn’t even house the tabernacle).
Last summer the decision was made to remove the table altar and restore the use of the original high altar. This involved constructing a platform behind the altar, so there would be room for the celebrant to stand to celebrate versus populum, and constructing a low wall behind the platform on which the high altar candlesticks could be placed. The new arrangement became permanent on November 12, the anniversary of the dedication of the cathedral.
Read on and see more images of the restored altar.
CNA adds:
“It would be a wonderful thing if the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen were to be mentioned in the same breath as the other great cathedrals of this country and of the world,” Father Justin Gough, an associate pastor at the cathedral, said during a talk about the theology behind the decision earlier this month. “From an artistic and a theological perspective, there is no reason it shouldn’t be.”
Gough, in his early November talk, said the restoration allows the cathedral to reflect the intent of the architects who designed it, by making the altar the primary point of focus in the church.
“The principal altar is physically the source and the summit of the entire edifice, as everything in the cathedral points toward it and from it derives its meaning and power,” Gough said. “It is placed in a clear and visible spot, set apart from everything else so that there can be nothing to distract attention away from it, and highly elevated to ensure some line of sight for more than a thousand people gathered together to worship.”
Gough added that he believes the construction of the cathedral coinciding with the Second Vatican Council was not “by accident,” arguing that using the high altar versus populum perfectly reflects Pope Benedict XVI’s “hermeneutic of reform” interpretation of the Second Vatican Council: the the council was not a rupture, but instead a “renewal in the continuity of the one subject-Church which the Lord has given to us.”
