HOW THE DIALOGUE MASS INFLUENCED MODERN ARCHITECTURE

One may suppose that Dialogue Mass was never considered an option until modern times as it would have been simply impractical. It is impossible for a priest at a distant altar to dialogue with a large congregation without the use of a microphone as otherwise he could not be heard and, in any case, in many churches the priest was separated from the congregation by the rood screen which divided the sanctuary from the nave. We are all familiar with the fact that in large churches the pulpit was placed in the nave quite far from the altar and raised up on high so that the sermon could be heard. Similarly churches would have had to be completely reorganised in order for Mass to be heard, thus destroying all of the mystical symbolism of the cruciform plan. Interestingly enough, the new emphasis on vocal participation even before the Council, or any thought of a new Mass in the minds of most people, had already produced the beginnings of the new church architecture: “Reconceiving liturgical space had begun; especially with St. Michaels in Burlington, Vermont in 1944. A more radical step was Blessed Sacrament Church in Holyoke, Massachusetts, built in 1953. Here the altar was dead centre in an octagonal church and surrounded by eight rows of pews.

This soon turned out not to be the answer, but it did herald the movement to reconceiving the relationship of congregational space to the sanctuary. All was still in flux when events after Vatican II soon gave new directions to church building. (Roman Catholic Worship: Trent to Today by James I White) These churches were built for the old Mass – not the new - but a Mass in which obviously active vocal participation was very strong in influencing the design!