Roma Æterna

I've been away in Rome, so I'm sorry that some of you have had to wait to have your comments put up.

Now our Holy Father has been several years in the job, it has been interesting to see how Rome has adjusted. Perhaps the clearest evidence is to be seen liturgically.

1) I saw only two altars with (the formerly ubiquitous) two candles on one end with a bunch of flowers at the other.

2) More altars than not have some form of the 'Benedictine Arrangement', meaning that there was a crucifix centrally placed on the altar, with candles arranged to either side. Sometimes there were two candles, sometimes fork handles (as at St John Lateran), occasionally six.

3) Almost all churches were open for prayer, and there were usually people praying inside. This is entirely new: I am used to a lot of Roman churches being firmly locked. I got inside all sorts of buildings I had never seen before.

4) 'Tat Alley' (aka Via dei Cestari), a street of ecclesiastical suppliers near the Pantheon, now has all sorts of traditional vestments and impedimenta on sale. The time was when you could only buy these things from the charmingly obsequious staff of Gammarelli's ('Splenditatis Vendor') or the grumpy assistants (no, assistants is not the word; they do not assist, but glare) at Serpone. Arte Sacra was the only place you could buy reliquaries, now they are on sale everywhere. The proprietor said to a colleague that the sixties and seventies nearly put him out of business, but that now trade was very good indeed. Another fellow priest remarked that if people are prepared to pay money for things, it is valuable evidence that they really are prepared to buy into what these things stand for.

Even the iconically-Seventies Slabbinck shop had one or two things that looked nice.

5) Cassocks are still rare on the streets, but I saw many more (male) religious habits than heretofore.

6) I am told that on Saturday mornings early one may see the Traditional Mass being celebrated at many altars in St Peter's Basilica.

On the other side, the Italians still feel the need to chatter chatter chatter all the way through Mass. I don't mean the congregation; I mean the priest. There are scarcely five seconds at any point where there is not noise. I attended a Mass one morning (sort of; I was saying my office in a side chapel) where a priest talked or sang throughout without ceasing. Besides all the normal stuff, there was a lengthy introductory sermon, another before the readings, another after the readings. EP2, of course, rapidly, and then he even had an extraordinary minister of Holy Communion distribute Communion so that he could lead the congregation in the hymn, bawling into the microphone. Bizarrely, the tune was 'Oft in the stilly night'.

A priest we met on the street commented how the Italians tend to dislike solemn liturgy, but are addicted to talking and talking at Mass; the current rite of Mass addresses this need perfectly.