The Chair Moves in Chicago

Yesterday morning, Archbishop Blase Cupich of Chicago had a prayer service with religious orders and lay movements in his first day on the job, the Chicago Tribune reports. Pray Tell readers will be interested in this bit of liturgical organization:

During the morning service, he sat in the cathedra, or teaching chair, which had been moved in front of the altar from the rear of the sanctuary, since the service would not include a Mass.

Then, in a reference to the cathedra in a cathedral, he joked: “This building is, after all, named after a chair.”

The chair will not return to the rear of the sanctuary, said Monsignor Dan Mayall, rector of Holy Name Cathedral. Cupich wants it to be closer to the people, he said. Just how that will be accomplished still needs to be determined, Mayall said.

BTW, I sure wish my spell-check could stop auto-correcting his first name to be Blasé. 🙂

Anthony Ruff, OSB

Fr. Anthony Ruff, OSB, is a monk of St. John's Abbey. He teaches liturgy, liturgical music, and Gregorian chant at St. John's University School of Theology-Seminary. He is widely published and frequently presents across the country on liturgy and music. He is the author of Sacred Music and Liturgical Reform: Treasures and Transformations, and of Responsorial Psalms for Weekday Mass: Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter. He does priestly ministry at the neighboring community of Benedictine sisters in St. Joseph.

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17 responses to “The Chair Moves in Chicago”

  1. Jim Pauwels

    I was at Evening Prayer in Holy Name yesterday evening with deacon couples, couples in formation for the diaconate, and Lay Ecclesial Ministers (which I think just means lay ministers :-)). The cathedra was still front and center, and once again he asked permission to stay seated.

    Afterward, he stood for an hour or more to greet the attendees individually (something that in my experience all bishops do, all the time, and which must take a lot of energy and patience) in the school cafeteria. So I don’t know if he preached while seated to conserve energy, or because he thought it somehow fitting to speak from the chair.

    One other thing that caught my attention: at the end of the liturgy, he thanked the musicians, the rector, and various others who had contributed to all the liturgies over the last couple of days – which was courteous but perhaps not out of the ordinary. But he also thanked the members of the media – there was a phalanx of television cameras, photographers and reporters along the north aisle of the cathedral – and said that he understood it had been a long day for them, too, as they also had covered the morning prayer service hours earlier. I thought that was thoughtful of him, and good modeling for public ministers of the church to treat members of the media with courtesy and kindness.

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  2. Jim Pauwels

    I wrote in my previous comment that Cupich asked our permission to stay seated – I should clarify that he asked that specifically for the homily. He stood at the other appointed times during Evening Prayer.

    Reply
  3. Christian McConnell

    Sitting is “somehow fitting,” since it’s the traditional posture for a bishop to preach from. It’s what the cathedra was originally for, even in an age when everybody else was standing!

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    1. Ren Aguila

      @Christian McConnell – comment #3:
      There is a comment Richard Fabian once made that the most popular liturgical reform was asking people to stay seated for the preaching. (This was in his document discussing the liturgy at St Gregory of Nyssa Church in San Francisco.)

      Reply
  4. Jeffrey Pinyan

    I didn’t think preaching the homily from the chair (seated) was all that rare.

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  5. Catherine Crino

    Jim, just to be precise, Lay Ecclesial Ministers are those certified and commissioned. Not just all lay ministers employed.

    Two things: Cardinal George was really at the forefront of saying that he delegated LEMs to minister in his name. It was great to hear Cupich speak along those lines in his homily. (Not something with which all priests, in my experience, agree.). Second, when George was installed, we were completely ignored although we are the majority of parish staffs. Glad to see the evolution.

    I shook hands with him about the forty minute mark and he seemed a bit tired – a long three days! – but not unduly. My guess is that preaching from the chair is more liturgically based than orthopedically.

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  6. Jim Pauwels

    Huh – I guess I can only say that I don’t recall instances of bishops preaching from the chair before.

    Catherine Crino, thanks for that explanation re: lay ecclesial ministers (you were ahead of us – we didn’t shake his hand until an hour or so, and there were still a lot of people behind us). Now that you’ve made the distinction between certified and non-certified ministers, I realize that I have a friend who is in formation for such a program. I am not sure how the distinction between certified and non-certified ministers will, nor should, play out in the job market. In most professions, certification is a good thing, so I hope that it induces non-certified ministers (many of whom nonetheless have relevant degrees for which they may have spent thousands of dollars and spent years pursuing) to go get certified without imperiling their current jobs, titles and wages. It seems like a complicated issue.

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    1. Bruce Morrill Avatar
      Bruce Morrill

      @Jim Pauwels – comment #6:
      Point of information: During the rites of ordination for deacons and priests, after the proclamation of the Gospel the bishop “sits at his chair” for the presentation of the candidate(s), the bishop’s election, and the people’s consent. The bishop then continues with his homily (still seated). Personally, having attended dozens of ordinations over the past 35 years, the image of the seated bishop delivering his homily is quite vital in my memory.

      Allow me to add that the current GIRM (no. 138) instructs: “The priest standing at the chair or the ambo itself or, if appropriate, in another worthy place, gives the Homily.” In contrast, the 1975 GIRM (no. 97) stated more succinctly: “The homily is given at the chair or at the lectern.” Myself, I prefer to preach from the chair when presiding with a deacon. I see no reason for me to walk over to the ambo after he finishes proclaiming the Gospel, especially since I never have a text in front of me (I memorize an outline, plus my exact conclusion). Prior to the current edition of the GIRM I had often preached sitting in the chair (given the ambiguity of no. 97), but now I always stand (given the current no. 138).

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      1. Karl Liam Saur

        @Bruce Morrill – comment #9:
        I don’t think I can ever recall a priest preaching at Mass from the presidential chair. Standing in front of it, yes, but not seated. As opposed to bishops, who I’ve certainly seen preach at Mass while seated in the presidential chair at parishes (or cathedra, at cathedrals), though from from invariably so.

      2. Jim Pauwels

        @Bruce Morrill – comment #9:

        Hi, Bruce Morrill – right, regarding ordinations, this discussion prompted me to try to recall earlier today if the bishop (Cardinal George, as it happens) preached from the chair at my own ordination, but I have no memory of it. He did sit in his chair for the presentation etc. And having thought about it a bit: except for a handful of ordinations I’ve attended, I don’t know that I’ve ever been to a mass at Holy Name at which the archbishop presided.

        FWIW – it appears that Archbishop Cupich preached from the ambo at his own installation mass:

        http://abc7chicago.com/religion/archbishop-blase-cupichs-homily/400736/

        Perhaps Cupich made a point of mentioning that he would preach sitting down for the benefit of the media that was covering the liturgy I attended.

      3. Dennis Smolarski, SJ

        @Bruce Morrill – comment #9:
        For what it’s worth, the Latin of the Introduction to the Lectionary, no. 26, reads, “homiliam profert ad sedem stans vel sedens …” and the Spanish reads, “El sacerdote celebrante dice la homilia desde la sede, de pie o sentada, o desde el ambo.” For reasons unclear to me, the current English version published in U.S. lectionaries, omits “or sitting” in no. 26.

  7. Paul Inwood

    It is most refreshing to see the cathedra being moved forward so that it can be closer to the people — a significant contrast with those many places that have in recent times seen the cathedra moved away from the people to a position at the back of the sanctuary.

    Probably the only time you actually need to move it back, depending on the layout of the building, is on occasions when large numbers of priests (and bishops) are seated in the sanctuary (such as the Chrism Mass and ordinations) when it would be undesirable for them to be seated behind the presiding bishop’s back. Some cathedrals, of course, seat clergy in nave or transepts and leave the chair where it is at all times — often in front of one of the pillars at the entrance to the sanctuary, which can be preferable to directly in front of the altar itself.

    A study of the position of the cathedra in the Catholic cathedrals of Europe and the US would make a great project for a doctoral dissertation!

    As far as preaching from the chair is concerned, whether standing or sitting, this can depend on where the chair is situated. If it’s at the back, some bishops prefer to preach from the ambo.

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  8. Tom Lindner

    Now I know why EWTN identified the new archbishop as Blase’ in the labeling on their coverage. It was probably spellcheck rather than, as I suspected, that they were blase’ about him. Or maybe both.

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  9. Daniel McCarthy

    #7 Paul Inwood: my doctoral dissertation at Sant’Anselmo was on the presidential chair (not specifically the cathedra). I’m at Keizersberg Abbey preparing an expanded version in English for publication.

    Reply
    1. Paul Inwood

      @Daniel McCarthy – comment #10:

      Daniel,

      Please let us know when it is published!

      Reply
  10. Fr. Ron Krisman

    Delivering the homily while seated at the chair was permitted by the previous GIRM. I don’t think the norm was ambiguous. Rather, it was clearly and simply stated:

    Earlier GIRM (no. 97): Homilia fit ad sedem vel in ipso ambone.

    One ordinarily sits in a chair, not stands in front of it.

    The latest GIRM (no. 136, not 138) changes the norm to read: Sacerdos, stans ad sedem vel in ipso ambone vel, pro opportunitate, in alio loco idoneo, profert homiliam; qua finita, spatium silentii servari potest.

    Under the previous norm I sometimes gave the homily from the chair. Not often, but perhaps a few times per year. These days, because of the revised norm, I only sit when my back is bothering me!

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  11. Shannon O'Donnell

    I’m reminded of Jesus delivering the sermon on the mount. He sat down–and somewhere in one of my classes, there was an indication of authority in that. Teachers sat, students stood. I doubt that’s why anyone would preach seated these days. More likely a medieval bit of inculturation.

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