CATHOLIC FASHIONS
lit,—The great majority of Masses in the Roman basilicas are said at side-altars by priests who turn their backs on the people, It is true, as Fr. McCabe remarks, that at some high-altars the celebrant faces the people--an archaic custom worth preserving in its proper place—but these altars are so built that he is practically invisible to most of the congregation. The fad of the 'liturgical movement,' which I men- ioned in my review of Mr. Anson's Fashions in Church Furnishing, is to intrude this custom into
small modern churches, where the people stare straight into the face of the priest. Its popularity coincides with that of television. In suggesting a connection I was making what seems to me a plausible conjecture.—Yours faithfully,
E. WAUGH
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