Altar of the Chair Before Virgilio Cardinal Noè Demolition

What Harmony!

I finally understand the position of the (Bernini) Chair of Peter. It was part of the altar! The Cathedra of Saint Peter was enshrined directly over the Altar in the Altar reredos as designed by the Master, for the contemplation of the Pope and prelates as they said Holy Mass versus Deum! We could say that the original design was to literally light a fire under (the seat of) Saint Peter!!! With the present disjointed arrangement (Atlar removed from the Altar Piece) both Cathedra and Altar are out of place. Quite disorienting, literally! Why not just put things back where they go!

By the way, have you ever tried to pray in a parish Church where the tabernacle has been displaced from the High Altar? Problematic! You have to look one way to the Lord and the opposite direction for the Crucifix over the central Altar, with no Sacrament; and struggle in vain to put the two together, repeatedly turning to and fro... Thankfully I carry a worthy pocket crucifix which I can venerate and hold in my hand (kissing at will) facing the Holiest Sacrament, the Lord! Moral: byoc (bring your own crucifix)!

"Altar of the Chair" Today, Without the Altar!

I learned of that venerable original altar from a (not yet old) Maltese priest studying in Rome who had been a Vatican altar boy as a child and fondly remembers the Atlar of the Chair and laments it's destruction!

Part of the Bernini genius is that the visual effect for the worshiper in the central nave, baldicchino altar in view, is that Peter's Cathedra is also directly over that altar, for priest and people to venerate during the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, together facing the same direction!

The optical illusion is well brought out in this picture. The altar perspective looks very much like the original chair altar of the first picture above, as if you were standing right under the chair looking up and saying Mass on it what used to be that rear altar! So that lay people and priest have a very similar perspective, though the chair is on a much larger scale, of course, for the celebrant right under it.

The Holy Chair of Saint Peter Engraving
Heilige Stoel van Petrus in de Sint Pieter, Jacques Blondeau, Domenico & erven Jo. Jacobus de Rubeis, 1692

With engravings of that masterpiece Bernini altar, such as this one at the rijksmuseum, the world can never forget where the altar goes, and which way (and to Whom) the priest (even the Pope) should be looking at Mass!

I've con-celebrated numerous Masses at Saint Peter's free standing Altar of the Chair and the experience is most disjointed (like praying in a Church with the Altar and Crucifix opposite the Most Holy Sacrament). No one in the sanctuary ever gets to face and appreciate in the least the Bernini masterpiece during Mass. This is so anti-clerical. If you will excuse the banal comparison, it is like never using the dining room table for dinner!

Even for the Solemn High Pontifical Mass at the Altar of the Chair last year we were not permitted to place the altar up above the three steps and against the wall where it goes! So close yet still disconnected!

N.B. Il Grido Silenzioso (The Silent Scream in Italian)