Wednesday Liturgy: Follow-up: Limited Veneration of the Cross

ROME, MAY 17, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Answered by Legionary of Christ Father Edward McNamara, professor of liturgy at the Regina Apostolorum university.

A reader recently posed the following question: "I was watching on TV the Good Friday ceremony and to my surprise I noticed that the celebrant was using just a wooden cross without the effigy of Christ on it for the veneration of the cross. We do sing, 'This is the wood of the cross on which our Savior died.' So is this in keeping with the liturgy?"

The May 3 article touched upon this theme: "[W]hile I personally hold that it is preferable to use a cross with a corpus, the possibility of using a simple cross is contemplated in several documents published by the U.S. bishops' conference. I have not found anything in universal law that could decide the question one way or the other, although my own interpretation is that when the liturgical documents mention a cross they almost invariably mean a crucifix."

We had originally touched upon this theme in articles of March 23, 2004, and April 6, 2004. Both should be read, since I had to modify some of the assertions in the first article in the wake of feedback from readers.