Having the priest face the congregation? There goes the whole ceremony! Introducing novel hand movements should be on the list too, shouldn’t it?
This what straining at gnats looks like.
This isn't straining at gnats. This is a big, big deal. Having the celebrant face the people is damaging to the Mass in multiple ways. The Sacrifice is turned into a show.
“This what straining at gnats looks like.”
Liberal Catholics sure do agree. That what this looks like.
Freegards
I wouldn’t call the creation of an entirely new religion straining at a gnat. Trivializing the evil of Vatican II may be helpful to you for the sake of justification, but it is very unhelpful to our Creator.
Those airy hand jestures you refer to are the result of the evil that began happening in the seminaries. Bishops consecreted homosexuals, another part of satan’s plan for the Novus Ordo, that would hopefully cause the mighty Roman Catholic Church thereby pleasing the devil as well as those who ruled the USSR and considered the USA and the Vatican their two enemies that needed to be destroyed.
Your attempts at trivializing the Church’s present situation are not helpful.
When the priest is facing ad orientem, towards the East (from which Christ will come on the Last Day), he is leading his people towards the Lord. Moreover, when he offers the Holy Sacrifice, he is facing the Lord. All this symbolism is destroyed when you turn the altar around - the priest is no longer even facing the crucifix.
The practical difficulty is that the priest is no longer the leader of his people, he is 'on stage' facing an 'audience'. Instead of his personality being submerged in the common worship, he becomes the center of attention and feels the need to interact with his 'audience', becoming a performer or a sort of emcee instead of a priest, instead of concentrating on what he is doing.
There really is a big and observable change between ad orientem and versus populum.