So I see.
Yes, you are correct.
This was my error.
I was quoting from the original text, and actually copied more than I intended to.
Therefore, I will amend my original post to eliminate the offending part that I didn't really intend to include:
"'...to allow the priest to celebrate Mass in relative solitude with his back to the congregation, instead of facing and speaking directly to the faithful...'
What difference does it make which way the priest faces?
Why do people care so passionately and angrily about this sort of thing either way?"
That's what I wanted to ask about.
I can see why it would be angering to read in an article that "Vatican II decreed" something that, in fact, Vatican II did not decree. Especially when the false statement was made as part of the structure of an argument designed to bolster belief in the "fact" which was actually untrue. And to the extent that I included that snippet in my original post, it was legitimate to correct the error in the original article and get annoyed when I didn't acknowledge the correction. I apologize for the poor proofreading which put more onto the table that I intended to. I didn't realize I had done that.
Vatican II did not require the priest to face the congregation, and it's not right to say it did.
I agree.
It matters to not say that Vatican II said what it didn't say.
I also agree with that. Making up history to bolster an argument and relying upon the ignorance of the audience is a bad thing.
But all that aside why does it really matter which way the priest faces?
It makes a great deal of difference.
The priest is not only 'alter Christus' but is leading his flock in prayer. The position of "leadership" requires followers...at his back. Symbol #1.
Conversely, when the priest faces the people, the people by nature look at the priest's face. This changes the APPARENT focus of the priest's prayers to 'the people.' Thus, we have a "horizontalism" by positioning, which is not in harmony with the prayers by their actual text, as the prayers address God, not the people.
So either by the proper function of the priest (#1, leader) or by the contradiction of "facing the people" while actually "praying to God," the 'versus populum' is questionable.
In other words, the "form" does not follow the "function" in the facing-the-people position.