[ninenot]

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.

[Vicomte13]

Interesting.

Do you think that this symbolic understanding ought to result in a mandatory facing for the priest?

[Desdemona]

What really has not been mentioned as a simple fact is that the supposed Vatican II reforms actually take the focus from God. It's all distraction from the real reason we are at Mass and that is to worship God. For that reason and that reason alone, voluntarily some of us have gone "back" to the old ways (post-Vatican I brat that I am, I've simply adopted them).

[TotusTuus]

It can also be argued that a Priest - alter Christus - represents both the people to God and God to the people through Christ. Therefore, during the Anaphora the Priest and people should properly be facing East, the cosmic symbol of the resurrected Christ in His offering of Himself to God on our behalf.

During the "Liturgy of the Word" it would not be wrong to argue that the proper position of the Priest is to face the people as one who is teaching them authoritatively from God through Christ.