New Papal Master of Ceremonies Explains All

From The New Liturgical Movement:

The office of Master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Pope is important because, if it is true that lex orandi lex credendi (the Church believes in that which She prays [Rodari's translation]), then to direct the papal ceremonies with rigour and faithfulness to the norms is a help to the Faith of the entire Church. "The liturgy of the Church - explains Marini -, with its words, gestures, silences, chants and music causes us to live with singular efficacy the different moments of the history of Salvation in such a way that we become really participant in them and transform ourselves ever more into authentic disciples of the Lord, walking again in our lives along the traces of Him who has died and risen for our salvation. The liturgical celebration, if it is truly participated in, induces to this transformation which is the history of holiness."

And a help in this "transformation" can be that "repositioning" of the Cross in the centre of the altar, which has been carried out in the papal liturgies, as a residue [Rodari's word] of the old "orientation towards orient" of churches towards the rising Sun, Him who is coming. "The ion of the Cross at the centre of the altar - says Marini - indicates the centrality of the Crucified in the eucharistic celebration and the precise interior orientation which the entire congregation is called to have during the eucharistic liturgy: one does not look at each other, but one looks to Him who has been born, has died and is risen for us, the Saviour. From the Lord comes the salvation, He is the Orient, the Sun which rises to whom we all must turn our gaze, from Whom we all must receive the gift of grace. The question of liturgical orientation, and also the practical manner in which it takes shape, is of great importance, because through it is conveyed a fundamental fact, at once theological and anthropological, ecclesiological and relevant for the personal spirituality."