Cross with a Corpus

In Paul Turner's Blog by Paul Turner

Q: As always, your posts I get on email are a huge service and I learn from your skillfully worded answers. I stop everything I’m doing and open your posts first.

I hope this is not overextending a question. We typically have Mass each week in our school and we work to make a gym look prayerful. One of the projects our development office is proposing and has raised a little more than half the money needed is a renovation or what architects call a “refresh” of that space. My question is about a floating Cross that will mechanically drop down from the ceiling as we set up the space. Does that Cross need a Corpus on it? Obviously the Processional Cross will have one but I’m wondering about one suspended in the air to the right of the Altar. 

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A: During the celebration of Mass a cross with a corpus needs to be on or near the altar. The cross you show in that rendering is fine as long as the processional cross with its corpus remains near the altar throughout the celebration of the Mass.