Matters Arising: Why does the Society use the missal of 1962?
Rev. Nicholas Mary, C.SS.R.
Fr. Nicholas Mary answers topical questions in the light of moral theology and canon law.
Why does the Society of St Pius X persist in using the liturgy as reformed in 1962? Why does it not return to the more traditional usages of popes St Pius V or St Pius X?
A liturgical tradition (in this case, that of the Roman Rite) is like a living plant or tree; it should grow, develop and be pruned, adapted, reformed and reinvigorated. The problem with the liturgical revolution after Vatican II is that it attempted to uproot and destroy the plant and replace it with something wholly alien to the Catholic Faith, the Novus Ordo Missae of Paul VI, which “represents, both as a whole and in its details, a striking departure from the Catholic theology of the Mass.”1
In remaining with the last clearly orthodox reform of the Roman Rite before this revolution, Archbishop Lefebvre was not entering into a (permissible but inconsequential) speculative debate amongst liturgists as to the merits of one traditional missal over another. Rather he considered himself bound—perhaps with some inconvenience—to that which lawful authority had enacted and which was not manifestly sinful:
The basic principle of the Society’s thinking and action in the painful crisis the Church is going through is the principle taught by St. Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica (II, II, q. 33, a.4): that one may not oppose the authority of the Church except in the case of imminent danger to the Faith. Now, there is no danger for the Faith in the liturgy of Pope Pius XII and Pope John XXIII, whereas there is great danger for the Faith in the liturgy of Pope Paul VI, which is unacceptable.2
And again he wrote in 1988:
Since its foundation the Society has used the 1962 edition of the liturgical books, since I accepted them from the moment they appeared in 1962, and given that the Society was founded in 1969 and approved in 1970. This new edition was no new Ordo Missae, but rather a new edition of the Ordo of St. Pius V and St. Pius X with insignificant changes. The calendar underwent more significant change at that time, some of which are doubtless most felicitous and others, nevertheless, controversial. In order that uniformity might prevail in the Society, however, we decided to hold to the 1962 edition as well as to its calendar, since we consider the advantages to be greater than the disadvantages... We believe, and rightly so, that the 1962 edition of the Ordo Missae corresponds wholly to the Ordo of St. Pius V and St. Pius X. The will to see essential differences between the 1962 edition and the Ordo of St. Pius V and St. Pius X manifests a formalistic and jansenistic mentality.
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Notes
1. Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci et al., Short Critical Study on the New Order of Mass (25 September 1969).
2. Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, Letter to American Friends & Benefactors (28 April 1983).