Expert: Fr. Michael - 1/7/2010

Question
Father, I recently read that SSPX now uses latin missal revised by Hannibal Bugnini for their Tridentine Mass. I'm sure of the name of it but I heard thta Archbishop Lefervbe was evaluating it before he died. It's not the 1962 missal is it? Can you tell me what the name of it is and what the differences are from the missal protected by Pope Pius the V?

Answer
The Conciliar-Bugnini Missal of 1962 does not represent the fully "Tridentine" Mass (more correctly called the Traditional Latin Mass, since it antedates the Council of Trent by about 1500 years).  It is true that Archbishop Lefebvre had grave reservations about the "1962 Missal" and required that the Society of St. Pius not use it without apply various "traditionalizing" corrections.  Bugnini and his commission brought in two great waves of "Modernizing" changes before Vatican II:  in 1956 and 1960-1962.  These two waves run to some 300 pages of text and explication!  The Archbishop, according to his biographers, was seriously considering reverting to an earlier version.