The Recusant: SSPX Moves Closer to Accepting the New Mass

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The SSPX Moves Closer to Accepting the New Mass

PART 2 - Rehabilitating Arch-Modernist Fr. Pius Parsch

In a more recent (January 2023) episode of the SSPX podcast, the very same Fr. Robinson can be found tacitly approving and even recommending a book by the late Fr. Pius Parsch, and thereby arguably giving a nod and a wink to the liturgical arch-modernist himself. This is despite the fact that the SSPX once published a book in which Parsch was roundly criticised as being one of the modernist “Rhine group” responsible for Vatican II and the New Mass in particular. The late Fr. Didier Bonneterre’s 2002 book The Liturgical Movement might still be available in some SSPX repositories, but in case it isn’t, an extract is available here: https://fsspx.news/en/news-events/news/5...h-15-56577).

“On Ascension Day 1922, he [Fr. Parsch] decided to organize the first community Mass in the church of Saint Gertrude. Parsch relates:

‘During this time I heard talk of a Missa Recitata being celebrated among student groups. I resolved to celebrate…the first community Mass…This sung Mass was still quite primitive: the Kyrie, Sanctus, and Agnus Dei were sung in German…the responses, the Gloria, and the Credo were recited in choir by all present. The readings and prayers were said by the president. We made an offering, and even the kiss of peace was indicated by shaking hands. It was no doubt the first celebration of Mass in the spirit of popular liturgy in the German speaking countries.’

These community Masses are considered to be the birthing of the liturgical movement in Austria. Pius Parsch was more of a pastor than a theologian, more a practitioner than an intellectual. His great preoccupation had always been bringing the treasures of the Mass to the people. This is why he also spoke of a “popular liturgical renewal” and his books all have a catechetical dimension. This perhaps explains why his thinking lacks coherence: on the one hand, Parsch drew inspiration from Catholic tradition (Dom Guéranger), and on the other hand he was strongly influenced by the new ideas of the liturgical scholars famous during his time. Thus, at one time he would defend the traditional doctrine of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and presented it in a luminous way, but at another time he would take up without discussion the doctrine of the mysteries of Odon Casel or the theory of the Mass-as-a-meal of Guardini.

‘So what is Mass? Above all, it is a meal, and a truly significant meal, since it is linked to eternal life, union with Christ and the resurrection. It is then a memorial, just like its foreshadowing, the Passover, was a memorial: ‘Do this in memory of Me!’ Mass is finally a sacrifice, because one eats the flesh and the blood of the Lord, and it is truly this flesh which must be immolated in death, this blood which must be shed. Mass is therefore a meal, a memorial, a sacrifice. This is what Christ himself says about the Mass.’

In accordance with this misconception, Pius Parsch calls the altar a “table,” and on the occasion of the renovation of the Church of Saint Gertrude in 1936, he built the altar in the shape of a table. This practice was condemned by Pius XII in 1947 in the encyclical Mediator Dei: ‘one would be straying from the straight path were he to wish the altar restored to its primitive table form.’ ”

There is absolutely no doubt that Pius Parsch was one of the founding father of the so-called “liturgical movement” whose fruit was the New Mass. This author remembers having seen modernist Novus Ordo publications putting him on a pedestal as one of the men they look up to, a great hero of the Vatican II renewal, a pioneer in breaking free of the shackles of the bad old days when the congregation weren’t “involved” in Mass, and so forth. The Novus Ordo modernists will tell anyone who will listen that without Pius Parsch, we wouldn’t be fortunate enough to enjoy the New Mass today!

Given that Fr. Bonneterre’s book is fairly well known and was, for many years, fairly widely circulated in several languages, there is surely very little chance of a priest of the SSPX such as Fr. Robinson being unaware of this, one would have thought. Hence we must ask: if he is aware of it, what does he think he’s doing? It is only a throwaway remark, but where the laity are concerned, many of them will not have read Fr. Bonneterre’s book. Many, not least the many post-covid newcomers, will in all likelihood be totally unaware and unsuspecting. And if such a layman hears an apparent recommendation, might he not take it as a green light?

Not only is there a danger to the faithful, there is the far more interesting and speculative question regarding exactly how Fr. Robinson and his superiors regard men like Parsch. Does the SSPX now secretly view the “liturgical movement” as basically good guys whose work went perhaps a little too far, or got hijacked later, or whatever, but who were otherwise sound? And if they do now think this way, are they prepared to admit it publicly? The website of Fr. Pius Parsch’s own Abbey is very proud of his legacy, and revealing boasts that the New Mass could never have been possible without its illustrious founder:

“The starting point of reform was the little chapel of St. Gertrud, originally built as the abbey hospital chapel. Here Pius Parsch developed new, practical forms of liturgy in the German language. His numerous booklets were widely distributed, and his books were translated into various major languages: “The Church’s Year of Grace”, “Know and Live the Mass”, “The Liturgy of the Mass” and “Sermons on the Liturgy for Sundays and Feast Days” are the English titles of his most well-known works.[…]

Liturgical reform in the Catholic church following the Second Vatican Council is inconceivable without the lay liturgical community of St. Gertrud, as it was Pius Parsch who not only changed the position of the altar so as to face the people, but also started to use German as the local language instead of Latin for the liturgy.”  (www.stift-klosterneuburg.at/en/monastery-and-order/vocations/science/pius-parsch-institute/)

Pay particular attention to that last bit: how did the road towards the New Mass begin? He changed the altar to face the people, and started using the vernacular language (in this case German) instead of Latin. In their opinion that was the root and starting point of so-called ‘liturgical reform. Bear that in mind for later on, when we will meet it again.